La Chouffe

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Price: £4.80

Description La Chouffe 8% 33cl    The Achouffe Brewery. Founded in 1982, the brewery is nestled in the green heart of the Belgian Ardennes, and specialises in brewing high quality speciality beers. Easily recognisable due to the friendly elf used to decorate the labels.  Elves and other goblins are amongst the most well known characters in myths and legends from the Ardennes. LA CHOUFFE is an unfiltered blonde beer, which is re-fermented in the bottle as well as in the keg.  It is pleasantly fruity, spiced with coriander, and with a light hop taste. This is a strong, bottle-conditioned beer from the Brasserie d'Achouffe, and is very reminiscent of a Belgian abbey-style tripel. It has a yeasty, spicy, fruit and phenol nose. It is also spicy in the mouth - nutmeg, cinnamon or mace - certainly cakey. It also has a medicinal quality from the phenols noticeable in the nose, also reminiscent of light fruit - perhaps white grapes. Hops are apparent throughout, but not as immediately noticeable as the more prominent characteristics. The aftertaste is chiefly malt, with some spirit notes. The strength certainly comes through towards the finish, but otherwise it doesn't taste like an 8 percent ABV beer. This is a complex beer, definitely worth investigating (and widely available on draught in Belgium and Holland) - but watch out for the hidden strength.