Brewery: Van Steenberge
Location: Ertvelde, Belgium
ABV: 5.2%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of BeerMerchants.com

Last Friday I decided to go Belgian. My Belgian beer education has been sadly lacking to-date, probably due to a bad experience with a dodgy trappist or two in years gone by. But a couple of interesting-looking brews sent along by Phil at www.beermerchants.com (Cheers, Phil!) seemed like the perfect opportunity to expand my horizons.

The first one I sampled was the Breugel Amber Ale, named after the C16th artist, brewed by Van Steenberge and, according to their website, “a great party beer – a beer for good times”. I guessed, from the bottle-shape, that it might have been part of the Duvel / Maredsous family, but this doesn’t seem to be the case – maybe that particular type of bottle is actually quite common in Belgium? Another factoid for the list of ‘things I don’t really know about Belgian beer’.

Anyhow, to the beer: Breugel Amber Ale poured (into my one-size-fits-all-Belgians Leffe balloon glass) a definite amber colour with a thick, frothy head that gradually dissipated. The taste was fresh, with an acidic, hoppy bite and a sour apple tang. Mouth-feel was lively and lightly effervescent. Drily refreshing, highly drinkable, although I couldn’t help feeling that perhaps I should have chilled this one a little longer than I did? I wouldn’t want to dull the flavours too much, but an extra couple of degrees off the top might have hit that back-of-the-throat sweet spot just perfectly. One to re-consider if we ever get any barbecue weather, perhaps?

So far, so good. Maybe ‘Belgian’ needn’t such a worrisome beer-appellation after all?