The Brouwerij de Musketiers is a fairly new Belgian brewery, they will be celebrating their tenth anniversary next year. They have two beers available stateside a 7.5% abv “Mild Stout,” called Obscura and the Blonde, a 6.5% sort of abbey single. I found a couple of old bottles of the blonde somewhere and scooped one up mostly for the label. The old logo for the brewery was a visibly intoxicated troubadour sucking the last drop out of goblet. Their labels have undergone at least two changes in the past four years and are now feature a classy but boring text logo. I wasn’t expecting much from a beer that had spent about four years sitting on the shelf of a distributor, but was pleasantly surprised.
The blonde when young is a nice brew, a little bit sweet but not cloying like so many other upstart Belgian breweries (and their American imitators.) After four years of not the most careful aging this little brew has become quite a masterpiece. Only minor protein breakage, although it has become fairly opaque, and more of a pale brown than a blonde. Hints of spice and caramel on the nose, it is hugely sweet without being sticky. Mostly huge caramel with a definite hint of candy corn.
Grab two of these and put one away for a while, you won’t be disappointed.
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