A trip to Belmont Station

We met some friends over at Belmont Station last night. None of us had been there since they moved from their location next door to the Horse Brass Pub, which is a Portland beer landmark and one of the best beer bars in the country. Belmont Station used to be a bottle shop that only did beer-to-go. At their new location, they have a café one on side and the bottle shop on the other. You can freely wonder between the sides, and any of the beers available on the bottle shop side can be brought over to the café side and drunk there (for a very slight surcharge), which is a very nice feature.

Our friends had recently returned from a trip to Belgium and had been on a Lambic kick since then. Being a big Lambic fan myself, we were able to sit and taste several beers side by side. We chose Cantillon Grand Cru, Girardin 1882 Gueuze, Drie Fonteinen Gueuze, and Oud Beersel Gueuze. The Cantillon was in a 750ml, but the rest were in 375ml bottles. We opened all of them at once so we could compare and contrast them.

The Cantillon was freshly bottled in January 2007 and hadn’t built up much carbonation because it was a relative youngster in the bottle. It still had the distinctive house style and tartness, but wasn’t as tart as older more mature bottles of it I’ve had. The Girardin is a perennial favorite and didn’t disappoint. It was nicely carbonated and poured with a thick billowy head. It had more barnyard than Cantillon and a slight amount of smokiness as well and was my second favorite (after the Cantillon of course).

The Drie Fonteinen was a close third (I really could have gone either way on this one and the Girardin). It was a little funkier and even barnyardier and lacked a little bit of the elegance of the Girardin. The Oud Beersel finished last, but was still a nice beer. It was distinctly sweeter than the others but did have a nice honeyed note to the nose. I would still be happy to drink it, but it was a little outshone by the other three.

After the Lambics, we opted to go with a non-sour beer. They had several French Biere de Gardes but only one, La Bavaisienne, which was an amber. Biere de Garde is a traditional farmhouse style from France and the really traditional style of it is an amber beer. But it’s now available in blonde, amber, and darker varieties. To me the ambers are still the only true Bier de Gardes.

Biere de Garde is a fairly controversial style of beer probably because it’s hard to come up with a consensus of what it really is. Essentially it is a very malt forward style of beer. The aroma should have an intense maltiness, similar to a Scottish ale, but with more earthiness and often some herbalness as well. The hops are essentially there to balance the malt. Some people look for a damp basement or cellar odor (like the BJCP guidelines) which is actually a sign of a bad cork. This is likely because of the poor condition of the beer by the time it was tasted in the US. It’s unfortunate that a beer judging organization, like the BJCP, would help to push this notion.

Despite the heavy malt aroma and malt flavors of the beer, it actually finished quite dry and is an excellent choice with food. Garret Oliver, the talented brewer and beer critic, loves Biere de Garde with Thanksgiving and it is a great choice.

The La Bavaisienne was a delightful beer and a nice change from the intensity of the Lambics. It was in good condition and actually tasted fairly fresh. The aroma was a mix of malt with a slight herbal note. The taste was very full but finished dry with a lingering malt flavor.

At this point we were winding up, but opted to get one more bottle and opted for something bigger and sweeter. I’m a big fan of Green Flash’s IPA’s but had never tried their Barleywine, so we opted for a bottle of that. It had a rich hop aroma. In fact it was a bigger hop nose than most, but not as hoppy as Sierra Nevada’s Bigfoot. The palate was full and rich with a slight brandy-type of flavor underlying the malt. It was a little drier than I expected, but still a very nice beer and a good way to end an evening.