Like its larger rival in brewing, Germany, Belgium can trace its brewing history back to the Middle Ages. Over those centuries, the distinct Belgian brewing tradition has spawned some of the best beers in the world. From lambics, Flemish red ales, abbey ales, farmhouse ales, pale ales, witbiers, and many other styles, Belgium has something for every beer drinker.
While you might think of Belgian beers as funky and yeasty, and many of them are, the country encompasses an impressive, maybe even unrivaled variety. They run the gamut from crisp, easy-drinking everyday brews to earthy, funky, yeasty beers, to sour, acidic, and sometimes over-the-top tart beers, to say nothing of the darker, maltier options. With so much potential for a deep dive, the toughest question is where to start. That’s where we come in.
A wide variety of Belgian beers are readily available almost anywhere, from your local beer store, grocer, or online retailer. To help you out, we picked eight of our favorite, easier-to-find Belgian brews and ranked them head to head.
8) Leffe Blonde
ABV: 6.6%
Average Price: $9 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This award-winning Belgian pale ale is known for its easy-drinking, creamy, flavor profile. The abbey ale is known for its spicy, earthy, lightly bitter palate. It’s a great entry-level Belgian beer for drinkers hoping to dip their proverbial toe in the country’s beers.
Tasting Notes:
Aromas of freshly baked bread, yeast, dried fruits, and wintry spices greet you before your first sip. The palate continues this trend with bready malts, yeast, fruit esters, spices, and light vanilla. Overall, it’s surprisingly muted and watery.
Bottom Line:
Leffe Blonde is a decent beer for beginners. It’s just a little thin and watery for more experienced beer fans.
7) Achouffe La Chouffe
ABV: 8%
Average Price: $12 for a four-pack
The Beer:
Whether or not you’ve ever tried La Chouffe, you’ve likely seen this bottle, adorned with a gnome riding on a unicycle. This 8% ABV Belgian blonde is known for its spicy, citrus, yeasty, bready flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
Before your first sip, you’re met with yeast bread, cloves, citrus peels, fruit esters, and bananas. The palate continues this trend with flavors of grass, bready malts, yeast, ginger, candied orange peels, bananas, dried fruits, and light spices
Bottom Line:
La Chouffe and Duvel are two of the best, readily available Belgian golden ales on the market. It’s difficult to pick one over the other, but this one is a little heavier on the spice.
6) Duvel Belgian Golden Ale
ABV: 8.5%
Average Price: $16 for a four-pack
The Beer:
This highly-rated Belgian strong ale gets its unique flavor from the use of a yeast strain selected by Albert Moortgat in the 1920s. It’s matured in storage tanks before being bottled where it ferments again in warm cellars. It’s then moved again, to cold cellars, where it ferments for another six weeks.
Tasting Notes:
A nose of yeast, candied orange peels, bready malts, and bananas starts everything off right. Drinking it reveals notes of orange peels, more yeast, freshly baked bread, lemon, cloves, and ripe bananas. The finish is dry and spicy.
Bottom Line:
This is a great start on your Belgian strong ale journey. When it comes to the availability of the style at your local grocery store, you’ll have a hard time finding many better than this.
5) Chimay Grand Reserve
ABV: 9%
Average Price: $20 for a four-pack
The Beer:
First launched in 1954 as a Christmas beer, Chimay Grand Reserve is a 9% ABV strong ale that’s now available all year long. It’s known for its yeasty, fruity flavor, which ends drier than some of the other Belgian strong ales on the market.
Tasting Notes:
Dried fruits, yeast, fruit esters, freshly baked bread, caramel, and wintry spices make up the welcoming nose. On the palate, you’ll find flavors of bready malts, caramel, dried cherries, orange peels, yeast, and cloves. The finishing is warming and boozy.
Bottom Line:
Fruit, yeast, spices, and a warming finish, this strong ale has it all. It’s a great example of a strong ale that’s fairly easy to find.
4) Orval Trappist Ale
ABV: 6.9%
Average Price: $7 for an 11-ounce bottle
The Beer:
This 6.9% ABV trappist ale is simply brewed with water, barley malt, candi sugar, hops, and yeast. Bottled with Brettanomyces, it’s known for its fruity, dry, lightly bitter flavor profile that leaves you craving more.
Tasting Notes:
Yeast, baked bread, cloves, caramel, candied orange peels, and cidery funk make up a memorable nose. Sipping it brings forth notes of ripe peaches, citrus peels, fruit esters, dried fruits, bready malts, yeast, and more wintry spices. The finish is crisp, dry, and pleasing.
Bottom Line:
This is a great Belgian beer. It’s complex, yet easy-drinking flavor profile will insure that you continue imbibing it for years to come.
3) Saison Dupont
ABV: 6.5%
Average Price: $7 for a 375ml bottle
The Beer:
If you were to take a poll of brewers and beer fans asking them to tell you their favorite saison or farmhouse ale, you’d get a ton of people shouting out Saison Dupont. Available since 1844, Saison Dupont is brewed in the winter and ferments in wooden barrels until the summer months.
Tasting Notes:
Funky yeast starts everything off, followed by orange peels, lemon zest, banana, and floral hops. Drinking it reveals hints of coriander, banana, yeast, cloves, dried fruits, bready malts, white pepper, and floral, lightly bitter hops.
Bottom Line:
This is a funky, yeasty, fruity, lightly bitter farmhouse ale that needs to sipped to be believed. It will also take a few samplings before you’re able to find all the various flavors.
2) St. Bernardus Abt. 12
ABV: 10%
Average Price: $20 for a four-pack
The Beer:
The flagship beer from St. Bernardus, Abt. 12 is a 10% ABV Quadruple known for its fruity, yeasty, bittersweet flavor profile. It’s a complex, highly-rated beer beloved by Belgian beer fans.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all freshly baked bread, yeast, dried fruits, and a load of wintry spices. It’s very inviting. The palate is filled with more freshly baked bread, caramel, dried fruits, cloves, fruit esters, yeast, and more wintry spices. The finish is sweet, slightly bitter, and very warming.
Bottom Line:
With its warming alcohol content and complex flavor profile, it’s difficult to find a grocery store Belgian beer better than St. Bernardus Abt. 12.
1) Delirium Tremens
ABV: 8.5%
Average Price: $14 for a 750ml bottle
The Beer:
The name is a reference to severe alcohol withdrawal. And while that seems a bit bleak, there’s nothing bleak about this flavorful beer. There are few Belgian beers more well-known as Delirium Tremens. This 8.5% ABV Belgian strong ale is known for its highly complex malty, spicy, warming flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
A complex nose of dried fruits, orange peels, yeast, freshly baked bread, and light tropical fruit notes greet you before your first sip. Drinking it doesn’t disappoint as there are hints of funky yeast, sweet wheat, more orange zest, banana, bubblegum, fruit esters, and light pepper. The finish is dry and pleasing.
Bottom Line:
There’s a reason Belgian beer fans love Delirium Tremens. It’s yeasty, slightly funky, fruity, and has everything they crave.