Beer 40: Duvel Belgian Golden Ale or I Have Nothing Witty to Write Here

For the past few months, I keep turning the phrase baroque pop over and over in my mind.  I had never heard it before reading a response to my tweet about the unmatched excellence of the song Hallelujah.  I believe the tweet focused on Rufus Wainwright's take on Hallelujah, but you would be equally served by the original version by Leonard Cohen.  Hell, I would even take Jeff Buckley's rendition and I'm not even a Buckley fan.  (Hopefully that doesn't cause anyone to doubt my musical taste. Opinions, people, opinions.)  

As I cruised down I-76, belting out my duet with Rufus Wainwright, all was right in my world.  So right, in fact, that I opted to tweet about it.  Don't worry, I-76 doesn't allow for much cruising during the morning rush and I was stopped dead in traffic tweeting and singing by that point.  Seriously.  Who am I?  

Anyway thank goodness I don't act my age because if I did, I wouldn't have the lovely and intriguing baroque pop phrasing to contemplate.  A bit of Googling revealed a lot of information on the topic.  Baroque pop came about in the mid-1960s with artists like The Rolling Stones, Beach Boys and Beatles incorporating it into their repertoire.  This next part comes directly from Wikipedia:  Baroque pop stylistically fuses elements of pop and rock with classical music, often introducing instruments not common to rock and roll such as harpsichords, clavichords, violins, cellos and other strings, oboes and French horns. It is also generally characterized by highly orchestral, lush instrumentation. Now back to me:  This describes Rufus' Hallelujah perfectly.  But judge for yourself:

Rufus Wainwright, Hallelujah

And while you're at it, thank me for introducing you to one of my all time favorite songs:

Rufus Wainwright, Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

Turns out baroque pop started to fade away, but is enjoying a renaissance.  Take a listen to Florence and the Machine, Belle and Sebastian, Arcade Fire, or The Decemberists.  Now you have some homework to do, don't you?  

***

That Golden Monkey glass owes me nothing.

Tonight all I can say is thank god for leftover chili and corn muffins...otherwise I'd be drinking beer and eating Special K.  And I'm fairly certain that is exactly the opposite of what Kellogg had in mind when promoting a healthy, balanced meal.  I'm not sure if anyone else agrees that Duvel Belgian Golden Ale goes well with chili, but I do now.  

I'm pretty pleased with my pour - based on the pouring instructions I found after drafting this post, I got it just right. Score one for Marci!  The name of this beer says it all: golden ale and that is exactly how I would describe the beer's color.  As you can see it poured with a substantial and white head that lasted a good long time.  I can't really report on the smell of this one due to a stuffed-up nose, but I did get a bit of sweetness and general beer scent.  It drinks crisp and smooth.  You can taste the hops (noble hops, from what I read) and I definitely get some sourness.  It weighs in at 8.5% ABV but the alcohol doesn't slap you in the face but rather gives you that warm fuzzy feeling.  

I'm not going to lie, I'm labeling this one potential top 25.  And with that, good friends, I bid you adieu.