Introduction –

Belgium is the country most associated with a class of beers sometimes referred to as ‘eccentrics’.  These are beers (as the name suggests) for which the brewer has leant heavily on the right side of his brain in designing the recipes – creative and unusual beers.  The design and recipe for such beers is often based on imposing unusual constraints, or alternate approaches on the brewer.  This is very much the case with beers from Guldenboot – beers that are marketed under the Leireken brand name.

Our two beers for to-day are both from Guldenboot (this is the name of the company, rather than a region) in Belgium.  Leireken Witte Spelt is a wit beer brewed with spelt.  Leireken Boekweit Blonde (Buckwheat Blonde, in English) is a blonde ale, brewed using buckwheat.

Leireken – Biere Biologique

The Leireken beers are ‘bio’ beers - Bieres Biologiques or ‘bio-dynamic’ beers.  This is an approach to brewing that takes organic production one step further.  In organic production, each stage of the preparation of the organic beer is scrutinised to ensure that it does not involve chemicals, artificial ingredients, or processes that one could argue are not completely natural.  Organic beers are brewed to be as natural as is feasibly possible.  Bio beers take this one step further.  With the bio approach to brewing, all aspects of the breweries operations are considered to ensure that the impact on the environment is minimized.  It is the organic approach extended to everything that goes on around the brewing of the beer as well.  A worthy philosophy, and one that imposes challenges on the brewer to brew beer to a high standard, while working within more disciplined constraints than those faced by other brewers.

The Leireken beers take the eccentricities of their beers one step further – they work with ingredients that are, in normal brewing terms, not standard ingredients for beers.  All beers are brewed with some form of grain – malted barley being the mainstay of most brewing operations, but other grains and adjuncts commonly used would include wheat, barley, corn, rice and maize.  Spelt and Buckwheat – two grains used in the brewing of our two Leireken beers – one would have to say are not commonly used in brewing.  This makes them perfect ingredients for the artistic palate of the eccentric brewer.  The fact that both spelt and buckwheat require less fertilizer makes them particularly attractive as ingredients for the brewer who is committed to the bio-dynamic approach to brewing.

Spelt –
Spelt is a sub-species of wheat.  This grain was an important staple in parts of Europe from the Bronze Age to Medieval times.  Spelt now survives as what is known as a ‘relict crop’ – this is a term used to describe a crop that was once grown in abundance in a region, but now grows in a limited number of regions.  Earliest evidence of spelt dates back to 5,000 BC – this would be back to in and around the time that the first evidence of beers and brewing have been uncovered by archaeologists.

Spelt has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity for two reasons.  Firstly, as a grain it requires less fertilizer to grow, making it attractive to people involved in the organic movement.  Secondly, it has grown in popularity as a health food – some involved in the health food arena contend that spelt can assist in reducing risk of Type 2 diabetes, can help reduce cholesterol and can have cardiovascular benefits.

Buckwheat –
Buckwheat is sometimes referred to as a ‘pseudocereal’ – a term sometimes used to emphasize that Buckwheat is not, in fact, related to wheat.  Like spelt, Buckwheat requires less fertilizer – again, the attraction to those in the organic or bio-dynamic movement is clear.  Buckwheat is not unlike sunflower seeds in appearance, and has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent times.

One thing to note about buckwheat – as an ingredient, buckwheat does not contain gluten.  For this reason, it is sometimes used in gluten free beers.  However, it is important for somebody suffering from celiac disease to confirm absolutely that a beer does not contain gluten before drinking it.  Just because a beer contains buckwheat (which doesn’t contain gluten), this doesn’t guarantee that it doesn’t have other grains that do contain gluten as ingredients.  The safest approach is to look for an endorsement by a recognised organisation, such as the Coeliac Society and/or to look for confirmation on the labelling that the beer is confirmed suitable for people with celiac disease.

Leireken Witte Spelt –
Beer Style -  Eccentric wit (white) beer
Alcohol by Volume -  5.0% a.b.v.
Brewed on behalf of -  Contract Brewed for Guldenboot NV
Brewed in -  Belgium

Leireken Witte Spelt has, in its name, the essential information to understand the style of this eccentric beer.  It is a wit beer (or white beer – in the same style as Hoegaarden), and it is brewed using Spelt.  Putting these two factors together establishes what one should expect from the beer (assuming, of course, that you have the time in your life to establish what one should expect from a wit beer or from spelt).

The wit beer part of Leireken Witte Spelt means that the beer presents as a cloudy beer.  While the beer is a very pale straw gold colour, the cloudy nature of the beer gives the beer an almost ‘glowing white’ quality – sometimes particularly evident when the beer is being poured.  The head is a crisp brilliant white, and holds quite well on the beer (wheat related ingredients – such as spelt – can often assist in retention of the head in beer).

Wit beers are brewed to be crisp and refreshing.  On the aroma, this beer has a combination of grainy aroma combining with citrusy acidity (mandarin oranges).  Orange (often in the form of the more bitter orange peel flavour – the distinctive flavour that one gets from Cointreau or Tripel Sec) is a flavour closely associated with wit beers.  Mandarin orange flavour is a sweeter orange flavour than this.

The spelt in this beer gives an unusual counterpoint to the background mandarin orange flavour.  Spelt, when eaten as a grain, has a nutty flavour.  This nutty flavour comes through in the beer quite noticeably, slightly pushing the mandarin orange flavour on the aroma into a background flavour on the palate.  The nutty spelt flavour lingers slightly, as the beer has a medium finish.

Normally, I would not dictate a temperature at which a beer should be served.  However, with Leireken Witte Spelt, as a wit beer it is designed to be crisp and refreshing, and as an eccentric, it has an abundance of flavour.  This beer is a beer that is best served well chilled – chilling the beer contributes to it being refreshing, and the character of the beer is substantial enough to allow it to shine through even at lower temperatures.

This beer is unusual – definitely worth trying if you enjoy Hoegaarden or other wit beers (such as Celis).

Leireken Boekweit Blond –
Beer Style -  Eccentric Blonde Ale
Alcohol by Volume -  6.0% a.b.v.
Brewed on behalf of -  Contract Brewed for Guldenboot NV
Brewed in -  Belgium

The first thing one notices as Leireken Boekweit Blonde is poured is the full white head on the beer.  In appearance, this beer is a very pale white gold colour – and cloudy in appearance.

The buckwheat in the name is a little misleading when one tastes this beer.  When people think of a wheat beer, one expects full, fruity flavours, such as banana, citrus or peach/apricot and rich complementary flavours, such as cloves.  ‘Buckwheat’ as a word suggests that it will be a more manly wheat – not so.  When you see buckwheat on this beer, better to think of the seed that buckwheat is similar to in appearance – Sunflower seeds.  This better establishes expectations for this beer.

The aroma from Leireken Boekweit Blonde is grapefruity in character.  In flavour terms, this beer is quite light in flavour – the grapefruit does not come through with a sharp acidity that one would expect from this fruit, instead it regresses to the background in the beer, and softer fruit flavours (peach and apricot) come to the fore. The grapefruit lingers slightly in the finish of the beer – contributing to a crispy zing of acidity in this beer.

Like many Belgian beers, Leireken Boekweit Blond is a touch above average strength.  At 6.0% a.b.v., it is 20% stronger than the average premium imported beer (5.0% would be the benchmark for this), and almost twice as strong as the average mainstream lager in Ireland (4.1% to 4.3% is the benchmark).  However, unlike some Belgian beers, Leireken Boekweit Blond does not have a full body and rich sweetness in the beer.  This beer is quite light bodied, and the fruit character in the beer is crisp, acidic and refreshing.  It is quite unusual as a blond ale, and a little deceptive in flavour when one considers the amount of alcohol in the beer.

Try this one if you are interested in blond beers with a lighter body and fruit sweetness.