If you were to ask avid beer drinkers to tell you the one country they’d like to drink their way through, you’d get a lot of people yelling “Belgium!” One of the most respected beer countries in the world, Belgium is home to hundreds of breweries, many of which have been honing their craft for hundreds of years.
When it comes to Belgian beer, there’s something for every palate. The country is known for myriad beer styles, including strong ales, lambics, Flemish ales, pale ales, wheat beers, stouts, and just about everything in between. The best part? Some of the best beers made in this European country are available at your local beer or grocery store.
To help you on your Belgian beer journey, we found eight of the best witbiers, Trappist ales, golden ales, and other Belgian styles that deserve a permanent spot in your refrigerator. Then we ranked them on the overall flavor (you likely know by now that we value balance highly around these parts). Keep scrolling to see them all.
8.) Orval Trappist Ale
ABV: 6.9%
Average Price: $8 for an 11-ounce bottle
The Beer:
Brewed simply with water, barley malt, candi sugar, hops, and yeast, Orval Trappist Ale was first brewed in 1931. It’s a Belgian pale ale, but it doesn’t taste like your favorite Sierra Nevada Pale Ale though. Bottled with Brettanomyces, it’s known for its funky, yeasty, acidic, fruity, dry flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find barnyard notes, bready malts, funky yeast, citrus peels, orchard fruits, and floral hops. Sipping it reveals notes of Belgian yeast, wintry spices, candied orange peels, apples, more barnyard funk, and floral, earthy hops. The finish is dry, lightly acidic, and memorable.
Bottom Line:
Orval is a funky, yeasty, fruity, memorable Trappist Ale that you’ll go back to again and again.
7.) Achouffe La Chouffe
ABV: 8%
Average Price: $12 for a four-pack
The Beer:
This 8% ABV Belgian blonde bier is a strong ale well-known for its mix of hops, citrus, and gentle spices. This award-winning, highly popular beer has been brewed the same way since its creation in the early 1980s. Crisp, refreshing, complex, and surprisingly easy to find in the US.
Tasting Notes:
Bananas, cloves, fruit esters, tropical fruits, and yeasty bread aromas make for a unique nose. The palate is loaded with yeast, banana bread, dried fruits, cloves, pepper, orange peel, and floral hops. The finish is crisp, refreshing, and pleasantly yeasty.
Bottom Line:
At 8% ABV, you’d assume this is a heavier beer. But it’s surprisingly light and flavorful. This is a can’t-miss blonde ale.
6.) Chimay Grande Réserve Blue
ABV: 9%
Average Price: $23 for a four-pack
The Beer:
Created to be a Christmas ale back in 1954, Chimay Grande Réserve is a 9% Belgian strong ale that’s perfect for the colder months. Known for its mix of malt sweetness, dried fruits, caramel, and light floral hops, it’s an iconic, beloved Belgian beer for good reason.
Tasting Notes:
A nose of chocolate, raisins, caramel malts, light spices, and yeasty bread makes for a welcoming beginning to this beer. Drinking it brings forth notes of raisins, dates, brown bread, caramel candy, cloves, candied orange peels, licorice, and chocolate. It’s warming, sweet, and loaded with complex flavors.
Bottom Line:
This is the kind of beer that’s so filled with rich flavors, that it will take you multiple samplings to even come close to finding them all.
5.) Tripel Karmeliet
ABV: 8.4%
Average Price: $15 for a 750ml bottle
The Beer:
This popular beer is simply made with barley, oats, and wheat. The result is a highly complex beer featuring barley, yeasty bread flavors, and a light, easy-drinking body. Vanilla, caramel, citrus, and gentle spices make for a very unique, elegant beer.
Tasting Notes:
Nosing it brings forth aromas of candied orange peels, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla beans, dried fruits, and caramel candy. The palate is a symphony of toasted vanilla beans, toffee candy, orange peels, lemon, wintry spices, and earthy, lightly floral hops.
Bottom Line:
This beer is as surprisingly simple in its ingredients as it is complex in its aromas and flavors.
4.) Blanche de Bruxelles
ABV: 4.5%
Average Price: $11 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
When it comes to wheat beers, it’s tough to beat the appeal of those coming out of Belgian. One of the best is Blanche de Bruxelles. This unfiltered, cloudy, hazy, yeasty, sweet wheat-filled beer gets added flavor from the addition of coriander and dried orange peel in the boiling process.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of candied orange peel, sweet wheat, yeasty bread, coriander, and other spices make for an outstanding start to this beer. On the palate, you’ll find notes of yeasty bready malts, caramel, lemon peels, coriander, candied orange peels, and cracked black pepper.
Bottom Line:
Fruity, sweet, yeasty, spicy, this is an extremely flavorful beer. It’s a great wheat beer for winter (and the rest of the year).
3.) St. Bernardus Abt 12
ABV: 10%
Average Price: $24 for a four-pack
The Beer:
This 10% top-fermented quadrupel is St. Bernardus’ flagship beer for good reason. Brewed using the original 1946 recipe, it’s known for its balanced, sweet, fruity, lightly bitter flavor profile. It’s also one of the highest-rated beers in the world, Belgian or otherwise.
Tasting Notes:
A lot is going on with this beer’s nose. There are scents of banana peels, fruit esters, raisins, dates, tannic aromas, caramel malts, and light spices. Tasting it brings forth notes of chocolate, plums, dried cherries, cloves, butterscotch, brown bread, honey, and warming, boozy notes. The finish is semi-sweet and leaves you craving more.
Bottom Line:
This is a masterfully crafted beer. It’s highly rated for good reason. It has a perfect mix of sweetness, booze, and light bitterness.
2.) Delirium Tremens
ABV: 8.5%
Average Price: $20 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
There are few Belgian beers as well-known as Delirium Tremens. Brewed with three types of yeast as well as pale malt, it gets its hop presence from the use of Styrian Golding and Saaz hops. The result is a memorable, flavorful Belgian strong ale that’s beloved all over the world.
Tasting Notes:
Classic Belgian wheat beer aromas of banana, clove, bubblegum, orange peel, yeasty, and wheat begin your Delirium Tremens journey. Sipping it brings up notes of dried cherries, yeast, sweet wheat, lemongrass, candied orange peels, bubblegum, and wintry spices.
Bottom Line:
If you enjoy classic banana, clove, and other spices in your wheat beer, this is the beer for you.
1.) Saison Dupont
ABV: 6.5%
Average Price: $7 for a 375ml bottle
The Beer:
This 6.5% ABV Saison is one of the most popular, easy-to-find Belgian beers on the market. Brewed since 1844, it was originally crafted to be a beer imbibed by farm workers on hot summer days. This beer is brewed during the winter months before being fermented in wooden barrels during the spring. It’s known for its unfiltered, citrus, and fruit-forward flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
Fruit, cloves, bananas, yeasty bread, fruit esters, dried fruit, and caramel malts make for a great, memorable nose. The palate is filled with flavors like yeasty bread, dried fruits, cloves, bananas, cloves, pepper, funk, straw, and grassy hops. The finish is crisp, dry, and flavorful.
Bottom Line:
If you only drink one Belgian beer on this list, make it Saison Dupont. Even though it drinks best during the hazy summer months, don’t wait. Drink it right now — it’s delicious!
Source: https://uproxx.com/life/best-belgian-beers-in-the-us-ranked-2024/