Day 590: Urthel Saisonniere

Day 2 of the Beercycling trip took us from Kortrijk to Zwalm (roughly 32 miles) with a stop in Oudenaarde. The schedule was ride through the morning, find a great picnic spot for lunch, head off on another leg of the journey to a brewery (Liefman's on this particular day) and then finally a few more miles to the hotel.

This looks pretty ok for a picnic!

What I particularly enjoyed about this trip was the variety of towns we encountered along the way. I feel like I got a great sense of what life in Belgium is like. Accommodations for the night were at Hotel De Brouwerij (translation The Brewery Hotel) in the town of Zwalm, which I'm pretty sure had cows outnumbering humans at a ratio of four to one. But despite the very rural surroundings, we had an excellent meal at De Brouwerij that was accompanied by an impressive beer list.

B&B in an old brewery? Why, yes, I will.

Unfortunately for me as I begin to piece all my notes and photos back together post-trip, I'm realizing I did not take the greatest notes. The tasting notes are workable. It goes off the rails when I try to figure out from blurry backgrounds of photographs where the beer was consumed during the trip. I know I took notes on something I drank this day, but I can't quite put my hands on the right photo.

Instead I'll fast forward a few nights to a new bar in Brugge named La Trappiste. It's in a super cool underground space that I was told was about 800 years old. Not bad. Not bad at all. That's the scene where I drank an Urthel Saisonniere brewed by De Leyerth Brouwerijen.

Urthel Saisonniere is a unique combination of saison and white beer. The description from the brewery's website calls it a sparkling golden, slightly cloudy, refreshing, easy drinking beer with a nice bite. I can assure you that this description is spot on. In addition to a slightly cloudy blond color ale, it had a dense white head. The flavor is bright and a little grassy with lots of clean hop flavor. At this point on the trip, my allergies were going bonkers and I couldn't get a good read on it's aroma. Let's go with delicious beer for the smell.

Beer stats
Style: Saison
ABV: 6%
IBUs: Unknown
Rating: Great

Previously reviewed from Urthel/De Leyerth
A now impossible-to-find tripel Hibernus Quentum

Beer 250: Haters Gonna Hate, But Not on Urthel Tripel

Penn State dropped this tidbit of information in a PR release yesterday:

Penn State ranked among top 50 world universities

Wednesday, August 15, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) has released its 2012 ranking of the top 100 world-class universities and has ranked Penn State at No. 49. Penn State is one of 53 highest-ranking institutions in the United States, 30 in Europe and 17 among Japan, Israel, Canada and Australia. Penn State is one of five Big Ten universities and one of only two Pennsylvania schools to make the top 50.

Researchers at the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University conduct the annual ARWU ranking using six objectives. According to its website, these are: “the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, number of highly cited researchers selected by Thomson Scientific, number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science, number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index - Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, and per capita performance with respect to the size of an institution.”

Researchers also break down rankings by some individual fields. Engineering at Penn State ranks 11th in the world, while Penn State’s social sciences ranks 23rd, economics and business is 33rd, physics is 37th and natural sciences/mathematics is 44th worldwide. Penn State mathematics, chemistry and life/ag sciences are in a group ranking of the top 51 to 75 programs in the world.

The complete ARWU list is here and detailed methodology can be found here.

But wait! The NCAA told me -- and the world -- that football was the only thing that mattered at Penn State.  How could our engineering program rank 11th in the world? IN THE WORLD!?! In a nation that is failing to educate its students in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math), how could Penn State be excelling like this? Perhaps it's because football is not the end all, be all.

Maybe, just maybe, Penn State should be lauded for having a cadre of educators who can impact the abysmal state of STEM education.  Perhaps everyone needs to lay off the Joe Paterno was a pedophile / kill Penn State football / fine the hell out of all of us rhetoric to step back and realize what an amazing institution Penn State is in the Commonwealth and the nation...and the world.

(puts her soapbox away and takes a chill pill...)

Tonight we're drinking multiple beers because I have nothing in my back pocket for use in a non-beer drinking emergency.  It's a scary place to be if you're writing about a new brewery every single night. I'm planning on rectifying that situation at TJ's in Paoli tonight.  I may also try to lure Gary into a little Quizzo.

For the review, let's talk Urthel Hibernus Quentum -- a tripel ale from De Leyerth Brouwerijen in Flanders, Belgium. It poured a hazy apricot color with a bit of head that was off white in color.  The nose is fruit and honey. The flavor is more rich and mellow honey. The mouthfeel is full. There's a strong malt profile but also a warm, straight out of the oven bread thing happening. The flavor also has some fruit to it, but there's also a tartness that I really like.  This tripel is just different enough to warrant a place in my top 25.

Interesting note: If you see a bottle of this anywhere, BUY IT. This beer was originally brewed as a seasonal beer and after a number of years has been retired. I have no idea where we bought this bottle.  Rats.

Cheers!

Fairy Tales and Tripel Ales

Beer #250 Urthel Hibernus Quentum / De Leyerth Brouwerijen, Ruiselede, Belgium

Good news for the day - no one tried to steal my identity.  Hooray for small victories!  Although, I did get some laughs hearing about all of the exciting places my friends' credit cards had "been" without them, including Vietnam, Brazil, and Yeadon, PA.  One of these things is NOT like the others...

Today I'm sampling the Urthel Hibernus Quentum, from De Leyerth Brouwerijen.  That's a mouthful.  This tripel has a caramel color and a white head that quickly dissipates.  There's a sweet, honey-like aroma, and the taste has notes of malt, honey, dark fruit, and candi sugar, with a nice floral finish.  If you love Belgian tripels, this one will likely be right up your alley.  If you like Miller Lite, you may need to reconsider why it is exactly you're reading this blog.

Belgian beer and gnomes. What's up with that?

This brewery appears to go by the more common name of Urthel; it seems that the founder had been working on a fairy tale that was going nowhere, so he decided to brew beer.  When it came time for a name, he used the artwork and a name from his still in the works fairy tale characters, The Urthels.  Whatever you call it, a husband and wife team were behind the launch of this brewery in 2000.  From what I gather, they have a brewpub, but contract Leffe for much of their production.  If you like this review and want to try this beer, you better find one fast - this beer has been retired, and will no longer be brewed.  They are producing others, which is good, as this one was quite nice.

Thing to Think About Today:
I was tempted to make a play on the name Urthel and drop some Urkel in here.

Did I do that?  No, no I didn't.

But I can't do that.  Instead, if we're thinking about fairy tales for kids with an adult twist, we're dropping in some MC Slick Rick and his classic tale of a Children's Story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjNTu8jdukA

I was hoping Rick the Ruler would have made an appearance at the London Olympics closing ceremony, but to no avail.  Sadness.