Kwak – A Fine Belgian Beer
Considering how much time I’m spending here in Brussels (and Belgium in general), it makes sense for me to post about some of the things I like/love here. Eventually I will do the whole top 5 posts for things like beers and cafes, but those will come at the end of the trip… in the meantime, one beer that has attracted my attention is the Kwak.
Kwak is brewed by the family-run brewery named Brewery Bosteels in Buggenhout, Belgium. The same brewery also brews another Belgian beer that I happen to like called “Tripel Karmeliet“. Having read a few Beer review websites its disappointing that Kwak only gets a B from them, but hey, I’m no coinnoseur and have no idea about half the crap that they’re talking about. All I know is that I like Kwak and can’t describe the taste much unfortunately apart from that it’s full-bodied, sweet and coloured a medium amber. It doesn’t have much bitterness and is a very pleasant beer to drink any time of year.
The other cool thing about Kwak that tourists here in Brussels love is the unique glass that it is served in. It is a round-bottomed, hourglass shaped glass which is held upright in a wooden stand. I was typically confused by this contraption and opted, at first, to take the glass out of the stand and drink it, for fear of spilling it. On later attempts I grew more emboldened and actually gripped the stand by the wooden handle and drank it that way, this proved to be, for some reason or other, a lot more satisfying. Beer is beer you say, and perhaps it is, but I am also a sucker for interesting design. So here’s to Kwak, one of my favourite Belgian beers.
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woooah was I behind on your blog. Because I do not feel like saying disparaging things about other bizarre things you chose to comment on (Rihanna? Really?) I will simply mark my virtual territory by agreeing with your kwak comments. What’s your opinion on the fruity beers, btw?
Also, it makes me happy to recognize RdB 🙂
Hey man I love Rihanna and I hate men who beat women (and I’ve always hated Chris Brown) so it felt like a good topic to post on.
Kwak is indeed awesome but the fruity beers are not to might taste, yuk. Rashna’s friend Evi’s father suggested that they are “for the ladies” and seemingly the ladies are in agreement. They all like them and all the men I know hate them. I wonder if there’s something Darwinian in this, given that it’s his anniversary and all…
Ps. what’s RdB?
For your interest Darwinian speculators:
“Research shows that women are somewhat more sensitive to smells than men,” [Leigh] Francis [sensory researcher at the Australian Wine Research Institute] says.
“The president of the NSW Sommeliers’ Association, Ben Moechtar, says: “If women can smell better, they would taste better because you can have maybe five sensations with your palate, but smell hundreds of aromas.” Moechtar believes women generally have better palates than men, an opinion shared by many in the [wine] industry.
Indeed, “Women are more likely to be supertasters – that is, they respond more to components such as bitterness and tannin in wine,” says Stephen Charters, professor of Champagne management at Reims Management School in France.
A matter of taste
By Erika Gelinard | theage.com.au |
While it would seem that the ladies have won in the evolutionary lottery it does beg the question, who’s really better off? As an avowed wine drinker, meh, happy-as-larry. But then again, do you really want 50% of the world’s beer to smell like pee?
I dunno Nat, if women have really been gifted in the evolutionary process when it comes to taste and smell then can you explain why all the women here in Brussels (including the foreigners like my girlfriend and her friends) all plump for these horrible sweet fruity cider-type beers and completely ignore every other proper beer? Who wants to drink beer that tastes like off raspberries? Not me!