Christoffel is a cool Dutch brewery, producing a couple of very interesting regular and seasonal brews. I saw Nobel and bought it on principle, I hadn’t had it, and trusted the brewer’s reputation. The description is interesting, if not confusing. High alcohol, high hops, lager. Hmmmmmm, we’ll see. Also, it’s garnering some very good reviews. I’m excited.
Christoffel Nobel
Poured from a 330ml swing-top bottle with best before indicated by a confusing series of letters and numbers on the bottom of the label, which get punched accordingly. I don’t really know what it’s saying, but 2011 is punched, so I’m guessing I’m okay. It’s a high-alcohol hoppy beer; it’s not going off anytime soon, unless the swing-top fails.
Anyways, the beer is a hazy yellow with a nice foamy head that doesn’t dissipate much, and leaves a lace worthy of lingerie. We’re off to a great start.
As expected, aroma is hoppy. Some juicy citrus, maybe tangerines, a little sweet, which I’m guessing is some grain coming through. With a good sniff and some thought you can totally get some nice malt coming through, but the hop is the key player.
Taste is just awesome. Definitely nice citrusy notes, but a spiciness that almost hearkens to a weisse beer (maybe pepper and coriander seeds). Except the finish is so quick and dry. As the beer is warming a bit, the bitterness is moving towards the more resinous hop you’d expect from an American trend-brew, but there is also an interesting mineral taste that I can’t quite nail down. This is a beer that I will revisit.
Mouthfeel is nicely carbonated. In fact, I’m nearly 2/3 of the way done and there is still activity below the surface, and a healthy inch of head. It’s hard to remember that I’m drinking a lager. If this were an ale, I would have expected a little more body, but as a lager, it’s great. While I could probably do a few bottles of this in a sitting, I think it’s probably a too complex to call a session beer. I’m trying to think of what I would eat with this, and I’m not even kidding, but I’m thinking cheese. Like, maybe the Beemster XO I have in the fridge (beer and cheese from the Netherlands. Erika’s genes would be happy). Yup. I was right. This is stellar. Why didn’t I do this sooner?
So now the only problem is one of nomenclature. What the heck is this beer? According to my friend Greg Clow, over at Beer Beats and Bites and Taste TO, the US importer says it’s “like a hoppy, bottom-fermented Tripel. Or a sort of Imperial Pilsner”, RateBeer calls it a European Strong Lager, Beeradvocate calls it a Czech Pilsner, and Greg himself calls it “really, really good”. I had been expecting an India Pale Lager, but that’s not quite right. It’s a little too spicy. The hoppy bottom-fermented tripel, is pretty close, but Greg nailed it on the head:
Really, really good.
If you like beer, drink this.
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