Herevana – 8 Wired – Rendition of the Devil
It’s the Beer of the week with the @BeerJerkNZ BeerJerk – just like a book club but with beers people – tonight it is the 8 Wired Rendition of the Devil. But in a twist I’m have a side by side with a well known beer, Duvel. This could be an eyeopener
8 Wired Brewing make the 8 Wired Rendition of the Devil in Warkworth, Auckland, 🇳🇿 New Zealand, and it is a Belgian Ale – Strong Pale style beer of 8.5% – the 330ml bottle is 2.2 standard drinks in NZ
Coincidentally Duvel Moortgat make the Duve in Breendonk-Puurs, Antwerp, Belgium 🇧🇪 as a Belgian Ale – Strong Pale of 8.5% – the 330ml bottle is 2.2 standard drinks in NZ
They are both in the same bottle, this really does seem a hat-tip, which is brilliant.
The only problem is who goes first? And I came up with the older more familiar beer, get a baseline.
Duvel then: Matly, almost like a lager, impossible to drink with that much lively foam forming, seriously over excited in the bottle.
8 Wired: More hoppy than the Duvel. Pour is normal. A lovely hazy golden yellow with substantial but not overly daunting head.
Side by side they look similar, the 8Wired more hazing the glass, the Duvel quite bright and still looking.
The Duvel, I was surprised by what I thought was little sourness that I wasn’t expecting, it’s not of putting but I wasn’t expecting it. It took a while to get there through that foam.
The 8 Wired. There is a lovely fragrance and sweetness about this, they are poles apart, There’s a little ‘roughness’ which I was expecting, that hop note that you get sometimes.
The Duvel is so different, like night and day different. So much that I’m kind of regretting trying it aside like this. It is quite dull in the profile curve, it’s almost, cruelly, like a Euro lager, there’s not a lot of personality or sparkle in this to make me think otherwise. I think I know why. Probably I don’t.
To focus on the 8 wired beer, it is really easy and accessible beer, there’s no surprised there’s no real alcohol tang, it’s there but it’s not the thing, what is the thing is that this is smooth, very smooth, with a lovely sweetness and some decent hoppy body.
The Duvel. What can I say. If I was having this alone, and I have had this many times before, the you don’t notice or can’t notice that it might be the Emperors new clothes. I don’t think for one moment that there is no care in this beer, but it driven at a market and in volumes, and margin is key, so I might infer that there is a dialling back of the best that this can be. You might see the best of this in the special version of this around, where they swerve back to the original.
But back to that 8 Wired. What a show. It looks great, it sits nice in the glass, and it carries all of the aroma and taste in a lovely even and almost careful way thought the whole. As it warms it gets a bit bolder and more assertive low down, and that rasp begins to show, as it should, this is a big beer and it is just being it.
The Pdubyah-o-meter rates this as a 8 on the arbitrary number scale for the 8 Wired beer. The Duvel would probably muster a 7, but on a side by side that is questionable. The Rendition of the Devil is a delightful gob in the eye of what you’d probably think was the name brand leader in this style.
Music: It seemed like a sing-along night, so here we go with Simon and Garfunkel with Bridge over Troubled Water.
Herevana beers are those I drink at home, I’m not at some beer festival, like, for instance, Beervana, but am just in my kitchen, usually, dining room table, sometimes, or outside, occasionally, where I can take an average picture and write in real time about the beer that I’ve invested in, both in a monetary and emotional way.
Philip himself.
It’s a rendition of a classic Belgian Golden Strong Ale, but we do it the 8 Wired way. Brewed with European continental pilsner malt and hops, fermented with a house blend of Belgian style yeast and bottle conditioned in the traditional way.
Brewers Notes
Bottle conditioned. Four generations of the Moortgat family have brought together Pilsner malts, Bohemian hops, and a unique yeast strain to create this intense, aromatic and beguiling ale. This Belgian favourite is best enjoyed chilled (40 – 50 F) with discerning friends or good-looking strangers.
Duvel Bottle Notes
Belgian Ale – Strong Pale
The Belgian Strong Golden Ale is a pale, complex, effervescent, strong Belgian-style ale that is highly attenuated and features fruity and hoppy notes in preference to phenolics. References to the Devil are included in the names of many examples of this style, referring to their potent alcoholic strength. High carbonation helps to bring out the many flavors and to increase the perception of a dry finish. Strongly resembles a Tripel, but may be even paler, lighter-bodied and even crisper and drier; the drier finish and lighter body also serves to make the assertive hopping and yeast character more prominent. Tends to use yeast that favor ester development over spiciness in the balance.
A life just as ordinary 