OK, I’ve got a cold, and I feel pretty miserable, so I am going to keep this 40b40 blog entry short. I’ll type it down as a list of bullet points. Please pay attention, as I am only going to write this once.• The name of the beer is “Gulden Draak”. It is not called “Golden Drake”. Not even in the US. The duck is a red herring, and neither the duck nor the herring is a dragon, let alone a golden dragon.
• It comes from the Van Steenberge brewery like Piraat and Augustijn.• It comes in a bottle painted a concrete-like off-white colour. To me this makes it look like one of those dodgy beers the down-and-outs drink at 7am at the offy around the corner from my house.
• Don’t judge this beer on first appearances. Despite the silly painted bottle, it’s good. Brian and I both agree it’s the best of the three Van Steenberge beers we’ve tasted.• The colour is a lovely autumn oak-leaf amber.
• The taste is light carmel and honey, with a fairly well balanced alcohol (though 10.5%), with baked apple and raisin. Maybe a slight medicinal taste, but like a grape cough medicine I had as a kid -- and probably need right now with this cold -- so not at all off-putting. Brian says plum wine. Could be. • “Quite yummy”, Brian says. Agreed.
If you like this style, you owe it to yourself to try the Duchesse de Bourgogne. Not knocking the Draak, mind you...a fine beer in its own right.
ReplyDeleteI must agree with the above post. I have seen no mention of Duchesse de Bourgogne on your blog yet it is one of the most distinguishable and pleasant bottles from Belgium.
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