Grimbergen Blonde Ale

This is the second Blonde we’ve covered here at Everyday Drinkers and it has its own unique personality. This Blonde is from Belgium, contains the same golden color but has a completely different sweet taste common to Belgian beverages. Grimbergen Blonde Ale is an Abbey Ale which stays true to its ancient Abbey heritage.

Pour it into a glass and you’ll see subtle carbonation with tiny little bubbles quickly rising to the top to meet the thin white head. This Blonde is delicate when it comes to pouring it into a glass, take your time or you’ll create a huge mess as the head rises higher and higher until it presents itself on the surface of the table.

After thirty seconds the head subsides down to a thin coating on the top of the beer glass. Don’t confuse a Belgian Ale with a wheat beer, this isn’t a wheat and it’s not a white; this is a golden clear ale. The aroma is sweet much like the taste, however, not sugar sweet but uniquely “Belgian” sweet–hard to describe but very Belgian in style and taste. You’ll also notice a huge amount of Belgian Lace (the white head lacing left around the edge of the glass) which makes sense considering its heritage.
Grimbergen is a very well balanced Blonde keeping it light with a bit of carbonation and sweet with a bit of tart. The physical properties resemble Grimbergen as a Blonde Ale but its unique taste separates it from an English Blonde Ale just enough to make it stand alone.

How do the Belgians make such a well balanced brew? Grimbergen Abbey has been around “a few years,” established in 1080 and brewing their first beer in 1128. Considering the fact that many governments haven’t lasted as long, this beer goes back a ways so the recipe has had time to perfect itself from generation to generation. With a style which predates the United States itself, this is a beer you have to respect.

I’m not a huge Belgian beer drinker and I purchased Grimbergen for the next upcoming Everyday Drinkers Podcast episode on Belgian Beer. I had never seen this beer before so I figured it was worth a try and covered a few things about Belgian ales in both the Abbey heritage and the Blonde style. End result, totally worth picking up and expanding your horizon to a style over a thousand years in the making.

If you want to learn more about Belgian beers, the style and our opinions on over twelve different beers, stay tuned for our next episode!