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DUVEL BELGIAN ALE
Duvel Moortgat Brewery
Breendonk, Belgium
www.duvelusa.com

Was it film noir that first put forth the proposition that blonde equals bad?

Oh, let’s not forget Dorothy Parker’s masterful short story “Big Blonde,” which preceded film noir by more than a decade. Whoever started it, someone gave blondes a bad reputation that lasts to this day.  

Well, here’s one who deserves the reputation. You wouldn’t know what a devil Duvel really is just by looking at her. She is an angelic blonde ale. When you pour Duvel into the glass, see that she is the loveliest beer you have ever set eyes on, you wonder what its Flemish creators were thinking when they named her “Devil” in their perverse tongue?

What blasphemy!
Ooh la la, she is beautiful!
Duvel has the looks.
A body to die for.
Exquisite taste.

And the soul of a low-life tart who wants to drag you down with her. But you don’t know that until it’s too late, until the love child is already on the way and you are forever trapped in a living hell of tenements and turmoil. Duvel, she is stronger than you, my friend. Don’t believe me? Look at her. That beautiful, golden body, pale and glowing from within. The pert head, higher and whiter than the topping on a coconut cream pie.

The head remains with each sip, and as the beer lowers in the glass, Belgian lace collects on the sides like an erotic etching. Now, smell her warm aroma and raise the tulip glass to your lips (no other glass is worthy of containing her beauty), and sip. Each sip is like nectar, like liquid candy. Your mouth comes alive with a carbonated cascade of intense sweet and sour sensations, a Saaz hops spiciness riding atop it all. Yes, I know. Already you are falling in love with her exotic nature.

But get a grip, mon ami. Here is something you should know, something Duvel expertly hides deep within her rich maltiness – she packs a whopping 8.5 percent alcohol punch. You would never know by looking at her – this lovely golden girl – that she is so strong.

When first introduced by the family brewery in 1923, Duvel was a brunette – a dark ale modeled on a Scotch ale, a style the Belgians admire and emulate, and brewed with a Scottish yeast strain brought from Scotland by Albert Moortgat, son of Jan-Leonard Moortgat, who founded the brewery in 1871.

Duvel is still brewed with that Scottish yeast strain, but the brewery switched to the lightest-colored malt possible to brew Duvel in the 1970s, when the trend in beer was to turn all things light. Remember, this was the era of the smiley face. Thankfully, Moortgat Brewery only jumped on the light-colored bandwagon, and not the light-tasting one as well. Since then Duvel has been brewed with Pilsner malt, that palest of malts normally used to create lagers. The beer undergoes a final fermentation in the bottle. You will find yeast sediment in the bottle, so pour slowly. The yeast won’t hurt you, but will cloud the beer some.

Just remember, too much time spent with this big blonde and you’ll be headed for Palookaville.