OK Carlos, here is my personal line-up of Belgian beers, with some
notes on availability in Spain.
- Westvleteren: simply the greatest beer on earth. Very difficult to
find in shops. I have found a company here in Spain that sells them by
mail order, at €9/bottle, which is actually not a bad price.
- the other Trappists: Westmalle, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort and Achel.
These carry less stratospheric price tags and you should be able to
find at least the first 4 at good shops. Here in Alicante, I get them
at a local Alcampo or in the food shop at El Corte Ingles.
- other good Belgian beers that can be found at better shops and bars
here include: Delirium Tremens, Kwak, Tripel Karmeliet and Duvel. Plus
the common ones like Leffe which are available virtually everywhere.
I have also tried Romanian beer out of curiosity; it confirmed once
more that countries that are major wine producers should stick to wine
and leave the beer to the northerners. Spanish beer is just about
tolerable, French and Italian beer is awful. The best beer comes from
Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, England and the western part of
Poland (which has largely German brewing traditions). Also, the Danish
small breweries make excellent beer (which has spurred the giant
Carlsberg to also come out with more interesting offerings), but none
of it is exported.
Nathan
Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
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On May 28, 2009, at 3:47 PM, Carlos J. Santisteban wrote:
> Hi Jez, Nathan and all,
>
>
>> From: Jez Cunningham <jez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sir - that's fighting talk!
>> Jez, in Belgium, home of many contenders for that title!
>>
>>
>> On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 4:16 PM, Carlos J. Santisteban <zuiko21@xxxxxxxxx
>>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> At the front, a hefty (63 cl = 22 US fl.oz.) bottle of 'Gazelle',
>>> maybe
>> the
>>> most famous Senegalese beer. Both it and its compatriot
>>> 'Flag' (somewhat
>>> stronger) are, in my humble opinion, THE BEST BEERS IN THE WORLD!"
>>>
>>
>
> OK, I'll take up the gauntlet... :-) :-)
>
> Now, I choose weapon... "Prove me wrong!" Seriously, I'd love to
> check for
> myself some of those Belgian contenders. Any particular
> recommendation?
>
> From: Nathan <photo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> without question the Holy Grail of beer is Westvleteren.
>>
>
> Well, that's a starting point! I'll try to find one of these.
> I have recently tried some Romanian beers -- Timisoreana & Ciuc,
> following
> the advice from a Romanian student ;-) They're OK, but the foam
> seems too
> dense for my taste... YMMV.
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Carlos J. Santisteban Salinas
> IES Turaniana (Roquetas de Mar, Almeria)
> <http://cjss.sytes.net/>
> --
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