Do you not like Belgian beers?

[imark]

Tripel Karmeliet is one of my favourite beers

Best tripel available over here. My favourite in Belgium is tripel the graal

Have a few westvleteren 8 and 12 knocking about at home that are 6 years old. Aged black Albert and a couple of others

Awe man! Beautiful beers. Did you try the Pannepot? I've been looking for a good clone recipe due to withdrawal symptoms. Don't think I'd have had the will power to keep them that long.

[delzep]

Aye pannepot is a good one. 'brugs beertje usually have some aged pannepot in stock

[Dunkel]

Never having tried any of the Westvleteren beers, how close-tasting is the St. Bernadus 12 to the Westie 12 ?

[delzep]

Very close. St bernardus used to brew for westvleteren

[Rossa]

St. Bernardus 12 is fantastic as it their wit bier. There are Belgian styles for every pallet. It truly is an amazing beer producer. From gueze and lambic to wit, saison, dubbel, triple, dark beers, stouts, pales, ipa, lager, blondes, fruit beers....the list goes on. What we get here is a tiny proportion of what they produce, and we used to get less!

No beer lover will be disappointed with a trip over there. It is a whole other world  of beer though so be ready.

[matthewdick23]

Aye pannepot is a good one. 'brugs beertje usually have some aged pannepot in stock

beertjes is prob my favourite place on earth

[Weiss]

St. Bernardus 12 is fantastic as it their wit bier.

Yeah, their wit is amazing. 

[Weiss]

A Tripel Karmeliet in the fridge for later. 

[Covey]

Look what i just found out and its less than five feckin miles from the front door

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Holy-Mountain-Brewery/438426766229751

[Bubbles]

Can anyone recommend some mid-strength Belgians which are available in Ireland?

I've loved all of the Belgian beers I've tasted but I don't think I've had one under 8%!  Would be great to drink a few Belgian beers without getting completely clattered.

[irish_goat]

There's Hoegaarden at 4.9%, Leffe 6.6%, Krieks are normally 3-5% and there's a couple of Pilsners out there as well that are all around the 5% mark.

[Weiss]

Gonna have the second bottle of Westvleteren 12 from my brick later. 

[mr hoppy]

Chimay is not the greatest, and there are a lot of crap beers in Belgium but there are loads of really fantastic ones as well, including a lot of the ones already mentioned and there's a huge variety. Tim Webb's Good Beer Guide to Belgium is a fantastic resource in terms of analysing styles and doesn't hold back in calling out the rubbish.

I defy anyone to say Rodenbach Grand Cru tastes like dishwater, pickled onions maybe  , but not dishwater.

I did think though that the Chimay with the cream label had a big iso amyl acetate / banana kick. If you're getting it from wheat's as well maybe that's the dishwater.

In term's of mid-strength Belgian's La Rulles are the dogs - they have them in the Abbott in Cork and they even use American hops like Amarillo etc.

[Will_D]

... and there are a lot of crap beers in Belgium

As someone who has spent 5 or 6 years (in total) working in .NL (Leiden/Amsterdaam) and primarily dinking Belgian beers (Winter and Summer) please explain what these "crap" beers are?

[mr hoppy]

Newton Apple and other similar alcopops / fake lambics? Also, overly sweet blondes.