My birthday was last week – most who know me know that beer is always an appreciated gift . Chris and his wife (my sister) were kind enough to buy me some great new beer this year, which is always a great birthday idea. I was given a collectors pack of Historic Ales From Scotland and and a gift pack of Budels Bier. Obviously I am quite excited to try them all.
Budels is a family owned Brewery located in the Netherlands that has been brewing since 1870. That is about all I can tell you about Budels. Not a word of English can be found on the bottles – but that is how I know it is good beer. Nothing gives beer more credibility than a foreign language!
I am very excited to try the Historic Ale’s from Scotland. I have walked past this gift pack for years but never had a reason to buy – not that I ever need a reason to buy beer. These ales are based upon brewing traditions and techniques that have been around well before the Reinheitsgebot (Bavarian Purity Law) existed. Scottish Beer has always been very lightly hopped making it no surprise to find that most of these historic ales are completely void of hops. Instead of hops, other regional herbs and flavorings are used to balance out the beer malt sweetness.
I am grilling sablefish (previously know as black cod prior to Chef Rob Feenie’s fish re-brand) tonight for dinner – according the the bottle’s label, Kelpie Seawead Ale from the Historic Ales of Scotland gift pack, pairs nicely with seafood. I’ll let you know if the paring is a success.
Chris and Rachel, thank you kindly for the excellent gifts.
Erik
We had a Budel’s giftpack available at the LCBO a couple of years ago. I wasn’t too impressed by them.
The Scottish Ales, however, are quite good. They seem a bit gimmicky at first due to the odd flavours, but they’re very solid beers, and the flavours really work.
Cool that you got the Kelpie in yours as well. The pack we get in Ontario doesn’t include that one any more – we get the Fraoch, ALba, Grozet and Ebulum.
Hey Greg,
I read similar things on the internet, that the Budels pack is not so great and the Scottish Ales are quite good. Stupidly, I read this after I bought them. Erik, I hope you like them both anyway!
Cheers,
Chris
I’ve had the Budels also and didn’t find them noteworthy in any way. The Historic Ales of Scotland, on the other hand, I find to be very interesting from an anthropological perspective. It’s nice to see someone keeping the brewing traditions alive when we’re losing so much. Not sure how true to the traditional recipes these are (modified to suit modern tastes and techniques?), but I really enjoy them. It would be nice to see all of them get their own following, like the Fraoch, rather than having to rely on a special package.
Kelpie seaweed ale was quite nice. Although, If I had not known it was a seaweed ale I would have assumed it was a strange tasting brown ale. It worked well with the sablefish, although I think fish is entirely overrated.
So far I have tried the Honey Ale from the Budels pack – I thought it was good, maybe nothing to write home about, but good.
I fully agree that the Scottish Ale’s should be sold individually – the packaging does come across quite gimmicky.
Did you mean it when you said you thought fish were overrated? I hope you meant just sablefish and not all fish.
Oops, I meant sablefish is overated. Most other fish are underrated if anything.
Sometimes it is hard to think of a Birthday Idea, most of the time i want something which is both funny and sentimental.;*,