IN THE SUDS WITH DE RANKE’S “PERE NOEL”

Like many festive holiday lovers, I bought the “Christmas in Belgium” 5-bottle gift pack the order day – not as a gift, mind you, but so I could drink the beers therein. Actually the main reason I did so was to try out this PERE NOEL beer I’d been reading about from the DE RANKE BREWERY in Belgium; the word on the street was that it was a good ‘un, so naturally it’s the first one I went for. Color me only mildly impressed. It’s an outrageously hoppy beer to my tastes, and much stronger in almost every manner than its 7% alcohol-by-volume indicates. That said, this tripel-ish beer is somewhat too bitter and dare I say SOAPY for my tastes. I dug the tingly sensation from the hops, and I could see where this orange/goldenrod-colored ale could get a few Belgian beer lovers to click their clogs together. Then I read the review of it over at SEVENPACK and got scared – they used the word “soapy” as well, and I thought it was just me. Am I being too generous with my 6/10 rating? This might be one to pass over as you look to clean out the Christmas supply at your local beer store this week.