New Belgians on Tap at The Porter

St. Bernardus Abt 12 is probably the most commonly sighted Trappist beer on tap in Atlanta, but despite its popularity we never see any of the other St. Bernardus brews.  That changes today with the arrival of St. Bernardus Prior 8 at The Porter.  I got to have this on tap in New York at The Burp Castle a few months ago and it is delicious.  It's a dubbel and it's lighter and fruitier than the 12.

Duvel Green was released in the Northeast about a year ago, but next Tuesday The Porter will be tapping what I'm pretty sure is the first keg available in Georgia.  Standard Duvel is never available on tap in the US (Duvel doesn't trust consistency of the last fermentation in the keg).  Duvel undergoes three fermentations but the Duvel Green only goes through one.  Originally it was going to be the same beer as standard Duvel, just stopped after the primary fermentation (this is sold in Europe as 'kleine' Duvel).  There were problems with this though, so they use the same ingredients but use a little less of the fermentables (malt and/or candi sugar) to end up with a lower abv beer.  By all accounts I've read this is a great beer, but lighter and with less complexity than the standard Duvel.

Update: I didn't feel like dedicating a whole new post to Duvel Green so I'm just going to add a quick review here.  Duvel Red (the standard bottled Duvel) isn't one of my favorite beers.  It would be nice in the middle of the summer on a patio, but except for the great spicy yeast I think it's a little boring.  Duvel Green tastes very similar, but with a little less body and complexity.  It tastes good, but there's not really enough going on to keep your attention.  It's relatively sessionable though, so if you want an easy drinking, sessionable Belgian it may be a good choice.