Popcorn and Beer night

Now, if you're wondering why we had a popcorn and beer night,  we didn't. This is how my 'quiet drink with a friend' nights tend to digress. 

We started on a couple of bottles of rouge, but this wasn't enough. Come 1am and having a rather dry mouth from a popcorn eating competition (I managed 84 pieces btw)  we decided to see what was gathering dust at the back of my drinks haul -  and this was it. 

The Belgian beer Kwak. 

I picked this bottle up in Bruges back in April 2011 on a European campervan trip, and it's been lurking around ever since. 

The beer is traditionally served in a special glass on a wooden stand, I failed to bring one of these back so a standard glass would have to do!

I'm usually more of a cider drinker than anything but I thought I'd give it a go, and at 8.4% for an ale I was rather excited.  It came in a chunky  75cl bottle with a cork similar to a champagne cork. Once popped we were away..

I was pleasantly surprised, although bitter and dry it was quite a fresh tasting ale with a toffee and banana aftertaste. Letting the first couple of sips settle was a task as it was quite bitter at first, but once I understood the taste I actually couldn't put my glass down. 

I'm no ale connoisseur but I really enjoyed this and will be quickly tracking down a few more bottles :)  I'm sure you can get smaller bottles of this in the UK but if you're visiting Belgium then Id grab a couple of these larger bottles, just for the fun of popping the cork! 

I'm glad I managed to sample this beer almost 2 years after buying it, now I'm off to reminisce about my European adventure...