Today’s new beer is Bolivar, a Fairtrade beer from Oxfam, which we bought at one of their charity shops here in Brussels a while back. And before you ask: no, it’s not a second-hand beer.
It is produced for Oxfam by the Huyghe Brewery, makers of the various Delerium beers, including the delightful, Delerium Christmas. The label bills Bolivar as, “the best of both worlds”, with the traditional brewing methods of the global north (read: Belgium), and ingredients from the global south, specifically: cane sugar from Costa Rica, quinoa from Bolivia and rice from Thailand.
But how does it taste? Well, it starts off looking and smelling like a fairly typical Belgian strong blonde ale, but the mouthfeel is thin, rather than fizzy or fluffy. It has something of a clay note about it, which is not very welcome, but the bitterness kicks in to help the drink along somewhat. The alcohol level is 7.5%, but it seems more noticeable than it should be.
Overall, I’d say the warm feeling of the concept tops the flavour of the actual product.
I found the brown Bolivar slighly better than the blonde - a beer that I might drink if nothing else is available.