Holy Matrimony

On our one and only pilgrimage to Belmont station in the old town of “P,” we serendipitously stumbled upon a guided lecture by the head of the import department for one of the bet and brightest beer distributors in the country. While not every ale in the line up was mind blowing, the overall aesthetic of Shelton Brothers reads like a manifesto. Not only does this distro exclusively support the likes of De Ranke, the after hours brewers of XX, but they have a policy of only importing beers from brewers who produce less than a certain amount per year.
The kid tested mother approved ale we sampled in the video above, was a collaboration between two heavy weight of small batch brewing: Port Brewing co and De Proef Brewerij. The ales of Port have graced this blog both as subjects of loving reviews, and as the backdrop to our trip to Stone Brewing Co. last year. After our tour of duty with the Stone Executive Chef Carlton, we headed over to pizza port where we drank four different IPAs, ate awesome pizza, and watched the Stone Staff do the same.
De Proef is a slightly more obscure, but no less reputable source of prime sauce. Its captain is Dirk Naudts, nicknamed “the Professor.” Naudts is like the Baby Bob Dylan of Belgian beer: not only is he literally one of the most regarded brewers the world over for his specific work via his small batch brewery, but he also designs ales for bigger Belgian and Dutch breweries. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the names the of the unofficial fruits of his fermented loins…

This ale screams of specificity. On one side of a veritable phalanx of flavor you have the Professor, rocking different fermentation techniques that most Americans can ‘t name. Brilliantly subtle yeast flavors and alcohol notes yield an utterly pleasant, but deeply complex flavor. Its goal is to absolutely trick you out of the hop bouquet you encounter upon first swirl…

Spectacular lacing like some kind of dissolving foam mountain left in the wake of Venus herself: Kronos’ castration causing copulation convulsions.
Cloudy golden, like the first time we poured a prankster: density that makes basic vision impossible but a color that emanates light, like an inverted stout. The sweet aroma made the few lingering fruit flies in echo park drift to their deaths in smallish puddles of faded glory.
What about the hops? The age-old battle between any brew snob’s favorite styles, West Coast IPA and Belgian Glory, lock arms mid killing field and spin of in some unholy but oh-so-right maypole celebration of all things wonderful. The depth of Naudts’ yeast strains and strange fermentation is not lost on the powerful and crisp hop barrage that follows. Every descriptor in the beer aficionado’s lexicon comes to mind. Words can describe it, but they wouldn’t do it justly.
Ultimately both fronts flank everything else and leave the drinker refreshed, slain, totally immersed in the frankness of the thought that 750 ml of beer can be priced at $13.99…and worth every cent.
Dairy Pairy: Valencay Affine. An aged goat cheese, shaped like a truncated pyramid.
Soundtrack: Fela Kuti “Confusion/Gentleman”