Post/Comments here - http://brewdogblog.com/2009/03/infected ... sel-lager/
Full text below. Great beer!
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Infected Sessions (Drie Fonteinen Beersel Lager)
Tracing the unique paths of influence back and forth between Europe and the USA in terms of brewing styles and techniques has been a particular focus of this blog since it’s inception about a year ago. Here we have an interesting if not more old school example of the same kind of cross-pollination, not between the old world and the new, but between the old world and…the old.
While Belgium gets the credit for being the most exciting and enduring destination for American beer nerds, a smaller, quieter subset are insistent on their obsession with Germany’s beers, particularly their Lagers. Having experienced a decent amount of these harder-to-find and less-hyped beers over the course of the last year, I can definitely say that the next beer trip I make to Europe will not exclude some of the more interesting regions in Germany’s panoply of amazing beer.
Beersel Lager is an interesting study in cross-pollination - Drie Fonteinen’s Armand Debelder admires the Lagers of Germany, claims the label, so he decided to have one contract brewed for him at the world-class De Proef facility, where many excellent brands from Belgium are brewed. The results are revelatory, combining the refreshing drinkability of a German Lager with the depth of flavor of a Belgian Lambic. Beersel Lager pours a touch more amber than the typical “yellow Lager†color, with a big fluffy-white Belgian head and tons of carbonation. The nose has touches of breadiness you would expect from a Lager and a nice hit of tart, “wild†aromas from the Belgian yeast. Sipping this beer breeds similar interesting combinations of flavor — a bit of lactic sourness, a nice bitter bite of hops, and a smooth, bready body in the middle. An excellent sipping beer that unfortunately could only be stocked by someone much flusher with cash than I for a regular session beer, it comes closest to Jolly Pumpkin’s beers in pushing boundaries of beer geekdom into the realm of the Lawnmower beer. Excellent product as usual and a lesson in how taking old ideas and combining them can produce astounding and surprising results. Killer.