Brewed in Leuven, just to the east of Brussels, Leffe is strong and malty and comes in two main varieties. Leffe Blond is bright, fragrant, and has a slight orangey flavour, whereas Leffe Brune is dark, aromatic and full of body. Very popular, but a little gassy for some tastes. 15. Orval (6.2%) Located in the Flemish town of Roeselare, the Rodenbach brewery produces a reddish-brown ale in several different formats, with the best brews aged in oak containers. Their widely available Rodenbach (5%) is a tangy brown ale with a hint of sourness. The much fuller – and sourer – Rodenbach Grand Cru is far more difficult to get hold of but is particularly delicious. 18. Verboden Vrucht, or Forbidden Fruit (9%) Gil – good call. Total Wine in NJ always has Leffe Blonde as well. Seems to be available in most of the larger and chain type places. The other varieties are proving to be elusive though! Produced in the Ardennes, this distinctive beer is instantly recognizable by the red-hooded gnome (or chouffe) which adorns its label. It's a refreshing pale ale with a hint of coriander and it leaves a peachy aftertaste. 5. Corsendonk Pater Noster (5.6%) The Leffe Blond does create an enormous head that took a LONG tome to go down, and when it does it leaves an incredible amount of lacing on the glass. The aroma and the taste, are, for me, hard to describe except that they were different – and very satisfying! Bob the Brit, I think, describes it perfectly in his review above, so I won’t try to add to that.

Once again a type of beer rather than a particular brew, Kriek is made from a base beer to which cherries are added or, in the case of the more commercial brands, cherry juice and perhaps even sugar. It is decanted from a bottle with a cork, as with sparkling wine. The better examples are not too sweet and taste simply wonderful. Other fruit beers are available too, but Kriek is perhaps the most successful. 13. Kwak (8%) Leffe Bruin has its soft, deep brown color, the perfect balance between a slightly bitter taste and a hint of caramel thanks to an age-old tradition. Thanks to a touch of coffee and chocolate, this beer is even more popular. In Leffe’s chalice glass, the creamy collar, the roasted aromas and the spicy taste have the ability to stop time. ” Neil, keep looking! Where I am its hard to find anything other than the Blonde as well. I would just ask the manager of the places you find the Leffe Blonde if they can get the others for you. The dubbel – literally ‘double’ in English - refers to the quantity of malt used. Dubbels tend to be sweet at the start with touches of dried fruits, giving way to a dry and slightly bitter finish.

Practical Homebrewing

Leffe. It’s one of the world’s most recognisable Belgian beers. Understandably so, it’s had more than 800, albeit tumultuous, years to build a brand and nail that quality. There are few beers that have quite such a development time. Abbaye de Leffe in Dinant was founded in the 12th century and, like most abbeys and churches, they built a brewery to serve drinks to parishioners and pilgrims. Most people, including children, drank beer of some sort as it was much safer to drink than water. I suppose I shouldn’t have been that surprised, Leffe is part of the global InBev empire and brewed at the vast Artois brewery in Leuven. It still clutches to its ‘Abbey’ heritage though; the Leffe glass is modeled on a chalice, and the logo shows an abbey building, represented in stained glass. Abbey beers are different from (although similar to) Trappist beers, they are brewed by commercial breweries in something approaching the Trappist style and tend to take the name of a nearby Abbey. This is a largely successful endeavour by the Belgian brewing industry to cash in on the reputation of Trappist beers. In the case of Leffe, the brand was resurrected in the 1950’s although the original abbey was devastated during the French Revolution; beer hadn’t been brewed at the Leffe Abbey for nearly two hundred years. And indeed still isn’t! Barley Water wrote:Humm....it's been awhile since I have had that beer but I don't remember there being any roast flavors in there. I think if I were going to brew that recipe I would at least cold steep the roast barley or perhaps even use dehusked carafa just to avoid the astringent roast flavors.

And while I might not kill for draught Leffe (Jenlain or Westmalle maybe) I agree, as you’ll see from my review – Please can anyone tell me if a 3l bottle of Leffe Blond that is 10 years plus old will still be good to drink or will it poison us? It has a champagne cork. The abbey has been damaged by both natural and human circumstances over the years: the Meuse river flooded the brewery in 1460, and six years later a fire damaged the abbey, but by the 17th century it prospered. The brewery was confiscated by the state in 1796, and in 1809, after making beer only in limited quantities, it was closed. The old kettles were melted down for the weapons industry during World War 1. [2] spring water, phenolic, wheat, rye, buttery hopes, roasted hops, corn, and some type of coal ash. Not dry and crisp. Also something instead of caramel something like eucalypti sweet sap. So, in conclusion, Leffe produce a fine range of Abbey style beers. As such they’re industrial rather than craft or artisan beers, but they’re full bodied, full flavoured and well worth seeking out.I’m not a fan of blonds. I do prefer stout beers. I’ve never tasted a Leffe beer that I liked (and I already tasted the blond and the triple). But I should try this Leffe Radieuse. At least, seems a little bit different in flavour. Can anyone tell me why we haven’t been able to get Leffe in the western US for going on 6 weeks? What disaster has befallen us!