Pré-ZBF Festival 2010
ABV: 5.3%
Origin: Heule, West-Vlaanderen
Website: www.alvinne.be
Picobrouwerij Alvinne
The latest collaboration between the Alvinne “picobrewery” and beer writer, tour organiser and all-round personality Chris “Podge” Pollard is this beer intended primarily for the Chelmsford Beer Festival, a combination of Belgian flair and some decidedly local links to Podge’s Essex stomping ground. The malt was procured from Bairds’ Witham plant, smoked in Colchester and taken across to West Flanders late last year by Podge on one of his tours, with the beer first making its appearance at Alvinne’s Pré-ZBF event, where it was one of the lower gravity offerings, served bottle conditioned from the bottle.
Surrounded by extreme beers with big flavours, this one turned out to be remarkably restrained and modest. It poured a cloudy dark brown with a foamy fawn head and relatively gentle dark malt aroma with light smoke and banana yeast hints. A very dry woodsmoke palate was very nicely balanced with toast, oaky notes and a nice fresh and relatively light texture, and also some phenolic and banana esters. The sappy finish turned notably dry, the smoke offset by burry hop flavours (the beer has a relatively generous 50EBU), with some late ash and cindery tones. A subtle beer that riffs well on the smoky theme already inherent in some porters — if you’ve found smoked beer just too odd in the past, this might be your way in.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/alvinne-chelmsford-oak-smoked-porter/119281/
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