the beers of FUTENMA: Orval Trappist Ale

Moving on to the next brewery, Orval monastery. The Monastery was built in 1070 in Vallee D'or (golden valley) and from this it's name is derived. According to legend, a countess promised to build a Monastery on the site if someone could bring her the ring she had lost in the water, A trout brought the ring back to the bank, and so the monastery was built.It is believed that beer has been brewed at the Orval Monastery since it was created.Later, the Monastery had fallen into disrepair, The brewery that stands today was built to help pay for it. The current design of the bottles and the brewery symbol are reminiscent of the 1930's design.

I comes with a nice chalice, the trout seal raised into the bottom of the glass. I can see the art deco influence in the design of the bottle, it is a simple, utilitarian design that is still aesthetically pleasing, the pry cap is even nice.

But enough about all of that, time to crack, nose, head, and drink. A mist comes from the mouth of the bottle when it is opened, a good sign. Not an especially pungent nose from the bottle, it smells dark, but it's hard to tell. When I poured it in, it immediately exploded into head. I'll let it simmer down for a minute before I pour more.

I'm going to start, as this head is not going to go down until it's warm. I have to straight up eat away head to get to the beer. from what I can tell from the head, it a hoppy beer, kind of tastes like Moxie (Its a soda from New England for those of you that don't know, its popular in Maine). The head smells like fluoride. This beer is browned colored, that's about all I can say about it. I suppose you could say it's a dark amber, but just brown seems more accurate. I have finally gotten to the beer, and it does indeed taste like Moxie, which is to say it has a gentian root taste, I suppose it's from whatever verity of hopps they use. According to their site: the beer is infusion brewed, top fermented at 15-23 degrees Celsius, dry hopped for two to three weeks, has new yeast and confectionery sugar added to it, and is re-fermented in the bottle. All of this makes for a very hoppy beer, I'm surprised it is only 6.2% after being re-fermented and all. This is definitely not for the new beer drinker. I probably would have hated this when I first started, keep in mind I had a hard time drinking Sam Addams Boston lager, but I tried (I started off with standards, thanks Dad). I'm going to let this warm up for a bit and see how it changes.

Not really much change, this beer really holds it's temperature. It's kind of turned from gentian root to licorice flavor. I don't think the way I have described this beer has made it sound appealing, but it is a great beer. Orval only makes this one, but they have done well. If you love Moxie, this is a beer for you. If you don't, you may want to shy away from it. I would write more, but there is a serious storms coming in with some serious lightning. This beer has my blurry seal of approval.

the beers of FUTENMA: La Trappe Blonde Trappist

Today we have the second and last of the La Trappe beers, La Trappe Blonde. Blonde style was first introduced to be a mildly bitter and malty beer to transition people from mass market beers to craft beers, and I have to say they are pretty good. Like the previous La Trappe, it has the raised glass seal on the pry top bottle and rather nice labeling. I will be using the La Trappe goblet that came with the beer, and if you want a good look at that check out the previous post.

It has a almost wheat beer nose from the bottle, I'll see if that changes any when I pour it.

It does not have much of a head, still a wheat beer nose. It has a murky light amber color with golden edges. I noticed when I cleaned the goblet that it had a scratched ring around the center of the cup. I first thought this was a flaw or a bi-product of manufacturing, but after I poured the beer and took a look I realized that it is a bubblier.

It has a wheat beer taste to it without being putrid. I apologize to wheat beer lovers for calling wheat beer putrid tasting, but I just cannot help but make the comparison. It has a mild acidity to it, it bubbles when I rolled it around more than I expected from a beer that hasn't nearly any head. I'm having trouble describing this beer as anything other than "wheat beer that does not taste spoiled", I think my own biases are getting in the way of my palette. I think I'll put on "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" by Kay Kyser to get my mind off of it and try rolling it to the back of my tongue.

And it works! This beer also has a mild rye taste with an apple finish. Lets put on some "atom bomb baby" to celebrate! The beer has warmed up a bit, causing the some of the flavors to become more mild. It has actually make the beer quite a bit better. I think I may let the beers warm in the glass when it's a little more than half way through to see how the flavors change. My goodness! the flavor is much more apple now that it's warm. I really should have had this straight out of the wall locker. I think I may only try wheat beers warm from now on, they just taste better that way.

Lets try it: a bunch of morinaga snacks that arn't Hi-Chews

I love Hi-Chews, they are chewey and delicious. But Morinaga makes more snack food than that. They just had a bunch of it for sale at the PX, so I'm gonna try them out and tell Y'all about them. First off are some of what appears to be grape candy

They are firm, but not hard. They have a sort of powder coating, which goes away as you chew it, then it turns to a gum texture. The purple one has you're general grape flavor. The green one is a little odd, kind of tastes like the minute made Aloe Vera white grape drink. I realize that is not very helpful to people who have never had that, but it's the best explanation I can give. They aren't bad, but I'm not crazy about them.

Next one just says Bake, they kind of look like brownies.

They have a semi-rigid crust, and other than that, taste like dark chocolate brownies. These are pretty good, they get my blurry seal of approval.

I think these are some kind of cheese fries, and they are. It's kind of like Andy Capps, they arn't bad.

the beers of FUTENMA: La Trappe Dubbel Trappist

This is the first in a series of Trappist beers I bought in a "Route of famous Trappist beers" Sampler pack that contained 12 beers from 6 different Trappist Monasteries (also with each monasteries signature goblet or chalice). Our first beer is a dubble (double) trapist from the La Trappe Trappist brewery at the Our Lady of Koningshoeven Abby. The Abby came about when the Monks of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont left France to escape a rash of anti-clerical legislation in 1880 and moved to the Netherlands. They tried to make money by farming, but the soil was poor and they could not support themselvs, so their supirior Nivard Schweykart decided to start a small brewery for some extra scratch and it's been supporting them ever since.It is currently the only Dutch Trappist brewery.

So they have a nice goblet with this beer, and on top of that the bottle is nice looking too. Lets pop the top and see if the beer is as nice as the containers.

A pleasant lite hazlenut/dark chocolate nose to it, I'm going to poor it and we'll see how it heads...

It has a nice, small bodied head with fairily large beeds. I wish I could get a good picture of what's going on inside the glass, 'cus things are bumpin in there, which is to say that is is a very lively beer. It has a nice dark brown color. It does have some little bits floating in it, but that's something I think I can forgive. But enough about how it looks and smells, lets drink. Proost!

Another acidic beer, you can taste the alcohol, neither of these are necessarily a bad thing. I didn't know how to describe it at first, I really would have to liken the taste to a red wine (as much as I hate to do that). Its bitter, and has a fruit taste to it, but it is good (not to say in spite of these things, but because of them). I finished half the glass writing those two sentences if that tells you anything. It is an aesthetically pleasing beer, if things floating around in the glass don't bother you. If that does bother you don't come to Japan, that's a feature here, not an error. I find it strange that it tastes just slightly like the nose, but the nose is not quite like the taste, if that makes any sense to you.
Well, I say it is an exelent and classy beer, I give it my blurry seal of approval.

the beers of FUTENMA part 10: Monchshof Original Pils

So, this is the last of that sampler Monchshof 8 pack that has been providing me with so much joy. Next I have a series of Trappist beers that came with a bunch of fancy glasses, won't that be fun? But anyway, this is a pilsner. I have never been a big fan of pilsners, they tend to be kind of bland. But I figure I'll make like Kuato and open my mind

open you're mind

 

As always it has a nice swing top porcelain cap and a fairly thick bottle. Quite a bit of gas bursts out when I open it and I can smell it almost immediately. It has a mild nose, a bit of a barley smell, nothing overwhelming. The taste is better than expected, It tastes like the Monchshof lager did, but lighter. It  has a sort of watery consistency to it, which I'm not a huge fan of but it does make it easier on the stomach. Time to pour it into the super traditional Orion mug and see how it heads.

That is quite a bit of head, If you ever have it be careful pouring this beer. I'm going to put on some Skarface and give it a real try. 

It's not an especially flavorful beer, but it is pleasant. It has an acidic quality to it, kind of prickles my tongue. It physically hurts to roll this one around my mouth, I am not one for hyperbole, I mean it quite literally, it hurts. This is what I would call a "live beer" even though there are no streams of carbon bubbles coming from the bottom. It's kind of a good change of pace to have a beer attack you like this one. I am still not a pilsner fan, but this one is probably one of the only ones I would buy again.I'll give it my blurry seal of approval

the beers of FUTENMA: part 9 Monchshof Landbier

Today we have one of the last Monchshofs from that pack. It is a landbier, and I am looking forward to drinking it. According to the interwebs, landbier translates to "country beer" and is typically a dark beer with mild hopps, and seems to me to be exactly what I need after a long day. So without further adue...

The beer spits at me a little when I open it. It has a light nose which is hard to suss out from the bottle. I have a sip...and it tastes exactly like their lager. I had another sip to confirm and what I found was that I could not differentiate between my memory of the Monchshof lager and this beer. Lets pour it into the super traditional Orion mug and see if the head is different.

as you can see it heads a great deal, and the head stays around for quite a while. Kind of picturesque really. It still has almost no nose, its like the incredible scentless beer. It's maybe slightly more hoppy than the lager, but the difference is trivial.I will say one thing for it, it is easy to pour down you're throat. I would really liken this to Guinness blonde, it's an easy to drink pale lager. Although Guinness blonde is an "American lager", a term Anheuser Busch came up with to market "Budweiser" to simple patriotic folk who don't know any better than to associate our country with an inferior beer. Also a "Budweiser" is a beer that comes from the city of Budějovice in the Czech republic, Anheuser Busch trademarked the name in 1876 in the United States so everything brewed in Budejovice that gets imported into the US has to be called Czechvar. But anyway, Guinness took their BS beer style and made a superior one, so thanks again you sons of Eire.
But that's it for the landbeir, it's kind of just a general purpose beer, and not dark like I was expecting.

the beers of FUTENMA part 8: Monchshof Vollmundiges Bockbier

I'm going to come out and say it, I love Bock beers, so I'm exited to try this one. Naturally the bottle is adorned with a goat, sort of a German joke. Originally the style was from the town of Einbeck, but when it was brought to Munich they pronounced it ein bock, which is a male goat (a buck).

So, cracking it open the top makes a forced pop. It has that wonderful coffee and molases nose, I love that about bock, just a beautifully aromatic beer. Time to taste. When you sip it you get coffee and molases flavor with dark chocolate hints with a heavy lager texture. If you roll it around for a minute, it turns creamy in flavor and texture and the dark chocolate notes come out more. Lets get out our super traditional Orion mug and see how it heads.

The head is beutifull, the color is a deep amber, and the taste is fantastic

I know I say I'm not much for lagers, but I'm talking about regular lagers, the lager that don't strive to be anything. Basically they are the potheads you grew up with of the beer world. They could be so much more (like a bock) but they don't apply themselves. But then again, they never really wanted anything in the first place. Maybe I'm too hard on regular lagers, some of them are pretty good, like Yuengling for instance.Yuengling isn't the best beer out there but for a regular lager, it's pretty good, a beer anybody  can enjoy. But it's still no bock. Bock, in all its forms, is the best of what lager has to offer, and it's good.

This beer makes me happy, it's got the 7% (6.9 really) content, which I think is the perfect amount. Well, really 7.5% is the perfect amount to me, but I like to talk up the lady I'm with.

You know, bock beer is one of the reasons I could never be an atheist, things like bock, and the wonderful people that make it, don't just happen.