#363: Pulling Ranke

 In celebration of my first full year without a post, here's a post!

I didn't know what it was that puts the noël in De Ranke's Père Noël until I deigned to tread the label halfway through my glass, and by jove it's licorice[sic]! I am no friend of liquorice but have found it a beautiful flavour characteristic in coffee and some (usually) darker, stronger beers, no doubt the phenolic offshoot of some roasting process, but how does it fare as an out and out addition to a pale beer of a moderate 7%?

Quite well, actually. The beer is bone dry and effervescent, with scouring bubbles and an initial gentle touch of tripel-like spice, not unlike an aromatically souped-up Duvel. There's a bracing leafy bitterness that cleans up a rather charming crystal centre, and the lingering, light menthol effect of what I would have guessed was a hop and yeast interplay but may indeed be the liquorice. In any case, it does not taste much like liquorice, but there's plenty of herbal, floral and light spice white noise in here to allow for interpretation.

At 7% it is no table beer, but all of its other characteristics would make Père Noël a fine one; dry and refreshing, moreish, bright and versatile for food pairings, and all the while interesting enough to just drink on its own.