Delirium brew

A couple weeks ago, my wife went down to the Kitchen Emporium for a tappas cooking class and demonstration. While there, a beer rep offered up a variety of beers to compliment the meal and show how beer can enhance flavors as much as any wine or cocktail could.

When my wife came home from it, she came bearing great stories, great recipes and a few beers I had never even heard of before, let alone tried.

So, for the next couple weeks of the beer column, I thought I would take these brews Stella found at the Kitchen Emporium and highlight what I like — and even what I don’t like — about brews created for very specific tastes.

For instance, at $20 for four bottles, Delerium is a beer that I had heard about, but never had the opportunity to try. The packaging looks cool with a ceramic-looking bottle and a design from the late 1960s, but I had heard mixed reviews on the taste.

I have to say, I agree with the mixed reviews.

Delerium is a light-colored beer with the physical characteristics of wheat ale or white ale. It’s been brewed in Belgium at the same brewery for nearly 400 years. The aroma is strong, very fruity and flowery, and the head rises fast, yet dissipates quickly.

It’s the taste where things go a little batty. I remember once drinking a dandelion wine that was infused with what tasted like all the wildflowers in the forest. That’s the experience I got from Delerium. It was like tasting wildflowers in a forest — earthy, sweet, tart and explosive all at the same time.

It was everything I could do to drink half the bottle and they don’t even come in 12 ounces.

Now, I fully admit that I was simply drinking this beer prior to a movie and with pizza. Perhaps it is more suited to a robust meal of complex flavors. Maybe something rich and full-bodied. Then, the fruit and flower of the brew would be a little less expressive.

But I can honestly say I couldn’t buy this one again. So, if anyone is looking to try Delerium, I’ve got about three left in the mini-fridge. It just wasn’t a taste for me.