
No, really: wherever I go, it’s the same. I’ll find an empty little pub far from any known international institution or tourist attraction, and the next person through the door will plunk himself down nearby and start yatting away on his mobile in fluent English. Or a group of Americans or British will come in for an alcohol-fuelled decibel contest. Lovely.
It’s not that I’m against the English language, of course, but it does make it that much harder to learn French here. I’m currently on a professional sabbatical to improve my French, and in addition to the courses I’m taking, it would be nice to be able to go somewhere and immerse myself in a Francophone social atmosphere.
It’s not as easy to do in Brussels as you might think.
And when I am speaking French with people, many will try to switch to English. That’s fine when their English is better than my French, but -- somewhat surprisingly given my niveau du français -- that’s not always the case. Some have told me to just give up and go to France for a while, where it’s easier to avoid Anglophones (except in Paris in summer, of course, when the first language of the city becomes American English).
Still, it’s good to be taking classes to catch up a bit in French. After more than eight years here, I ought to speak it far better than I do, but the last couple months have at least helped with my formal language if not so much the informal speech for social situations.
Another thing I’ve been desperate to catch up on is my beer tasting notes. I’ve finally posted all of the back-logged Beerly Coherent podcasts, but there are still a number of brands I haven’t written up yet for the blog, so here goes...


Moving on to Germany, we sampled at some point not too long ago an Unertl Ursud Erinnerungstrunk that Mike brought over. It was a dark wheat beer with a thin mouthfeel and a taste of roasted coffee. Somewhat too sweet but not bad. I’d try it again.

Iniquity, from Southern Tier Brewing Company in the US where we tried it many months ago, is described as an Imperial Black Ale. It’s malty sweet with some nice coffee notes, though I found it a bit too thin and flat. I wanted to like it more.
From Italy and the UK -- though we had them at Chez Moeder Lambic -- there was Grunge IPA (Birrificio Indipendente Elav) and Jaipur IPA (Thornbridge), both excellent examples of the genre, with so much going on hop-wise that I fear even trying to explain it. Fiona particularly liked Grunge, which should be taken as a ringing endorsement by her fellow hop-heads.

Galaxy was easily the best of the lot. Fiona described its aroma as, “peachy like canned peaches”. Indeed, it has a sharp peach scent about it, and the flavour adds layers of gooseberry and woody rosemary. The mouthfeel is thick, and the astringency of the aftertaste is absolutely wicked. Overall, it’s exactly what you’d expect from the “screw you if you don't like it” crew at BrewDog.
Challenger doesn’t compete in the aroma department but has a welcome pininess in the aftertaste. Motueka seemed to evoke dandelion leaves, maybe roquette. HBC came in with good floral aromas, leading to an herbal taste that was almost mint.
Right. I think that’s me now officially caught up with all the old tasting notes that have been piling up. Time to get back to French now.
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteje propose que nous allions boire un verre un de ces jours, mais attention, ce n'est pas pour la bière que je dis çà, c'est pour ton français ! ;-)
a+
Greg
Bonne idée !
ReplyDelete