After some champagne Dumbo was seeing pink elephants on parade.
Just the thought of delirium tremens had me shaking. And the pink elephant on the bottle is not a reference to Sarah Palin or other female Republicans, but is of course all about the idiom “seeing pink elephants”* or hallucinating from extreme over-indulgence.
I have vague memories of gathering with friends after school to play a family board game. You may have heard of it? Pass-Out claims to be the highest selling adult drinking board game of all time. I guess they had include “adult” in there to differentiate it from all the underage or kiddie drinking board games out there?
Back in the day a few of us would throw caution to the wind and belly up to the board for a drink or two. One of the main features of the game were the Pink Elephant cards. Landing on that square meant you had to recite a tongue twister** correctly, or suffer the consequences, those consequences being to down another drink.
Betty Botter bought some Belgian beer.
The name and the pink elephant label on this Huyghe brew are a none too subtle reminder that this is a none too subtle 8.5% ABV blonde Belgian ale. Although we see some Double IPAs and some stouts and porters getting up there in the ABV category, this is the first Belgian Pale Blonde sky high one we have sampled.
It pours a full golden, not at all pale. But the most striking feature of this pour is the high carbonation and the bright white full frothy head. Not expected for such a strong beer. Malt and some subtle spice in the aroma. The taste is light malt but the fizz is the center stage spotlight star of the show so far. Yep, the fizz is the bizz. That and the creamy mouthfeel, which I didn’t expect from a blonde ale. And no boozy hit. This brew is full of surprises. A nice malt base comes through as the bubbles settle a bit. Still a foamy head halfway down. Light but malty, a bit spicy and starts to get a bit boozy near the end.*** I made this one last with full swigs but no big ones. A foamy head, start to finish. A unique brew and a very pleasant surprise.
0 Comments