Tomb

Every year, Ratebeer, one of the world’s largest beer websites, awards its “Best Brewery in the World Award,” and mayhem surrounds the winner as the beer universe clamours to try its products. Having observed this phenomena over the years, I wonder if it is rarity that propels all this hooey.

What makes this year’s winner, Belgium’s Struise Brouwers, unique is that it doesn’t own a brewery and has only been brewing a few short years. Before this award, Struise already had a reputation for being self-promoting narcissistic bastards in a vein similar to Picasso and Dali. This cock of the walk attitude is even reflected in its name. In Flemish, the name Struise is a clever play on words that has several definitions. The adjective means proud to the point of arrogance, and the noun is a genderless description of a person with a bodybuilder’s figure. If the name Struise Brouwers is taken literally it means “the sturdy brewers,” but it gets odd — struisvogel is an ostrich: a strong, fast and powerful bird. Tongue planted firmly in cheek, Struise Brouwers also own and run an ostrich farm, and the brewery shield pictured on the bottle ensures you’re fully in on the joke.

Although it doesn’t have a brew house to call its own, Struise rents space from another brewer to make its beer and store its barrels and tanks. Struise chose its brewmate well, as the landlord, Deca, has beautiful old copper brewing kettles. Most brewers agree, copper kettles add complexity and depth to a brew.

Because of the barrel aging and the high alcohol content of thesse beers they have serious wine over and undertones. You may have to explore your grape side when contemplating these beers. There is substance to the accolades Struise has won — it is making art, but its brush is beer and its canvas is your palate.

Pannepot is the first brew that put Struise on the map globally. The name is a thank you to the Danish beer lovers who supported the brewery’s early efforts. A Pannepot is a unique fishing boat from the village of De Panne, Denmark. This beer is subtitled “The Old Fisherman’s Ale,” and to say this beer is stunning doesn’t begin to do it justice.

Black Albert was originally brewed as a specialty beer for Ebenezer’s Pub, an iconic beer bar in Lowell, Maine. Most beers with high alcohol content hit you with the subtleness of a Russian boxer. Surprisingly, this Russian-Belgian-styled imperial stout (at 13 per cent) dances across the palate with the lightness of a ballerina.

Pannepot Grand Reserva is aged in new French oak for 14 months then transferred to secondary wooden vessels, which previously contained Calvados (French apple brandy), for another 10 months. This beer is intensely complex and puts some of the biggest cabernets to shame. Just like a cabernet, all three beers will age and evolve for 15 or more years in a good cellar, if you can wait that long.

The liquor agent who brought these beers to Alberta took a big financial risk, and this beer writer is still pinching himself that they are available here. What is even crazier is that Alberta is getting three new Struise creations this spring.

Although Struise may not have created Picasso’s Guernica or Dali’s melting clocks, it has captured art in a glass. Like art, these beers are meant to be contemplated and not everyone will understand them. Be forewarned, these beers are also expensive ($7 to $14 for one 330 ml bottle), but if you consider what you pay by the glass for a fine bottle of wine, it should make the brewing arts easier to swallow.