DUPONT’S SURPRISING “LA BIERE DE BELOEIL”

In the US, BRASSERIE DUPONT means saisons. Amazing, delicious saison-style ales from Belgium – yeasty, complex and refreshing. There’s SAISON DUPONT, DUPONT AVRIL, FORET, and several others. They’re all fantastic, seriously; to a beer, these are wonderful ales that I could drink anytime and anywhere. It took my trip to Spain a couple weeks ago to taste something of theirs that was dark and different, and when I ordered it, I didn’t even know it was a DUPONT thing. I found a big bottle of LA BIERE DE BELOEIL in the beer fridge at LA CERVATECA in Barcelona, and my pal AS and I split it with relish.

As I gingerly poked, uh, “tasting notes” into my iPhone, I saw that LA BIERE DE BELOEIL has some foreign gobbledygook on the bottle that said “Dupont a Tourpes”. You mean those Saison Dupont fellas? Well now how about that? To me, this is a classic Belgian dubbel, ripe and strong with the taste of dates and figs, with a thin body, strong aroma, and a sharp bit of zinging spiciness that’s rock solid. Over at Beer Advocate they’re calling it a “Belgian strong pale ale”. Hoooo-kay. This is a “meal” sort of beer, a big, bad complex 8.5% ABV sort of ale that will stand up to freshly-slaughtered animal of some kind. And so classically Belgian. Really top-tier stuff. Let me know if you see this one in the US after grabbing a bottle for yourself first. 8/10.