Delirium Tremens, A Strong Pale Ale From Belgium

Delirium Tremens

https://www.delirium.be/en/

Brewed by Brouwerij Huyghe
Style: Belgian Strong Pale Ale
Melle, Belgium

Delirium tremens (also called “The DTs”, “the horrors”, or “the shakes”) is a severe form of alcohol withdrawal that can cause confusion and delirium. Delirium tremens is mainly caused by a long period of drinking being stopped abruptly and can usally last from a day to three days. People may hallucinate and can be appear delirious and restless. Physical effects may include shaking, shivering, irregular heart rate, and sweating. Occasionally, a very high body temperature or seizures may result in death. Delirium tremens is an emergency condition and should be treated seriously. DT occurs in 5–10% of alcoholics, and death can occur in anything between 15% and 40%, depending on the treatment given or lack of it, showing that Alcohol is one of the most dangerous drugs to experience withdrawal from. Great!

Huyghe Brewery (Brouwerij Huyghe) is a family run brewery founded in 1906 by Leon Huyghe in the small town of Melle in East Flanders, Belgium. Its “flagship” beer is Delirium Tremens, a popular and well loved beer, winning all sorts of awards and titles and frequently rated as one of the best beers in the world.

The site of the brewery has been in operation since 1654.

Delirium Tremens was launched on December 26th 1989, originally as a 9% ale, but since reduced to 8.5%.

Review: 0.33l Bottle of Delirium Tremens: ABV: 8.5%

Some people call the DTs “seeing the pink elephant”. A “pink elephant” is the stereotypical image of what drunks see when they get the shakes and possible seizures from lack of booze. From Wikipedia we get “The term dates back to at least the early 20th century, emerging from earlier idioms about snakes and other creatures. An alcoholic character in Jack London’s 1913 novel John Barleycorn is said to hallucinate “blue mice and pink elephants”. So there in lies the answer to why The Huyghe Brewery put a pink elephant on the label of its Delirium Tremens beer, in case you were wondering! In a foil wrapped bottle.

On pour I get a golden yellow looking appearance with some nice lively carbonation going on, bubbling along. A nice foamy white head, looks good, but does go flat after a short while…..eventually.

A small amount of lacing on the glass, not much though. Overall not a bad look.

Very, very strong smell of yeast, clove and peppers with some citrus. Certainly has a kick in the smell, very nice, and a lot going on already!! Nice, and a good start!

Can get a creamy aroma as well

Very sweet taste, not very appealing to me at all, don’t like it to be honest
That taste…….nah don’t like it
A lot of Fruits on the taste…..lemons, apples and bananas
Loads of taste, but not nice tastes from front to back
There is a strong kick after with the alcohol, can definitely feel the 8.5% which they do kindly warn you about on the label at the back…..“strong beer”, just in case you thought you accidentally picked up a lemonade by mistake!
Lots of taste, very yeasty, lots of sweet malts, the cloves, getting the cream in the mouth and the citrus

A definite slow burner
Not a fan though. If you like an all tasting beer then this is your beer, but I like my beers smooth. This is more like a Hefeweizen to me than a regular Pale Ale, but then it is a Belgian Pale Ale and I know they put all sorts of shit in their beers! Ha.

I am aware that this is a popular beer and considered a “classic Belgian”, and it did win a gold medal in the “World Beer Championships” in Chicago way back in the 80’s, but Crikey it did nothing for me, hard for me to stomach………….(and that’s the truth! Lol)