Day Three Twenty Eight - Delirium Noel Marriage Mondays

Delirium is a Belgian beer producer most well known for its Tremens which utilizes three different types of yeast to help ferment the alcoholic beverage you will then be able to enjoy! My favorite of the Delirium family is by far their Noel beer. Released in the wintertime in time for Christmas, this rich and dark Belgian Brown ale is the perfect winter beer -- warming yet crisp and invigorating with a high alcohol content, clocking in at 10% abv. With such a high alcohol content, you would think it would be very heavy on the booze notes on the tongue, but not at all, it is a very easy drinking beer. Somewhat tart and piquantly peppery with candied apple, molasses, cinnamon, clove, caramel, and some malty yeasty notes. Smooth and somewhat silky with a full mouth feel and a subtly creamy finish.

If you are looking to pick it up at the store, look for one of these four labels with their classic pink elephant:

  

So what goes with this superstar of a beer?

Contestant Number # 1: Roquefort - THE classic French blue cheese -- a piquant sheep's milk blue crafted in south central France by seven different producers. An AOC certified cheese since 1925, this blue is special! Why? Well apart from being a fabulously dynamic and well balanced blue, it also has to do with the infusion of penicillium roqueforti mold that allows this cheese to develop its certain "je ne sais quoi." Spicy, creamy, rich, crumbly, and almost even a little chalky, this is a blue cheese that announces its presence for all the right reasons. Will those reasons work with our beer?

Contestant Number # 2: Livarot - Hailing from Normandy in Northern France, this is one stinky washed rind cheese! Easily picked out from a line of cheeses, our second contestant is the most pungent. Crafted with cow's milk into cylindrical shapes wrapped in orange (due to annato) strips of raffia that maintain its circular shape while it ages. It is creamy, luscious, soft, and decadent with fabulously funky barnyardy, yeasty, and straw notes. Does this stinker have what it takes with our Delirium?

Contestant Number # 3: Abondance - Our final contestant hails from deep in the mountains of the Haute Savoie, also in France. Raw cow's milk cheese makes up this semi-firm, buttery and nutty cheese.
Floral and fragrant, this cheese has a nice sweetness to it with lovely and bright hay notes on the finish. Will our mountain man win this week?

Stay tuned!