namaste brew

Craft Beer 101: Belgian-Style Ale

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Belgian-Style Ales

What is a Belgian-Style Beer?

Belgium has a very long history of brewing well-renowned beers. The Romans may have brought brewing to that part of Europe thousands of years ago, and many Belgian breweries can trace their roots back to the Middle Ages. So it’s no surprise that Belgian-style beers are still popular with beer lovers around the world.

It’s difficult to define a Belgian beer according to narrow characteristics because Belgium’s brewers are famous for their individuality and creativity within different styles.

But there are some common flavors and aromas you can look for in Belgian-style beers. Many Belgian beers will have a distinct spicy, herbal or fruity taste – light on hops but high in flavor.

What is a Belgian-Style Ale?

Belgian beers are primarily ales – not lagers. Ales are made with top-fermenting yeasts that ferment at warmer temperatures. Lagers are made with bottom-fermenting yeasts that ferment at cooler temperatures and require a longer time to mature.

Belgian-style ales come in many different variations, but some popular styles include:

  • Belgian white beers (witbier): Light, cloudy beers with a creamy, fruity flavor – often with strong coriander and orange notes
  • Dubbels: Different varieties of brown ales, often with caramel, spicy and malty flavors
  • Tripels: Bold, dense beers with a bit more bitterness, a golden color and hints of fruit, sweetness and spice
  • Lambics: Spontaneously fermented beers made from unmalted wheat, malted barley and aged hops, featuring a wide variety of flavors, from fruity to sour

Dogfish Head Belgian-Style Ales to Try

Raison d’Etre

This Belgian-style brown ale is complex and rich, brewed with beet sugar, raisins and Belgian-style yeast. It contains 8% alcohol by volume.

Namaste

Our Belgian-style white ale is bright, refreshing and impossible not to like. We made it as a tribute to our friends at 3 Fonteinen Brewery in Belgium, and it highlights flavors of orange, lemongrass and coriander.

Namaste Brew All Year Round

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“Namaste” means “salutations to you”, and it’s widely-used in Asia as a gesture of hospitality. And good hospitality is just what’s on tap – or in the bottle, in this case – with Dogfish Head’s Namaste white beer. Best of all, the hospitality is here to stay: this craft beer will be on the shelves year-round in 2014.Dogfish Head Namaste

While this is a Belgian-style craft beer, it’s bursting with the flavors of the East and the spice trade: zesty orange, bright lemongrass, and hints of precious pepper and coriander. It’s brimming with good karma, too. The brew was introduced in 2009 to raise benefit funds for a Belgian brewery facing some hard times.

This craft beer’s a quencher, and is standing by to quell thirst from the first crisp days of spring through the heat of summer and into the far reaches of the coming year. And it’s not the only great thing available in 2014: our release schedule has a rundown of the sorts of Dogfish Head craft beer you’ll be seeing month by month.

Namaste will soon be available to take back home, but there’s just as much hospitality at Dogfish Head Alehouse, so stop on by.