Quote Originally Posted by Big_John
i guess this is the new beer thread. my fav type of beer is belgian strong pale ales. here are my perennial choices:

la chouffe and piraat (10.5%!)


like beirut mentioned, unibroue should is a great brewery doing belgian-style beer in the new world. fin du monde, being a strong pale, is my pick from them, but unibroue's strong darks are great too. another strong pale, delirium tremens is very good too. i like all of these strong pales more than duvel. duvel lacks some character in comparison to these others, imo.

as far as belgian strong dark ales go, chimay grande réserve (blue label) and n'ice chouffe (a winter seasonal by brasserie d'achouffe) are the best i've had. unibroue makes two great strong darks called maudite and trois pistoles, the latter being my choice of the two. there's also an american belgian strong dark that's popular (and highly rated) called ommegang out of cooperstown, ny. however, none of those are as good as chimay blue or n'ice chouffe.

that said, variety is important to me, in addition to belgian ales, i often get my hands on lagers, hefes, APAs, IPAs, stouts, etc.

it's a mistake to underestimate american beer. thinking all american beer is coors or budweiser is like thinking all belgian beer is stella. many american micro-breweries were started by european immigrants (germans esp). imo, the world's best lagers, IPAs, stouts and porters are made here, in the US. some great micro-breweries for american style beers are stone, great lakes, rogue and bell's.

oh and a couple of great scottish ales should be on any beer lovers list, fraoch's heather ale and a wee heavy called skullspliter from the orkneys. get em if you can!


Ah, la Chouffe.... Merveille parmi les merveilles... Warning: this one is really really hard to beat.