Belgian Beer, Asparagus, Cigars & Vintage Cars
20 Jun
Summer has finally arrived, and it is hot, brutally hot.
So natural refreshment is a bliss, and what better place to refresh than by the shore of the Rhine river.
Met friends there for a long afternoon and evening of good conversations, dinner and cigars last Sunday.
Then it was another Pizza and Booze Monday in the village with Andreas and again Hans.
I was presented with a great selection of Belgian beers on my visit to meet Frank and Cliff in Lommel/Belgium last year and it was time to drink them.
What better occasion than 30+ C weather to share them with my friends.
Well, we managed 4 large bottles before we agreed that it was not really our taste.
Too strong with up to 11% alc. content, too sweet, too overpowering on the palate. We compared it to dark, roasted wheaty bread. Certainly good and tasty, but we prefer the lighter, more refreshing type of southern German (Bavarian) beer.
Of the four bottles, the Omer was the one we liked most, precisely because it was a fresh blonde.
So, I guess it’s back to Roseschorle …
Then today Thursday we had the probably last asparagus of this season with a tender duck breast, washed down with a 2012 Gioconda Sicilian Merlot and finished off with a RyJ Nr 1 Tubo.
And I thought I was in Havana, having this great vintage classic convertible Roadmaster parked outside …
Life’s good.
Nino
Those Belgians can be over whelming. Aside from the Chimay, the others are not that good. Use this list next time you want to select some decent Belgium beers: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/country/belgium/23/
Also on a hot day, I take the beer from the fridge and put in the freezer for 30 minutes. Amazing with a good Cuban smoke.
Thanks for the comment, Steve,
I still have another 10-12 excellent Belgian beers waiting to be enjoyed with a cigar this summer.
We found the Chimay to be specially overpowering, your advice about the freezer will be heeded.
Cheers / Nino
One of my favourite summer beers with a cigar is the German Schneider Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock. This is a massive beer, best served nearly frozen, but man what a long finish and great with a Cuban cigar. This is the first time in 10 years that the Ontario Liquor store did NOT bring this beer in this spring. I will miss the Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock this summer. See more here: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/schneider-aventinus-weizen-eisbock/10514/
So true, that selection isn’t all that good,
To overpowering, to many flavours, to much alcohol.
The only good thing to do then is indeed put them is the freezer,
We are on the same level you and I,
When it’s a hot summer day,
I take a nice Macallan 25 year old sherry Oak whisky, put 2-3 ice cubes in it, a tiny bit of water, a nice sip of cherry coke (the diet version, otherwise it’s to overpowering, if you don’t have diet coke, put more water in
And mix it all up.
With that wonderful drink, I usually take a partagas lusitania from the early ’90’s
I cut it open, and mix the filler with a nice quantity of pipe vanilla tabacco, then you gently roll the binder around that.
If you would break the wrapper and the binder, you can use some cigarette paper,
Like that you add a wonderful taste to your cigar, “paper” and that is just so so so rare to find in cuban cigars.
It’s almost ashame.
(^_^ kidding obviously)
It’s just the same as with the cigars. Somehow they taste better in Cuba.
It’s time to come over to Belgium again my friend and enjoy your Belgian Beer in Belgium.
Belgian Beer is excellent in combination with “frieten” 🙂
Good idea about Belgium Frank, thanks !
And Cuba is waiting for us …. 🙂
Nino, I don’t know what to say about that asparagus. Not only what they look like, but I think it’s a travesty to that tasty little veggie for them not to be green!
And, I love your little ashtray. Is that a wormwood or something of the like? I love the vintage appearance to that – it just really stands out with some understated prescence.
Keith,
asparagus in Germany has to be … white 🙂 Hardly any green around, we love the white. Amen.
As for the ashtray – it’s a German-Mex combination , as the top metal ash cup is from Mexico City and the bottom part, the wood, is a century old piece from a wine vat from a local winemaker that was carved for it.
Rgds / Nino