LAZY FRIDAY

This past Friday was the inaugural 1st Annual Lazy Friday: a round of golf during the day, and several rounds of quality beer afterwards at Lazy Boy Saloon in White Plains, NY. We hope to do it again next year sometime in the early fall, and maybe sign on some more people to join us. Anyway, the LZB Saloon advertises that they have over 350 beers (a typo on their site says "35" . . . interesting), but I think they're hoping someone won't call them out on that. However that's exactly what we did, much to the bartender's chagrin. Rob ordered about 5 beers in a row which were on the menu, but they didn't have in stock in their basement refrigerator. It got to the point where the bartender was tired of going downstairs and looking, and she took the menu away from us. We weren't the typical "Friday happy hour" customers, since most people were ordering Miller Lites and Heinkens. But we did get to sample a few tasty brews. Here's some of what we tried (with its Ratebeer.com rating in parentheses):


Hacker Pschorr Octoberfest Lager (2.87/5)
Blue Moon Belgian White Ale (3.07/5)
Paulaner Octoberfest (3.46/5)
Brooklyn Brewmaster's Reserve - Saison de Brooklyn
Fuller's London Porter (4.10/5)
Fuller's 1845 (3.88/5)
Delirium Tremens Ale (3.58/5)

The Fuller's London Porter was the best one that I had, a great smoky, chocolatey porter that was truly satisfying. The Delirium Tremens, a Belgian ale, was also excellent. Among the beers on their menu that they didn't have: Stone Smoked Porter, Rogue Shakespeare Stout, Ayinger Octoberfest, and Hand Pulled Fuller's. We finished up the night with a few light beers next door at James Joyce: Guinness, to be more precise. All in all, it was a good night. We're going to try the rest of the beers they have next time we visit (ha ha). Someday we should trek over to Brooklyn for Happy Hour . . .

We asked about the Westvleteren beers on the menu, but they didn't even bother to look for those, and for good reason. The Beer Advocate and Rate Beer websites agree that the Westvleteren Abt 12 is the best beer on the planet. Now I know why it's so treasured: it's impossible to get your hands on it. Here's the info on the beers made at the brewery of the abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren.

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The Westvleteren Trappist* is exclusively sold in the abbey from 10 am to 12 am and from 2 pm to 5 pm.

WARNING: There is no trade on Fridays, Sundays, official holidays, from January 1st to 14th and the week after the third Sunday of September. Due to the limited production we cannot always sell all kinds of Trappist beer. Just get informed by our beer phone.

We sell per crate of 24 bottles. The prices (without empty bottle charge) are:

Trappist Westvleteren Blonde (5,8 vol.% alc.) 19.00 euro
Trappist Westvleteren 8 (8 vol.% alc.) 23.80 euro
Trappist Westvleteren 12 (10,2 vol.% alc.) 27.00 euro

Empty bottles and crate: charge 6.5 EUR (crate 4.10 EUR, 0.10 EUR per bottle). Empties are only taken back when undamaged. The wooden crates should be kept in a dry place.
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Westvleteren Trappist is only sold to individual customers. Every customer promises not to sell the beer to others. One can drink the beer in the meeting centre 'De Vrede', in front of the abbey. In this room visitors are informed about the brewery and the brewing process .
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All accept the lager beer, Trappist beer can be conserved for years. If given time, the beer continues ripening. Bottles should be kept in vertical position in a dark place, in a temperature between 12C and 16C.
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"As every man we must be able to live. So we have to try to earn our living and let others share in what we have to abstain from. Indeed, we have to live 'from' and 'with' our brewery. But we do not live 'for' our brewery. This must be strange for business people and difficult to understand that we do not exploit our commercial assets as much as we can. We are no brewers. We are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks."

Father abbot
(on the occasion of the consecration of the new brewery)
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*The name 'Trappist beer' is protected by law and can only be applied to beer brewed by trappist monks in their monastery. Among all Belgian beers only six are allowed to use the name of Trappist Beer: Achel, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle and Westvleteren. Only these six beers are brewed in a Trappist Abbey.