BottleTree Belgian Blonde
I’m slowly whittling down the 55 different beers in the laundry room. I’ve had this beer… for a while. I might have had this beer for more than a year.
I first tasted this brew at the World Beer Festival in Columbia in January 2011. I had just met Fred Block who said he was living a dream that was 8 long years in the making, He had been entering and winning homebrew contests and even had T-Shirts and fancy labels and such. Everyone was saying he needed to bottle and sell his beers and he found some kindred spirits at Thomas Creek who started producing the brew for him. When I caught up with him at the 2012 Festival he said he was still had his day job but things were going real well and was just a few weeks of releasing his Imperial “Irish” Red Ale. I haven’t tried it yet but with my pledge not to purchase any more beers til the 55 beers are gone (I think I might have left out that there are 55 different brews but there are multiples of some of those 55).
I really like this brew. As I said this brew has probably been in my laundry room, sometimes in the fridge and sometimes in the cabinet. But this brew tasted just as good as the day I bought it. This was the last bottle of a six-pack. I had shared the others with Brett and Mark and had intended to review it. But that’s why I have 55 brews left over. I intended to review them and managed to keep one around so I could review it.
So I guess it was worth the wait but then again why wait so long.
It is a really beautiful golden color. Nice sweet malt flavor, really smooth, a slight hoppy finish but at the very tail end. But ti doesn’t leave an aftertaste. I had it as I was grilling some chicken outside.
I would love to try this brew on tap. I wish the other 54 brews tasted this good…. and I have to admit that some actually have been.
If you haven’t read my interviews from the World Beer Festivals Fred said “Bottletrees attract evil spirits so and people put them in their yards. When the sun shines through the bottles and attracts the spirits they get entrapped. You can hear them whistling in the breeze.”
He got the idea after a carriage tour in Savannah. “They were talking about all the architecture and all the folklore and culture and talked about the bottletree. Even though I didn’t actually see a bottletree I was intrigued and did some research. I always wanted to do beer and had been doing home brew and so it inspired the bottletree name.” That also inspired his motto “Drink No Evil.”
So between Fred’s great recipe and Thomas Creek’s attention to details this is one brew that doesn’t turn skunky if you don’t drink it immediately. I know this brew is available at Vineyard Wine Market. Next time I see Roger, and I finish off the 55 I will see he he’s got the Irish Red.
Hmmm. I need to do an inventory and see how many I got left. Gotta go.
From: Tryon, North Carolina
Brewery: Bottle Tree Brewery
