Abbaye de Oudkerken

Brewed by Brasserie Lefebvre
Style: Belgian Pale Ale
Rebecq-Quenast, Belgium (Brewed for Lidl)

The popular Belgian Lefebvre brewery have produced an Abbey beer called Abbaye de Oudkerken, which Lidl, the German discount chain, have picked up and now sell in a lot of their supermarkets on the continent. As far as I can find, “OudKerken” stands for Old Church.

Now there is some controversy about the proliferation of “Abbey beers” from Belgium. The connections between the Abbey and the brew are sometimes tenuous at best. Many breweries are falling over themselves to cater for this new small specialty niche in the market, abbey beers are cool. The marketing men have taken over. A river runs near to an Abbey, there we have a brew. An abbey was once here hundreds of years ago, good that’s the beer we will go with. And so on. Good luck trying to find the link with Abbaye de Oudkerken. Now some people get annoyed with this, yeah its a bit cheeky, but if its good enough beer then I am not so sure if I give a fig.

But I see there is actually an international body that looks over these important matters. The International Trappist Association have drawn up an official Trappist beer designation which amongst other rules states that an Abbey beer may be:
• produced by a non-Trappist monastery — e.g. Benedictine; or
• produced by a commercial brewery under commercial arrangement with an extant monastery; or
• branded with the name of a defunct or fictitious abbey by a commercial brewer; or
• given a vaguely monastic branding, without mentioning a specific monastery, by a commercial brewer. (ref: Wikipedia)

Review: Bottle of Abbaye de Oudkerken Pale Ale: ABV: 6.2%

Bought a six pack of these beers in my nearest Lidl in France. Couldn’t pass by, noticing that they were so cheap (As far as I remember about 50c for a bottle). I like beer, but I love cheap beer! It also had a very distinctive packaging which caught the eye

Appearance: On pour there was a clear golden colour with a nice white head appearing, which doesn’t last, and some lacing.

Phew, what a smell, hitting immediately on the nose. Hints of lemon, roasted malts and yeast, a very strong alcohol smell. Like it a lot, rustic, a killer smell, like a fire burning on the nose, and very sweet.

A very deep taste of sweet syrupy malts, a slight hoppy aftertaste.

Overall I liked this beer, not going to set the world alight, but for the price it was decent, and was easy to drink and enjoy. Didnt quite feel the 6.2% ABV.

A good beer considering the price and value you are getting.