IMoL Brasserie de Blaugies (the beers at Whole Foods I never bought)

I've walked in and out of the Whole Foods cooler in Plymouth Meeting a few times.  Maybe that's an understatement.  I'll never tell.  I feel like every time I've walked out, I've seen bottles from de Blaugies on a high shelf in a corner, and have only given them the slightest of glances.  While searching to procure beers available both in the Greater Philadelphia market, as well as in Paris, France, eventually, Basserie de Blaugies came up.  I think mostly because of their collaboration with Hill Farmstead (which I haven't been able to find locally, but apparently is falling off of the shelves in Belgium.)  On a recent trip to Belgium, Party Number 2 was able to grab a few bottles from de Blaugies, and I took it upon myself to dust off some of those on the high shelf at the Whole Foods.  We're starting with La Moneuse.  And here we are...

International Men of Leisure; the one with the different label

This month, and boy did we ever cut it close, we take a look at a beer brewed by Brouwerij De Molen out of the Netherlands.  In an extremely roundabout way, we finally tripped into a great story about the way a beer gets marketed/sold in Europe, and how differently it has to be sold in the US.

De Molen is fairly prevalent in Europe, and brew a quantity of beers that rival any brewery in the States (side note: Untappd lists 58 different beers.)  In the US, they are imported by Shelton Brothers.  Always on the lookout for a brand that is sold in France as well as the US for IMOL, De Molen has come up on several occasions.  You can sometimes spot them at Whole Foods, I've seen a bunch in Delaware at Total Wine, and they had a killer selection at State Line in Elkton MD.  But for the longest time, when I was comparing pictures of the De Molen beers on Parisian shelves to what was available here, I was just not finding a match.  Enter a podcast from Good Beer Hunting (GBH,) and it started to make sense.  Most of the hoppy beers that De Molen brews don't make their way to the states.  For obvious reasons, they are much better beers without the miles, and consumed closer to the brewery.  And one brand, their Russian Imperial Stout Rasputin, had to be renamed here.  So every time I perused a shelf of De Molen beers, looking for Rasputin, I could never find it.  Until it was pointed out to me that the beer's named Cease & Desist in the States.  Thanks a lot North Coast Brewing.  So Entry Three in the IMOL blog is an identical beer, with two completely different names.

IMOL Double Dips in Episode Three...

International Men of Leisure inexplicably were not able to make a January date work for our monthly conference call.  Apologies.  All of them.   But in the end, that means you get two reviews of beers that range from somewhat interesting to extremely interesting.  First up, we drinking the same IPA, brewed by the same company, in two different breweries, neither of which is their flagship brewery in California.  That's a lot of commas, but you'll get the idea, I promise.  Also, we visit a Swedish beer that was developed around the dream of a 12 year old to become a pastry chef.  You're interested now, aren't you?

Before we get into the beer, a reminder that this exercise is for me, and my good handsome friend in Paris, to find identical beers and then discuss them.  Where are they from?  How did they get there?  Did travel have an effect on them?  Are they marketed differently?  Are we tasting the same things?  Stuff like that.  Let's get to the beers...

Things J Glenn Gave Me...

I have pretty good friends.  I have really great friends.  My friends are ridiculous.  So because of a New Years Eve takeaway, and one of said friends swimming in a bounty of Badgerland goodies, I'm currently staring at a champagne flute filled with New Glarus Raspberry Tart.

New Glarus has always been kind of an enigma to me.  My first experience with them was at the Great American Beer Fest, sipping amazingly rare, tart, weird beers out of a 1 ounce tasting glass.  It's one of few lines at a festival with hundreds and hundreds (last I was there over 600, in 2017 over 700) of breweries that you may try to get back in to two or three times.  Their beers are amazing.  And different, which is probably more important.  If you want a great pilsner, and live in the Philly area, you're swimming in quality PA choices.  Same with a nice pale ale.  With IPA, there's still some pretty fantastic local ones, as well as a treasure chest of world class imports.  There also a brewery in Ardmore that's setting the bar for NE IPA.  But there's nothing close to Serendipity, or Raspberry Tart in the area, and unless you have a friend who's sister moved to Wisconsin, or are regularly trading the Tired Hands beers I mentioned previously with someone in that area, you're out of luck.

IMOL take on St. Bernardus Christmas Ale

Not a perfect science, but an interesting experiment, the CBE Official comes back with another in a series comparing fairly identical beers from completely different markets to see what's different... if anything.  For our second selection, we're drinking St. Bernardus Christmas Ale.  

I am only tangentially familiar with St. Bernardus.  I've had the abt 12, I know there was once some type of tie in to Westvleteren.  And I know they're not recognized as a Trappist ale anymore, and there's some story about that.  Notice I've attached a link to all of that stuff so that you can really color inside the lines.  I've written a bunch of newsletters for this beer exchange while checking out dozens upon dozens of websites, and this could easily be the biggest internet rabbit hole anyone could ever have the experience of jumping down.

So what did we find out after we opened these...

(Editors Note: St Bernardus has confirmed that Best By Bottle Dates are 4 years after bottling.  So note that the US bottle was 5 months old, basically as fresh as it gets, and the France bottle was a little over a year old.)

Episode 1 of International Men of Leisure...

In this episode, we drink Hitachino XH.

Did you ever wonder if you could drink a beer with someone that was in a different place?  Who was in a different time?  Maybe with a person who is not on Twitter?  I have a friend who is not on Twitter.  He lives in France.  From what I have learned, there are only two ways to communicate with him.  Send him a message on WhatsApp, or go to France and visit him.  I learned a new way today.  WhatsApp actually has a call feature.  It works very well.  If you have a friend in France, I urge you to call that friend using WhatsApp.  It felt like he was on the same continent.  Maybe just a few towns over.  We discussed a beer.  We spoke for a like an hour, and it was extremely enjoyable.  What's most impressive, is neither of us really like to talk on the phone, or to other people, and I’ve seen him pretty recently.  Today was weird.  Very weird.  It was also awesome.

Welcome, to yet another, Things Mengel Gave ME!!!

So, my friend Mengel gave me some beers.  So far, I have earned Zero Untappd badges.  And that's not the name of a cool new Untappd badge, that means I have received none badges from these beers.  Also, they have not come storming out of the gates as stunners.  I have some pretty high hopes for the next couple though, because I have enjoyed several Saucony Creek Brewing Company beers, so why would the X Reserve Lord of Misrule be any different...

For starters, I wish I would have paid more attention when I was pouring this bottle.  It's a bottle conditioned style, with quite a bit of yeast and chunks in the bottom.  So because I didn't ease up on the pour any, it looked like this...

Another Things Mengel Gave Me...

Mengel gave me an Imperial Stout from Rusty Rail Brewing Company.  I was instantly excited about it, because it says that they are located in Mifflinburg, and I know where that is.  It also says that there's coffee in it, and I like that.  It also says something about Lycoming College.... I'll just let them tell you what it says...

Things Mengel Gave Me...

Here is a new segment on The CBE called, "Things Mengel Gave Me..."  Generally there is an Untappd Badge involved.  Other times, it's just a random beer that he's already Untappd, so he has not a single need to open a second one.

Today's segment, starts with James Page Brewing Casper - A White Stout.  I know, it doesn't make any sense, because stouts are not white.  Ever.  But let's concede that there is a thing as a White Stout.  Let's also concede that in the World Beer Cup categories, it could potentially slide into a few categories.  Like Category 10: Chocolate Beer.  Or Category 18: Experimental Beer.  Maybe even Category 76: Sweet Stout or Cream Stout.  But also, there's not White Stout Category.  So it's cheating, and this could potentially be the first red flag.

The end of the #CBExperiment ???

Dude!  Dude!  Hey!

Dude, Dude, Dude!!!

DUDE!!! Come here.

I just opened a Superfan from Odd13 Brewing.  It's a Heady Topper Clone.  It's not Heady Topper, but the can is still smellalicious.  Go ahead, take a sniff.  Yep.  That's the ticket.  This beer smells like a Charity Beer-League Ice Hockey Tournament in Vermont.  Just trust me.  It does.  Don't swim in the lake, though.  The locals do, but they have built up an immunity to the weird maple pollution.  I would like to hear what @pppantalones has to say about this beer.  Because I love it so much, I bet he hates it.  I'm sure we'll find out eventually.  The website is cool, although I am sorry these notes are all caps.  #capslock  #wookie?

Snowboards, bonus beers and sours...

Last time I got to try a Ska Brewing beer, someone sent it to me from Colorado.  That one, Modus Hoperandi was good.  I remember it being big and very old school bitter.  I was kind of expecting Euphoria Pale Ale to be similar.  Euphoria is a Venture/Ska Venture with Venture Snowboards that is a winter selection from Ska Brewing.  I didn't make that up to be repetitive, it's just what it is.  Although I cannot vouch for the snowboard, the Euphoria is pretty frickin' good.  It poured pretty dark for a pale and initially reminded me of Nugget Nectar a little.  It's more chocolaty though, with lighter carbonation, and the bold bitter finish that I remember from Hoperandi.  If you're in the market for checkered shirts to skank in, or an anytime present for yours truly, I suggest you check out their swag shop.