The Spirit World

Boskeun is de Dolle’s Spring Seasonal. We’re a little early, but as warm as it has been on Long Island, I feel like it’s Spring already. So I’m opening this bottle up.

The pressure inside this bottle almost blew the bottle opener out of my hand when I popped it. Get a pair of safety goggles for this one. You might remember my review of de Dolle’s Museum beer, that one was explosive too — it gushed out of the bottle. Like the Museum beer, Boskeun wanted to leap out of the bottle into the glass. As you can see from my photo, this beer gives great head. Nothing like a little beer porn to spice up the spirit world.

The aroma is sweet and honeyish. The beer warms the mouth. It’s only 7% alcohol by volume (according to the label on my bottle; however, the importer website lists Boskeun as 8.9% ABV), but the heat from the alcohol is noticeable. A mild acidity makes this beer crisp and refreshing. It’s not heavy and thick like some of the higher alcohol brews. This is one of the hoppiest (Kent Goldings) Belgian beers I’ve tasted, which probably accounts for the tipsy rabbit on the label. Or, according to the B.United International website:

Boskeun is the nickname of Jo, one of the two brothers who preferred to brew blond beer at home. It is a special Easter beer, one of the first real Belgian Easter beers. (Slaghmuylder’s paasbier being first [T’lj Paasbier from Amsterdam is another example. -DH]). It has been brewed with pale malt, [Kent] Golding hops, cane sugar and refermented with native honey. As it is a seasonal beer we suggest not to keep it eternally. The name Boskeun means rabbit of the wood (virgin wood, maybe?) and the label shows it, sampling the last brew. [Quoted from the importer website.]

I got into an argument with someone once over the use of cane sugar in beer. Beer enthusiasts and brewers get excited about these kinds of issues. Some people think cane sugar is poison — not really — they just say it doesn’t make good beer. If anyone doubts the effectiveness of cane sugar in beer, just hand them a bottle of Boskeun, end of debate.