Beers for Wine Lovers

Today I'd like to introduce two unique beers which do not taste like beer(!!!) - Lambic and Belgian red ale (Flanders red ale or Flemish red). These beers are somewhat similar to wines in taste as well as the way they are made.

It is not often, but I still find guests at restaurant who do not care for beers, and I also have a few friends who drink wines but not beers. Probably these two (lambic and Belgian red ale) are good introductory styles of beer for these who are more familiar with wine than beer.

Duchesse de Bourgogne
Brewery: Brouwerij Verhaeghe, Belgium
Type of beer: West-Flemish red brown ale
Fermentation: mixed fermentation
Alcohol by Vol: 6.2%
Color: ruby red

I tasted "Duchesse de Bourgogne" for the first time at restaurant Benu in San Francisco as a part of beverage tasting. The fruity, tart and slightly funky beer was paired greatly with xiaolongbao (Shanghai style soup dumpling) made with lobster coral.

This beer tastes very much like a light red wine! Not surprisingly, Flemish red ales are fermented and aged in oak barrels like wines. Slight tannin from oak, and lactic acid from the unique fermentation adds more complexity to this beer.


Lindemans Pêche
Brewery: Brouwerij Lindemans, Belgium
Type of beer: lambic
Fermentation: spontaneous fermentation
Alcohol by Vol: 2.5%
Color: hazy golden yellow

Lambic is a very unique beer that ferments without any addition of yeast (spontaneous fermentation) but with wild yeast cells captured from the open air of Brussels (and nearby), Belgium - this spontaneous fermentation gives unique sour flavor to lambic. After fermentation, the lambic is left to ferment and mature for a few years in old casks resulting a very complex earthy lambic aroma.

Lindemans Pêche almost tastes like a peach juice; which makes sense, because Lindemans brew lambic first, then add peach juice to flavor the lambic (straight juice-method). The fruity low alcohol lambic is a perfect pair for light fruit tart.