My Belgian Journey

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Not a trip tp Belgium but rather my experimentations with brewing Belgian beers. If you read my last post you would know that I've had some challenges, and disappointments with the results of those experiments. As I noted then I entered my Belgian Tripel in the local home brew club's annual competition, and as I predicted my beer scored very low. Both judges made similar comments regarding how my tripel was not a good representation of the style which ultimately led to it's low score. One thing that I am pleased about is that their comments about where my tripel fell short were exactly the same shortcomings that I noticed when I first tried the beer. At least I had judged it correctly. One of the things I learnt from the experience is that I need to do more research to find a recipe that truly represents the style I am trying to re-create, especially if I intend to enter the beer into a competition.
My other lamentation from my earlier post was a recently brewed but over-spiced Belgian Wit beer. Belgian Wit's are often spiced with coriander and bitter orange peel, and I had added too much of both. My first impression was so strong that I figured I might have to throw out the beer because it was undrinkable. However I bottled it and then waited a few weeks before I tried it again. The Wit was still over-spiced but much more drinkable that when I first tried it. The spice notes had faded somewhat with the coriander not nearly as prominent as it had been, and the beer was actually ok. It wouldn't have won any awards but at least I didn't have to flush it down the drain.

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