This post forms part of The Sessions, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday – an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together on a single topic and write about it from their own unique perspective. The first Session was hosted by Stan Hieronymous of Appellation Beer in March 2007, and it has been hosted by a different blogger every month since. The topic of this month’s Session is ‘Beer Fight Club’ for which we have chosen to write about Black Albert from De Struise Brouwers and is being hosted by Jake Scholan of Hipster Brewfus.
In Belgium, there are beers that are absolutely gargantuan.
Have you ever drank a beer that became a battle, more than an enjoyable experience? Maybe a beer that was far bigger than you had anticipated? Something you felt determined to drink, just so you can say you conquered that son of a bitch, and you are all that is powerful?
Jake Scholan. Hipster Brewfus. July 2014.
This question immediately conjures up one beer: an American Double Stout from a small ‘truck’ full of taps at Zythos beer festival, the ‘Double Black’ at 26% ABV.
It is brewed by De Struise Brouwers. So what other big beers do they have? We picked up a bottle of their Black Albert. Would it be as challenging as their ‘Double Black?
The eighth rule of Beer Fight club is: If this is your first night at Beer Fight Club, you have to fight.
WHO ARE DE STRUISE BROUWERS?
If you don’t know who De Struise Brouwers are, you probably should. In 2008, the reputable website, Ratebeer, in accordance with the results of their annual members’ poll, declared De Struise Brouwers to be the best brewers in the world. This was received with mixed views – some were delighted that such an innovative brewery was being acknowledged while others pointed to their lack of a brewing facility at the time as a reason they should be excluded from the honour.
Literally, ‘De Struise Brouwers’ means ‘the sturdy brewers’. Their beers are certainly that. But ‘Struise’ in Flemish has a meaning that translates to ostrich, significant given that there is an ostrich farm in the village close to where they first started brewing. The ostriches even made their way on to their logo.
The brewery’s story begins in Africa, where a Belgian photographer, Urbain Coutteau, was working in an engineering capacity. He found himself bored at the weekends and spent his time brewing beer. When he came home in 1997 after ten years in Africa he teamed up with his friends, Carlo Grootaert, Phil Driessens and Peter Braem. De Struise Brouwers started in earnest in 2001.
They now brew between the Deca brewing facility in Woesten-Vleteren in West Flanders and their recently established microbrewery and tasting room in a renovated school building in Oostvleteren. The Deca facility is used to produce the bulk of their local and export beers while the schoolhouse is used to develop new recipes and to host world-renown brewmasters to take part in collaborative brew sessions.
De Struise Brouwers acknowledge that their beers are not for everyone: “Some will find us very eccentric,” they say. “But that is how all artists are. Please forgive us.” They do, however take issue with suggestions that they lack sophistication in their brewing. “We have a reputation for going very extreme,” Urbain once stated in an interview. “But in the end all of our beers are very balanced.”
WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT THE BLACK ALBERT?
If the general beer public sat up and took notice of De Struise Brouwers after their release of Pannepot, it was the release of Black Albert that really put them on the map.
Black Albert is a 13% ABV Russian Imperial Stout which De Struise Brouwers have chosen to call a Belgian Royal Stout. The ‘Belgian’ relates to the fact that all of the ingredients used in the beer come from Belgium and the ‘Royal’ is a reference to the king after whom the beer is named: King Albert II.
King Albert II recently abdicated in 2013 for health reasons and is succeeded by his son, the current King Philippe. He was nicknamed by many as the ‘laughing king’, and De Struise Brouwers say that “it is only fitting that the beer named after him should put a big smile on your face”.
The story behind the beer finds its roots in America. It was brewed for Ebenezer’s pub in Lovell, Maine. De Struise Brouwers were so impressed by the extensive range of hard-to-find Belgian bottle-conditioned ales there and by the passion of its owners, Jennifer and Chris Lively, that they created Black Albert as a tribute to the bar. The beer was introduced to the world in the pub at Ebenezer’s 3rd Annual Belgian Beer Festival in 2007.
The Artwork on the bottle – an abstract interpretation of King Albert II – was produced by Vincent Hocquet of Beautiful Freak Tattoo, a tattoo parlour located on the Belgian coastline and one that undertakes a various artwork projects. Parallels between art and brewing are common amongst De Struise Brouwers and their tag-line for the beer embraces the tattoo theme: “Black Albert: get tattoo’ed from the inside”.
Black Albert also played an integral role in a special project undertaken by De Struise Brouwers which they call their ‘Black Damnation Series’. Essentially, they used Black Albert as a base to blend a number of experimental barrel aged beers over a two-year period between 2010 and 2012. The ‘Double Black’ above is a part of this series.
De Struise Brouwers acknowledge on their blog how important a beer this one is to them: “It all started with our Black Albert,” they write. “We’ve been constantly innovating and renovating recipes, aromas and flavors at Struise, and Black Albert has always proven to be very consistent. Being the huge, complex beer that it is, you can use it as a blank canvas to do whatever you want to it. The boldness in flavor of the imperial stout gives you a lot more to work from than any other type of beer when it comes to barrel-aging”.
But the ‘Black Damnation Series’ is for another day and another blog post. Today we are tackling Black Albert.
The fifth rule of Beer Fight Club is: One fight at a time.
BLACK ALBERT | WHAT’S IT LIKE?
The beer itself is 13% ABV with an international bitterness level of 100 EBU. You’d expect a fight, right?
The label says that this is ‘Batch 0’, suggesting that the Black Albert recipe has not changed since it was first brewed and that the beer has remained consistent since its inception.
The name of the beer is Black Albert it certainly pours black. There’s a mocha head with tiny bubbles and an oily body that grips the glass with a sticky treacle quality.
Treacle is in the nose too and the taste is an intense explosion of roastiness and dark chocolate with some dried fruit esters. The high ABV gives some warmth but its more velvety than boozy and the bitterness is well balanced by all those sweeter malt notes.
This is an intense and complex beer for sipping.
THE 7th RULE OF FIGHT CLUB IS: FIGHTS WILL GO ON AS LONG AS THEY HAVE TO
Was it a struggle?
The answer is no. It is a big beer. And we wouldn’t drink it all the time. But this time we drank it all. And we’d drink it again.
