Friday 21 January 2011

No 64 Delirium Tremens & X28 Bush Ambrée

A small head-to-head match for these two strong belgian beers. In the first ring corner...

Delirium Tremens
Just the name sets the tone, along with the dancing pink elephants on the bottle... The nose opens up deep, fine and light with lovely notes of peach, lemon, ginger, dried flowers and cookie dough. A fine, complex nose.
The taste is long, cool and very nice with notes of dried orange peel, a peachy note and some gravel/stone. In the finish though, there is a touch of alcohol (8,5%). Nice body. Rather cool despite the alcohol. A fine beer, and I didn´t notice any delirium tremens after finishing the bottle...

90p   (tasted from bottle - 2011/01)

In the second ring corner, weighing in at 12%...

Bush Ambrée
A very deep, tight, impressive nose with notes of orange peel, ginger, white chocolate and wet earth. Deep, complex and utterly captivating. Layers upon layers of white and yellow sweet fruit. The alcohol doesn´t show itself in any way. Stunning!
The taste is very tight, concentrated and powerful with great intensity in the sweet yellow fruit. Almost bottomless deep. The alcohol makes it broad over its shoulder but you can´t feel in anywhere in the flavour - very impressive. A long, massive finish. Just a great beer!

96p   (tasted from bottle - 2011/01)