Wednesday 15 November 2023: La Chouffe: a Belgian beer

 

Wednesday 15 November 2023

La Chouffe: a Belgian beer

Yesterday evening, I drank for the first time a bottled Belgian beer called La Chouffe, blonde.

“Chouffe starts off with some citrus notes, followed by a refreshing touch, pleasantly spiced to give it great brightness. This golden beer, with its light taste of hops, was the very first to come out of the Achouffe brewery’s vats 40 years ago.”

It does, indeed, have a pleasant flavour, spiced as it is with coriander seeds. Initially, I considered it a little too hoppy for my palate, but it grew on me, in direct proportion to the amount of it that I drank. (Often, with a beer new to me, I enjoy it at first, but enjoy it progressively less the more I drink.) La Chouffe is 8% alcohol, which, although strong by British beer standards, is a strength that I like. It just about has the body in terms of flavour to accompany its alcoholic strength. I prefer a beer to be a little more malty. It is sold (in Tesco, and I believe in several other UK supermarkets) in dumpy, 330 ml brown bottles (like Duvel and Chimay).

The brewery’s website describes several other brews apart from the blonde. There are

·         an alcohol-free beer, which I shall give a miss

·         an extra-hopped beer, that I shall also decline

·         a cherry-flavoured beer (albeit neither a lambic nor technically a kriek), might be interesting to try

·         a brown beer (McChouffe), the description of which sounds like a beer I should very much like to try, and likely to be to my taste.

All the beers from this brewery appear to be suitable for vegans.

The brewery lies in the rural Belgian village of Achouffe, about ten miles to the west of the northern tip of Luxemburg. From a glance at a map, it looks like the area could be good walking country.