Herevana – McLeod’s – Smugglers Bay Belgian Strong Ale
A cold Saturday on a long weekend, so much for a trip to the beach. But there’s always a beer to hand, from the award winning McLeods’s in Waipu, one of their premium Smugglers Bay beers. of course.
McLeod’s Brewery brew the McLeod’s Smugglers Bay Belgian Strong Ale in Waipu, Northland, 🇳🇿New Zealand, naturally this is a Belgian Ale – Strong Pale with a 8.9% ABV making it around the 3.5 standard drinks in NZ
Bottle 0893. Pour slowly, don’t raise the sediment, prepare for an excited well carbonated beer. It’s like a mantra
The aroma is slight sour, side like, I’m sure it’ll pass.
A vary ale pour of peer that, forgive me, looks like a lager, it has that pale yellow colour to it.
Was not over carbonated or excitable in the class the head settled to a film, there is plenty of rising bubbles in the glass.
That’s kind of sweet. After you get a a nip from the alcohol you get a lovely washing os softer and sweeter malts as they travel to a lovely finish.
It isn’t without a little bark of roughness that is quite nice, reminds you that you’re in a big beer. I get a lovey warming note from this as I sit here,
I’ve a feeling that I might have left this to warm a little more, once again they give you temperature range, but no where is there a method to gauge that, and Joe-average won’t have a temperature accurate fridge that you can prepare his is. I should invent a temperature coaster, or band, that you could slip under or over the bottle/can that would indicate a temperature range. I’ll add that to my list of things that I’ll never do. Probably sell dozens of them if I could get it to work.
As this beer warms it begins to bring forward a few more of the flavours and notes and highlights, but this is really a very soft and gentle beer, there’s no real mountains or peaks that you have to scale and nothing is out of whack or kilter.
It hides that larger 8.9% well, and this is easy sipping and upping beer.
The Pdubyah-o-meter rates this as a 8 on the arbitrary number scale. I really like this beer because perhaps it has a sweetness about it, and that seems to be my weakness, but it’s so so easy to drink, no hint that you’re in deep water at 8.9%. A lovely profile of a beer that gives up flavour and nuance as it warms up, Really really nice. Really.
Music: How could I go past an Album called : Unsolicited Advice for your DIY Disaster. The Buoys. On Spotify.
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.
A stronger version of a Belgian Blonde ale. This is topping the scales at 8.9%.
Brewers Notes
Fruity alcohol driven aromas of pear and spices. Rich surprisingly full palet. Light in colour and dry with a hint of bitterness. A long lingering complex finish.
Bottle conditioned – do not stir in the sediment, pour slowly.
It will be lively and highly carbonated. Drink now or store up to 5 years
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 