United Nations of Beer

Brooklyn Brewery #1 Local

by Ashley Cotter-Cairns
(UNOB Towers)

Great Beer Shirts!

Brooklyn Brewery #1 Local
Brooklyn, NY, NY, USA, reviewed December 31st 2008, Hudson, QC, Canada

Next beer of the evening, provided by Vermont Beer Delegate Mattias Dahlstrom, is the Belgian-style #1 from Brooklyn Brewery.

Call me spoiled. I live in Quebec and Unibroue specialises in this very style of beer. Even the headline-grabbing 9% ABV is nothing special in these parts, not the big, brusing yeasty taste.

I'm sure that down in NYC this is a massive shock to the uneducated beer drinking masses. Not that this is a bad beer, or even an unremarkable one. It's remarkably fresh-tasting, yeasty, almost spicy; strong as you'd expect from a bottle-fermented 9% beer.

All that remains for me is to pin down which of the Unibroue bomber beers this most reminds me of. It might be Trois Pistoles; it's nowhere near as harsh as Maudite; could be a dead ringer for La Fin du Monde.

I'd have to do a side-by-side comparison, but suffice it to say that if you DON'T have regular access to the Belgian-style ales of Quebec, this will be a big, yeasty companion to a roast beef or similar meal.

Shame we only have the one bottle!