Belgians in America

Lost Abbey's Avante-Garde vs. Ommegang's Three Philosophers We're not usually into pitting beers against each other. Not only is it a matter of apples and oranges, a lot of the time, there's also just no need to get too competitive about it or make any brew masters feel bad. But on two separate occasions this month we found ourselves drinking these American-made Belgian-style brews back-to-back and the pairing invited some comparisons.

Being fans of nearly everything Port Brewing does, we'd been looking forward to the Lost Abbey Avante-Garde for some time. Once poured though, the results were a little milder than we expected. The slight head, the medium hop and the very subtle bitter bite of this beer were all well received. The taste is super fresh -- perhaps best described, for lack of a better word, as round or robust -- and smooth (Stella Artois smooth, not Silver Bullet smooth). But the lack of a sour note, boozey sting or bitter burst kind of left the beer monochromatic. Monotonous even. It's refreshing like people in beer commercials tell you beer should be. Only problem is, unless you're pairing it with a mouthful of pizza, it's too easy to lose interest in a bottle of this.

That's where Three Philosophers came in, sat down at the bar, lit a cigarette and slapped us upside the head.

We'd never heard of Ommegang before a recent visit to a new beer bar in Downtown LA where the owners talked up a storm about Three Philosophers. Apparently Ommegang is a Belgian-style brewery centered in Cooperstown, NY. The 3Ps is their flagship beer as far as we can tell. It's an unusual combo brew, kinda like a Belgian black & tan: a strong malty ale mixed with an intense Belgian kriek, or cherry lambic. There's definitely a yin-yang thing going on with it.

The big hints are roasted, toffeeish malt and creamy cherry-vanilla, but the Belgian-style ale still shines through some of the time. It's not like you feel like you're drinking Stout or some weird fucking Belgium car bomb cocktail. All the things that the lighter bottle danced around leaving us wanting more (bitterness, sour notes, strong booze feel on the tongue) they were there in perfect proportions. The sweetness is tame enough that it doesn't numb your tongue or keep you from finishing the bottle. It wasn't too fruity for the one of us who fears lambics and it wasn't too weak for the one of us who prefers black to tan. We've had it warm (when the only other choice was to wait for the bartender to put it on ice) and we've eaten salad with it, and we think it's just about the perfect winter bottle.

Dairy Pairy: Fig cake with a 1-year aged cheddar
Soundtrack: Beta Band's Three EPs