The beer of the famous pink elephant – Delirium Tremens – is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a special Belgian IPA called Argentum. New to Irish shores, it comes from the Huyghe brewery, whose flagship beer was once rated the best in the world.
A Belgian IPA is an interesting style and relatively new – emerging in the mid 2000s – given the Belgians’ ancient brewing history. It’s not always “hoppy” in the way you might expect from your usual pale ales and IPAs, however, though that seems to depend on the brewery. According to the BJCP beer-style guidelines, Belgian brewers making the Belgian IPA style simply add more hops to their tripel and pale ale recipes; for US and other European microbreweries it means substituting a Belgian yeast in their American IPAs.
Delirium Argentum has a subtle, hoppy aroma with a touch of grapefruit and spices. It pours a reddish amber, as the label suggests, with a lovely and dense white head. The overall taste is more malt and yeast-driven (as opposed to hops) and it builds to a full-bodied, but refreshing beer with layers of citrus, caramel and spices to make a complex, but very drinkable, 7 per cent beer.
Many craft breweries have started to introduce Belgian-style beers to their ranges over the last number of years. However, they're not always easy to accomplish. Included in the Marks & Spencer summer range of craft beer cans is a Cornish Saison. It has hints of ginger, lemon and the earthy yeast of the Saison on the aroma and pours with a frothy head that settles quickly. The flavour gets a bit sweet after a few sips, with the cinnamon and lime zest coming through a little too much. A better option from the M&S summer range is its easy-going IPA. Or if you're looking for an Irish Belgian-style beer, you can't go wrong with Mescan, whose Westport Saison is a great summer sipper.
@ITbeerista beerista@irishtimes.com
