What to Drink Contents
Pauwel Kwak Review
Flanders Zuur Ale, Bosteels Brewery
April 2009
My girlfriend Gill gave me this wonderful beer last Christmas called Pauwel Kwak. 8.4% ABV, top-fermented, "unique taste" (according to the website and substantiated by my tastebuds). It is in fact 1 of 3 beers brewed by Bosteels in Buggenhout, Belgium. It seems to be a Flanders (Flemish) Red Ale and in fact "zuur" is a Dutch word for "sour" - so we are on the right track. After doing some more reading I have found that perhaps I should consider that it is an Oud Bruin (Flanders Brown or "Old Brown"), though definitely not a type of gueze which is a spontaneously fermented wheat beer of sorts. The higher alcohol of Kwak and its sweetness makes me think that perhaps this is in fact an Oud Bruin. Back to that later in this post…So here I was drinking this Belgian String Amber beer that came in a 4-pack with a very interesting glass. I had seen a smaller one before at a beer café late one night but never actually found out what it was. The Coachman’s glass is pear-shaped below and fluted above, whilst being held upright by a wooden stand. It was a thing of beauty and the colour of the beer actually seemed to change as I scanned the glass up and down in an attempt to acquaint myself with this earthly delight. Then came the taste and to me I thought it had just the right amount of ‘caramel’ richness, sourness, complexity (or lack of) and colour.
Did I mention that this beer had a great long lasting head? It really was a beautiful beer and the unique glass really did romanticise this beer for me. It was great to let this one warm up after coming out of the fridge, then sipping it very slowly as it warmed up even more and changed in my mouth. Those 4 ‘experiences’ or bottles were really enjoyable and I’d like to do it again soon. I also discovered through their website that 3 different malts are used as well as sugar, wheat, 3 types of hops and coriander. This is one beer that I would love to make my own impression of but it will certainly not stop me from buying more Pauwel Kwak.
This is one style of beer that I will be investigating for many years. If you are interested in finding out more on Flemish Red Ale in the meantime then please check out BYO.com who have a good run down on Flanders Red Ale including a lot of information on yeast and bacteria handling during fermentation and bottling. PARC.com goes into great detail for How to Make Sour Ale and is very much worth reading if you really want to get your head around the essence of this beer and how to make it.
Salud.
Mateo.
