What the heck does that title mean? Well, I'll tell you.
I've gone through five of the Belgian brews that were in the second iteration of Belg-a-Rama, in December. I've always wanted to re-write my original review of the Christmas offering from the Delirium Family, finding my initial entry to be the work of a novice. Juvenalia, you might say, though I was 34 at the time. Not quite adept at pinning down the flavors, more inclined to eagerly cheerlead my favorite ales that I'd been enjoying for years. Gave out a lot of straight 5/5's then, considering, basically, if they were my favorites, well, golly gee, they had to be perfect in every way. I've certainly tasted a larger variety of beers since then, and better ones, of course.
This was not the first time I've revisited this beer, and not the first time I've tapped it, but always put off that re-review. For years I thought of keeping the old ones online as-is, "see me warts and all" kind of thing. This time, with this re-focus and re-purpose of this blog, this time, for sure, in my best Bullwinkle voice...and just didn't do it the first week, took the second keg off to "normalize" the line-up, waiting for St. Bernardus Christmas to run out. When keg #2 went on, it went off again in a day, it was just that darned popular. I managed to snap a shot of it before it ran out earlier in the evening, before the keg expired, but the time and situation was not right for going into my patented beer review trance.
Ah, well. I could always buy a bottle, but I prefer putting my cash into buying new-to-me beers, or less expensive small bottles of what I've called on here "good ol' drinking beers." Perhaps I'm just not as into it, anymore, to be motivated into picking up a 750 ml bottle in order to find better words to put out in public.
So, here it is, eight year old notes on Delirium Noel:
"Like all the Deliriums, this is a bottle that, once cracked open, is impossible to resist. It's like rushing to the tree on Christmas morning! Monumental, creamy white head. How to aptly describe this aroma, though? Spicy...dark..."vinous", as Michael Jackson would say. Beautiful carbonation, effervescence everywhere. Color's a gorgeous dark red, and the flavors continue to unfold. A constant, buy very pleasant assault, of dark fruit and spice. The finest thing you could put to your lips when the chill is on!
A dizzying onslaught of divine taste!
Serving type: bottle
Reviewed on: 11-29-2002 13:54:03"
Like it or leave it. Clearly, I'm doing the latter, yet living with it for now.
Once again, the Bitter Nib, the blog for information, opinion, insight, and apologies out the yin/yang.
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