Ommegang BPA

I've had two other beers from Ommegang;   Hennepin and Witte.   Both of these beers were absolutely delicious, so when I saw this beer on tap, naturally I couldn't resist.   If I have good beer after good beer from a brewery, I will stay pretty loyal to the brewery and go down their lineup.
Ommegang BPA is Ommegang's version of  a true Belgian style Pale Ale.  BPA comes brewed with 5 malts and 3 hops (Columbus, Celeia, and Cascade.)  The ABV for BPA isn't overly high, although it is above normal..   It weighs in at 6.2% so it's not ideal for a session brew, but the ABV isn't too high where you can't have a few of them.

A: Slightly hazy golden-orange color with a two finger head.   The head fades slowly down to about one finger and doesn't really recede past that.   Fairly sizable lacing is left on the glass while drinking.

S:  Spice and clove notes dominate the smell.   There are also tropical fruits and bubblegum scents present as well.  It's a very nice smelling beer.   They usually don't smell this good in my opinion.   After smelling it, I could not wait to taste it.

T:  The forefront of the taste is dominated by an initial spicy citrus flavor.   Also present is  bit of herbal hoppy bite in the middle and an earthy bitterness on the end.

M: This is a medium bodied beer with fairly lively carbonation.   I'd probably rate it as a medium to high carbonation.   A very crisp beer.  It's very drinkable.   I only had one of these but I could have definitely had a few more of them easily.  Great tasting beer and easy to drink it. 

O:  This beer impressed the hell out of me.   I wasn't really even looking to have a Pale Ale when I had it,  but Ommegang is a fantastic brewery from my experiences so I couldn't resist.   I would highly recommend this beer to anyone regardless of the style of beer they favor.   I'd give this beer a very confident two thumbs up.

Leffe Blonde

Let's get this straight.   I've pretty much disliked every Pale Ale I've ever had.   I didn't even realize Leffe Blonde was a pale ale until I looked up a little information about it a few minutes ago.   The website says the following,  "Abbey of Leffe blonde beer is a highly fermented beer to be savoured. The ingredients are light malt, corn, water, hops and yeast, which give it a bright golden colour with dazzling reflections. The alcohol content is 6.6 %, the ideal serving temperature 5° to 6 °C. As a bottled beer, it is to be savoured with pleasure, as a draft beer it is thirst quenching. The taste is full, sweet and fruity (with a hint of bitter orange), and the after-taste is powerful and surprising."   Maybe I've had an incorrect understanding of what a pale ale is, but I've always thought a pale ale had the sharp pine tasting hops.   Maybe this is different due to it being a belgian pale ale.   Well, onto the review to find out if I liked it or not..




A -  I'm not sure why, but I've always thought Leffe was a witbier.   I was wrong obviously, and boy was I shocked when the girl poured it and it was a golden amber color.   It had a nice fluffy finger head that stuck around for a minute or two.   The beer was "sticky" as it had some great lacing on the cup as I was drinking it.

S -  It started off with a sweet scent which surprised me due to it having a darker color than what I was expecting.   The sweet scent gave away quickly to a spicy, pepper-like scent which was much more of what I was expecting.

T - Tastes different from the smell definitely.  There's an initial clove taste on the tongue.   Afterwards it's followed up with some grapefruit and banana.  The finish is spicy with a slight hop bitterness.

M -  Light bodied with high carbonation.   It's really bubbly upon first taste but the finish is more smooth.

D - Light flavored but complex at the same time.   The ABV is hidden quite well which makes it a pretty drinkable beer.  I'd definitely drink it again.

Grade - Two thumbs up.  I hate pale ales for the most part, and can't believe that I stomached this one, let alone enjoyed it thoroughly.