Mike Loves Beer

Name – Petrus Aged Pale
Country – Belgium
Type – Flanders Oud Bruin

Happy days, happy days.  My Phillies have become the first team this year to clinch a playoff berth with yesterday’s win over the Astros.  It is the earliest they have ever done this.  And now their magic number for their 5th straight NL east title is at 4.  Good job guys, I knew you could do it.  So to celebrate I wanted to have a special beer and luckily enough I found one just the other day.

I’ve had Petrus Aged Pale before but it was up north in the state and I could never find it down here despite the brewer making Wittekerke, which is quite easy to find down here.  Well low and behold I finally found it in my local store the other day and just had to pick it up.  It’s classified as a Flanders Oud Bruin and said to be a slightly paler version of the standard Petrus Oud Bruin.

I popped the cap and poured it into my Cigar City snifter and it arrives a very clear orange color.  It has a thin bubbly white head on top but that quickly dissipates into the liquid.

The nose hits you with apple cider vinegar right up front.  There are hints of oak in there as well.

The taste has a nice ACV bite up front that then goes tart.  Sour apples and maybe even a little lemon in there.  It finishes dry and crisp.

Personally I think this is a great sour beer.  The first time I had it I took a bottle over to a friend’s house to share and they seemed like it wasn’t all that great.  Ah what do they know!  This should be a favorite of every sourhead.  But then again I absolutely didn’t like Duchesse and that is a seemingly perfect beer to many sour fans.  Oh well.

So in short if you are a fan of traditional Belgian sours and you can get this, do it.  I can almost guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Grade - A-

Name – Wittekerke
Country – Belgium
Type – Witbier

Appearance – Poured a very hazy straw gold color with a big bubbly white head.

Smell – There is a really funky yeast smell to it.  Notes of wheat and lemon can be picked up too.

Taste – You definitely get the yeast and luckily the taste of it isn’t as strange as the smell.  You get some citrus tastes in there that is mostly lemon.

I went for the bottled version over the can on this review.  I made sure to give it a swirl at the end of the pour to get any sediment on the bottom of the bottle.  The smell was really strange and strong but the taste was exactly what you would expect from a witbier.  It was smooth and refreshing in the last few days of the summer.  Would give it a full B if not for the smell.

Overall Grade – B-