This is an age of innovation in the world of beer, and a lot of it has been less than exciting, IF you’re really into beer that is.

One new beer style that we can heartily recommend, however, is the Belgian Golden Ale as exemplified by Duvel of the Moortgat Brewery near Brussels, Belgium.

This is a top fermented ale, using an ale yeast, but with modern technologies employed to produce a strong, but pale beer with a distinctive aroma and a big flavor palette. Not really an ale-lager hybrid, but not a simple top fermented ale either. In other words, something new under the sun in the world of beer.

Originally, Moortgat’s Duvel was a dark ale, resembling a Scotch Ale, heavy on the malt, deep and strong. They started out using yeast cultures derived from the sediment in a bottle of McEwan’s Scotch Ale in 1919.

After 1945, however, Belgian beer drinkers, like those everywhere
else, were caught up in the shift to lighter beer styles, especially Pilsner type lagers. Sales of heavy, dark beers remained static, golden lagers were booming.

At Moortgat this made them put on their thinking caps and begin a long series of experimental brews that culminated in 1970 with the release of the first batches of Duvel Golden Ale. The first difference with the older, darker Duvel was the shift to a paler variety of the 2-row summer barley that they obtain from la Beauce Gatinais, an agrarian region of northern France.  Then they reduced the amount of kilning of the malt to achieve a pale gold, rather than the older brown
color used for most ales. For hops they turned to Bohemian Saaz, -- the distinctive hops used for true Pilsner style lagers-- and the Styrian variety of Goldings, the traditional English hop used for Ale since the 1700s. The Styrian Goldings are only grown in Slovenia and are known for their spicy bitterness and flowery aroma.

By this time the yeast used for Duvel had been subject to decades of work by the great Belgian brewing scientist Jean De Clerck, who consulted at Moortgat for many years.  Two different strains were used, one for fruitiness, and another for full fermentation and its tendency to precipitate out in the bottle to leave the beer nice and clear.

The brewing process for Duvel is really something else. It involves three fermentations, spans four temperature changes, and really radical ones at that, and winds up with at least two months of maturation in the brewery before release.

The initial wort, derived from malt has an Original Gravity of 1056 (see note on Original Gravity), but this is lifted to 1068 with a judicious application of dextrose. The wort is then split into two batches of different size and fermented with one or the other of the two strains of yeast.  The first fermentation is at ale temperatures, well up in the seventies F, even as high as low eighties.  After five days the yeasts have done most of the work and the temperature is lowered slowly to just below freezing, down to 30.2º F. Presumably the presence of the alcohol in the brew keeps it from turning into an expensive block of ice. This secondary fermentation asts another three days, and then the beer is filtered and the two batches are combined and given a “dosage” of more dextrose and yeast. Now the OG is hovering around 1073 and a third fermentation begins that runs along at 71.6º F for between 10 and 14 days as the yeast works through the remaining sugars in the brew. When all is done, the beer is moved to cold storage, essentially a period of lagering, for at least six weeks at a temperature of 40º F.

Duvel aficionados maintain that it is best to keep the beer for another three months at a temperature of no more than 55 F to complete the maturation process. Some claim this beer will improve in the cellar for a year or more.

With an alcohol content of 8.5% ABV it’s not a session brew, and should be served in the traditional Belgian tulip style glass with the big belly. Properly poured and served the beer develops a huge, fluffy head in the glass and retains it through to the last drop.
       Refreshing but devilishly strong, this wondrous style of beer goes well with food of almost any kind. Noticeable apple and pear notes in the nose are a characteristic grace note, the flavor is crisp, but fruity and the finish is long and very clean. There is a degree of similarity to Trappist Abbey brewers’ Tripels-- also pale and golden and very strong, but Duvel is clear, not hazey and the use of the cold fermentation period (as with Alt in the Rhineland) produces much less of the fruity ale esters of Tripels and ultimately a cleaner flavor profile with less yeastiness evident.

The success of Moortgat’s Duvel has spawned any number of imitations. The style is characterized by the big alcohol signature, usually around 9% ABV. Some of the best imitators include Huyghe’s Delerium Tremens, Hoegaarden’s Grand Cru, and from Quebec, Unibroue’s Fin de Monde. Many others are available in what has become a globally popular style of strong, pale beer.