On 6/1/2008 7:44 AM Joel ignored two million years of human evolution to
write:

> yd+yg+as > wrote:
>> InBev is largely responsible for dumbing down the beer range from
>> breweries they have taken over, ruining the Belle-Vue lambic range...
>
> When was Belle-Vue good? The first time I tried it (in a
> bar in Tempe AZ of all places, circa 1991) I was distinctly
> unimpressed.

See Joris's post for more, but Belle-Vue was in a long and
unhappy process of dumbing down for years, so no surprise that
you had yet another dull, lifeless Belle-Vue product in 1991.

The last Belle-Vue Selection Lambic was produced in something
like 1999, AFAIK, and its appearance before then was also
rather infrequent. It was, at the least, good. There are
still hidden stashes of the '99 bottles in dwindling quantity.

It's not impossible for a bigger corporate brewing company to
turn a specialty lambic-brewer loose to make something good.
SCAM (Scottish Courage - Alken-Maes) did it with its Mort
Subite brewery, in Kobbegem, Belgium, releasing the Oude
Gueuze and Oude Kriek in recent years. I haven't seen them
as imports in the USA, unfortunately.
--
dgs