Beer & Pi

Greetings folks, this is your Left Coast correspondent reporting.

Last weekend my boyfriend and I headed to Pi Bar. We had heard that Pi had good pizza and a neat beer selection and we were not disappointed on either account. Here's what was on tap that night:

The atmosphere at Pi was very nice, and the service was very attentive. We very much enjoyed our pizza with house-made sausage and balsamic onions. This, combined with the excellent beer list makes Pi Bar into a beer bar that we will be returning to again. Rather than having something from the tap, we decided to sample a couple selections from their bottled selections.

First up was the Gageleer, a “Sweet Gale Beer” (7.5% ABV). Sweet Gale, also known as Bog Myrtle, was used with other plants in a mixture called gruit to flavor beer from the Middle Ages to the 16th Century, before hops became widely available. Or so Wikipedia tells me.

Gageleer is produced in Belgium, and because the website is only available in Dutch at this time I don’t have much else to say about it. Using Google translator with limited success I discovered that the beer is organic, brewed with barley and gale, and is unpasteurized.

Apologies for the poor qualities of the pictures, I was using my phone that evening.

The Gageleer, which undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle, poured with a nice foam head. It has a pungent floral nose and a pleasant straw color. The Gageleer was unlike any beer I have ever tasted. It was hoppy but also quite sweet, with the flavors of honeysuckle, candied orange, and anise. The alcohol flavor is well hidden. The floral nose becomes a bit overpowering seven or so sips in. My boyfriend described it as tasting of grape Kool-Aid. Trust me, once you hear that you will taste it too. I found that the anise/spice flavor faded and it did end up with a Kool-Aid taste. This is undoubtedly due to (1) the sweetness of the beer and (2) the power of suggestion.

My verdict for the Gageleer is mixed. This is definitely a beer that you would have to linger over or share. I could not have finished it on my own. It was definitely unique and also nice to broaden my palate, but I would not order the Gageleer again. 7/10.

For my second selection I ordered the Maredsous Brune (8% ABV). Maredsous is actually no longer brewed at the Maredsous Abbey, but the Abbey licenses its name to Duval, who brews on their behalf. So, while crafted in the “tradition” of the Benedictine monks, it is mass-produced. Duval maintains that they follow the original recipe of Father Atout. Regardless of who makes it, the Maredsous Brune is a thoroughly pleasant beer:

As you can see, the beer pours extremely well and developed a nice foaming head. It has a mildly sweet nose and a good dark color. In drinking the Brune I found it had a pronounced yeasty flavor, with a slight hoppy taste and sweet currant undertones. In swallowing, the beer develops what I found to be a very pleasant mild alcohol finish. I would drink again. 8.5/10.

We also enjoyed a pint of Death & Taxes, a porter so good that it will have its own entry sometime soon.

Have you tried any of these beers? Let me know what you thought in the comments.