I feel there is some kind of expectation for picking a special beer for the miscellaneous rating milestones. Well, what beer I might drink exact at any millstone might be quite casual. I don’t have any numbering plan and don’t even log all the beer I has rated, but I recently drank a very nice beer I might use for the celebrating of my 1K rating at Ratebeer. This is a sample of a very nice and well-crafted session beer from a highly respected brewery. On the same time I think this is a fine sample of combining something old and traditional with something more unconventional, e.g. this is a classic, no fuzz Belgian ale with more hops than normally find in a Belgium brew. In addition It’s also dry hopped with Willamette and was a perfect match to my dinner at “Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant” in Gent. Now for the rating:

On tap @ Het Waterhuis. Slightly hazy golden orange body with a big, dense off-white head. Aroma is quite mild malty/hay with a very aromatic floral hoppyness, some citrus but far away from the big American “C” types. Flavor has some caramel malt and a very balanced tart bitterness. This is fruity, crisp, quite mild and totally in balance, no mismatch between alcohol, bitterness and sweetness. Still flavorful enough to accompany the food with a distinct bitterness. Cheers!

On tap at Waterhuis, Gent. Hazy gold, lasting white head. Lovely dry hopped resiny aroma. Lovely in mouth. Full and then this leafy hoppy finish. Ginger liquorish. Needs a bit more body. Lovely peppery leafy hop.

[i] On tap Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant 06-12-07 [/i] Poured a cloudy yellow colour with a dense white frothy cushion of foam. Rich overipe bananas come rushing out at first but these are then overtaken by a quite striking cape gooseberry aroma. The taste is a lovely balance between the fruity freshness and the sweetness (from the yeast strain so the barman tells me) good if somewhat restrained hoppiness, a quite superb beer, top notch, I loved this.