CulturAle Press

Twelve Beers of Christmas #10: Straffe Hendrik / De Halve Maan Xmas Blend 2018.  Bruges, Belgium

Date:  January 3, 2019

The Story—  We’re presenting our list of 12 great beers for the season.   Some are relatively easy to find, others are from our archives and beer vault.   Follow these posts for other beers in the series:   first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth,

De Halve Maan (Half Moon) brewery is one of the reasons to visit Bruges.  The brewery is state of the art, but they’ve preserved the old brewery that’s included in a fine brewery tour.  It’s not free, but it gets you a couple of glasses of Brugse Zot’s light and dark beers.   The brewery produces both Halve Maan and Straffe Hendrik beers.

We’ve tasted several Straffe Hendrik Quads.  The best, by far, was a 2013 that we tasted two years later.   This one, though, showed the same fine play of dark fruits and hints of chocolate and brought a nice range of barrel tastes to the table.  It’s a wonderful blend of barrel aged beers that have spent months on Bordeaux, Calvados and Rum barrels with young quad.

We bought this at Bethesda Market near the Sangamore Safeway in outer Bethesda Maryland.  Prices aren’t bargains there, but the premium price is the fault of Montgomery County’s distribution system — the last in the country to distribute beer and wine. We’re grateful to have a beer store just a couple miles from our house that stocks several hundred beers.

The Beer—  Rich and complex.  The brewery quads without the barrel aging complexity are enriched by wine and barrels.  Fruit is rich and dark with figs, dark berries, and red grapes with wood accents.  Some ending chocolate remains from the usual richness of the Straffe Hendrik quads.

Value —  Good.  No one discounts a beer like this.  Expect to pay $15 or more for the 75 cl. bottle

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

It’s The Season!!   Through January 6th (Twelfth Night) we’ll give your this year’s list of the Twelve Beers of Christmas.  We’ve tasted close to 200 beers brewed for the season; they’re not all good elves, but a great many are as talented as Rudolph for getting us through a foggy winter’s night.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is iour response to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers,   and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”