Ready for the Doctor

It still gives me tingles in my spine, the pulsating bass married to an almost operatic electronica, the memories of cowering behind the sofa at the sight of men in naff looking metal outfits or wheelie bins with loo plungers sticking out the front of them. Of course I am talking about Doctor Who, which returns to our screens on BBC America tomorrow, the naffly dressed tin man obviously being the Cybermen, and the bog plunging wheelie bins, the Daleks.

To say I am excited is something of an understatement, I love Doctor Who, always have, always will. One of the things I love about it is that unlike so much other sci-fi (really SyFy channel, you think your version is better?) is that it isn't so morally earnest and po-facedly serious. Of course, the return of the Doctor means being sat in front of the TV on a Saturday night with a few beers - perhaps a growler of something good, Beer Run has Victory Braumeister Pils Spalt on tap at the moment, I have a growler of ESB from Hunter Gatherer in Columbia, SC in the fridge, as Mrs V's best friends and hubby are coming to visit for the weekend.

All it all it promises to be a good weekend, friends, booze and Doctor Who, what more could you want? To get you in the mood, here is a trance remix of the Doctor Who theme...

Entering the Cloister

As a result of an entry on Evan Rail's Beer Culture blog, as I have previously referred to, I tottered off to a local cheese shop recently in order to buy beer. I literally tottered as it was just round the corner from Pivovarsky Klub so I had stopped in for a quick pint, with became a rather chatty 4 pints and a meal. I had decided it was time to finally try some of the Trappist ales from Belgium.

On my first foray to the cheese shop I bought myself an Orval and a Rochefort 6, there was a second excursion a couple of days later because Mrs Velkyal had eaten most of the farmhouse cheddar I bought the first time and so we needed supplies, and I bought another Orval as well as a Rochefort 8 and 10.

Wanting to get as much as possible from these beers, I didn't open them that evening, I decided to do some background reading. Thus it was on Tuesday evening I decided to pop open the Orval, and this is what I got from the bottle.

For the sake of not repeating myself, I have decided to include the review I put for Orval on Beer Advocate:

"I fear I am about to commit beer heresy by admitting to not really enjoying this one all that much. The beer was bottled on the 31 May 2007 and as such was 14 months old when I drank it.It poured a very nice copper colour, and was of course cloudy - as a personal opinion this is a good thing, as I like beer unfiltered and unpastuerised. There was a fluffy head which dissipated slowly, and was gone within five minutes. On the nose were distinctly citrus notes. The first taste was a shock to be honest. This will sound odd, but it tasted fizzy, rather tart and almost like popping candy on the tongue.It wasn't awful, just not what I was expecting - so I will of course have another one to further hone my opinion." As of yet the second bottle hasn't been opened.

Last night after having had dinner and several very nice V3 Smoked Malt Special lagers at PK, and an Erdinger Dunkelweissen, I got home, popped Doctor Who into the DVD player and decided I would try the Rochefort 6, which poured like this:

I love that colour! It reminded me of the peat back at home in the Outer Hebrides, and I am sure there was a slight tinge of peat on the nose as well. After the fizz bang of Orval I was unsure of what to expect. The first taste of this was wonderfully smooth with a sweetness which reminded me of caramel. Eventually this gave way to dark chocolate, without wanting to sound like Jilly Goolden, it actually put me in mind of the organic dark chocolate from Marks and Spencer. As I say it is a nice smooth ale, with just enough zing to avoid it being cloying in the mouth, and the more I drank the more the chocolate was replaced by cocoa. Overall I really enjoyed this one, and am looking forward to trying the more potent 8 and 10.