In Belgium and France beer consumers, and certainly brewers, are not as concerned with styles as one might be in the U.S. or even Germany. Often styles refer to nothing more than a beer's relative strength, as in the dubbel and triple designations, yet these style designations have come to imply other more specific characteristics, even ingredients, based on a particular beer that exemplifies the style. Westmalle's Trappist beers a perfect examples of this; Westmalle Triple is by far the most common triple on any Belgian menu and is truly a world class beer. It is however, not the only excellent triple and recipes for triple shouldn't be limited to the "one malt one hop" style that appears so commonly in the literature. Another misconception is that triples are inherently underhopped, but one sip of a fresh Westmalle triple will squash that notion.

At least one major style category, and probably the most confusing of the lot, is based on how the line is marketed. I refer to the well known Abbey classification which includes names such as "Pater" and "Prior" that do nothing to help the consumer. Does an Abbey beer have to be strong? Does it have to be a certain color?
No, it can be whatever it wants to be within reason; you will never see a sour beer or a stout masquerading as an Abbey beer. Another common type of style category is based on general color, as in the Blondes and the Brunes. These are everywhere in Belgium and often a brewery will only produce these two styles along with a seasonal or two.

One of my favorite styles is the Blonde (Blond in Flemish). I really love this beer for a number of reasons. The most important reason for me is that I know it is going to be good 90% of the time. The comptetion in this category is fierce and brewers know this. There are so many good blondes out there that one can easily go to a specialty store and walk out with 20 different labels and usually find a couple of new ones in the lot each time. All of them will be drinkable, only a few of them will not be worth drinking again. A lot of beers that are blondes call themselves something else which adds even further to the crop. If a blonde is not obvious by the name, such as "Super des Fagnes Blonde", often it will at least throw you a bone with the tag "Bière Blonde" somewhere on the bottle.

Reason number 2 is that Blondes exemplify the finest qualities a beer can posess, in my opinion. The brewing technique must be sound as it is impossible to get away with defects. A proper balance between hops, malts, and herbs must be achieved or the whole thing collapses. Finally, the beers often let the essential malt character shine through, accented nicely by fermentation by products, spices, hops and often a little house character.

Reason number 3 is that they are beautiful to look at, often cloaked in a deep golden robe that one rarely sees outside Germany, Belgium or France. American beers and the British styles they are based on are mostly either amber and up or the color of a barfly's urine. Blondes can be anywhere from the color of Budweiser to a soft peachy amber color, yet the deepness of color does not imply a corresponding richness of flavor. A straw-colored Bush Blonde at 11% has more than enough flavor to sip cautiosly for an hour.

In the following articles I'm going to highlight some of my favorite blondes and recommend some other blonde's with similar characteristics that, if you like beer A, you might also like beers B, C, and D. I certainly won't get through all the blonde's in Europe but I'm sure it will be more than enough to keep your cellar full.

The Blonde I'm drinking while I write this is a sample from Lorraine in France called "La Bière a frometon - Bière a Fromage" which is a curious name that means, of course, "Beer with Cheese". I guess this implies that it should be eaten with a good French cheese, of which there is no varietal shortage in these parts to stimulate the senses. I picked it up at a market in Metz for about 6 Euros (750ml corked bottle).

The beer has a lovely golden hue with a fluffy white head that lasts reasonably well. The aroma is of high-quality malt and baking spices: vanilla and nutmeg specifically. There is virtually no hop aroma. The first quality that I notice when sipping it is the mouthfeel, which is substantial and yet soft enough to work with the flavors. It immediately seemed to have a bit more body than most blondes I've had the pleasure of knowing. The flavor does not disappoint. It evolved over the 3 glasses I've poured from slightly astringent to spicy and mildly tart, and finally to soft and malty with a lasting aftertaste of sweet spices. In these flavors are to be found the heart and soul of a blonde, a beer that can yield so much from so little in the kettle. Honest malt character, a hint (and I mean just a hint, perhaps a suggestion) of acidity, honey, citrus, vanilla and yes a mere presence of hops to balance it all out. Other beers with the same general characteristics that I would recommend are Barbar, Biere des Ours, and Quintine Blonde to name but a few. More to come in other tastings.

Santé!