When I picked up a bottle of Gouden Carolus at the St Anthony liquor store, the sales clerk commented that I had just purchased “one of the classic Belgian beers.” Now, I'm a big fan of Belgian beers, and have been ever since I went to Belgium about ten years ago. So I brought the Gouden Carolus straight home to be opened up and enjoyed.

The first thing I noticed was the color. Gouden Carolus is a very rich shade of dark golden-brown. It's quite a beautiful color, but I don't buy beer to hang it on my wall, so I didn't spend all that much time gazing at it before beginning to drink.

I love it when I taste a beer and immediately think “oh wow.” This was one of those moments. Gouden Carolus has an almost perfectly-balanced flavor, with just a hint of molasses in there somewhere and all of the complexity you expect in a Belgian beer.

I'm not the kind of beer blogger who could tell you all the tiny nuances of flavor in this or any other beer. I'm a drinker, not a connoisseur. I think of beer-drinking as an aesthetic/spiritual experience involving and engaging the mind and body on multiple levels, but that doesn't mean I like to talk about it. Sniff out every hint of every flavor if you have that skill; I just want to bask in the glory of drinking a delicious beer and enjoying that golden glow in good company.

And Gouden Carolus is glorious indeed.