Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Caracole Nostradamus

As I mentioned earlier this week I made a recent excursion to Spec's on a beer run of sorts. Tonight I decided to pop open one of these beers that I have never tasted.
The Style: The style of Nostradamus is a strong Belgian Brown Ale. This is a high alcohol beer with lots of complexity, most likely high in malt and low in hop bitterness with some sort of spiciness usually associated with the palate.
The Brewery: The brewery Caracole was founded in 1990 in the heart of the Ardennes mountains in Falmignoul which is a small village in the South of Belgium. All of Caracole's beers are made in the an 18th Century copper kettles. All ales are bottle conditioned and double fermented.
The Beer: This is by far one of the most unique ales I have ever tasted. I bought it in a four pack of smaller beers not a BIG beer. It pours a nice deep russet brown with streaks of red and nice tan pillowy head. The smell is of sweet fruity malts, and some spice. Initially when I tasted it, I felt only the high alcohol with an underwhelming sickly sweet malty flavor. However as the beer warmed in the glass I could taste the complex sweet malts and cinnamon aftertaste and caramel undertones. This is a s malty beer, the antithesis of American IPA's and their superleaded hops. Unfortunately I am an avid Hop head, so I didn't exactly fall in love with this beer. The first 15 minutes or so I thought I was going to hate it, but I ended up liking it, if not thoroughly enjoying it. At 9.5% alcohol this must be a sipping beer and maybe that's where I initially mess up trying to pair this with some food. Here is what the folks over at BA had to say.

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