A multi-beer salute to this year’s Tour de France

  As the start of the 2014 Tour de France approached over the past several weeks, I launched numerous internet searches to gather information, intensive investigations that included Velo News, Cycling News, Peloton Magazine, Bicycling Magazine, and, of course, www.beeradvocate.com.
  This year’s route, the 101st running of the Tour, started in England, pranced back to France and then wheeled into Belgium, a procession that brought together three of my longtime loves – bicycling, beer and history. The first two English stages sent the peloton through the scenic moors of Yorkshire, rolling countryside that was frequently covered by rollicking spectators. According to the BBC, some 2.5 million people lined the streets during those two days to cheer the cyclists.
  Hopefully, some of them chose to partake of the eclectic beers crafted by the Ilkley Brewing Co. of Yorkshire. Ilkley’s lineup includes the Marie Jaune, a Yorkshire French blonde bierre, and Holy Cow, a cranberry milk stout. I was bedazzled by The Mayan, a chocolate chipotle stout that is sweet and spicy. The stout is a venerable English style, and The Mayan’s rich, chocolate start, and savory, smoky finish add bold, imaginative, new layers to it.
  I wish I could be equally enthusiastic about a French beer, but that would certainly not reflect my experience with Aubeloun, a Belgian IPA produced by Brasserie De La Pleine Lune. Though the bottle states that Aubeloun has 50 IBUs, I could discern virtually no hop aroma or taste. Its qualities actually are much closer to those of an amber ale than to an IPA. It’s included in this blog segment because of two irrefutable facts: It is French, and it is beer.
  The dilemma with recommending a Belgian beer is quite the opposite. From the light, lemony tones of a Hoegaarden to the complex, warming qualities of a Westvleteren 12, Belgium cultivates an astonishing range of beers.
  I enjoyed as many of them as possible during a bike-riding, beer-swelling, sight-seeing jaunt through Belgium in 2012, and my hands-down favorite from that country is Saison Dupont, a storied saison/farmhouse ale with a heritage that dates back to 1844. Graded at 93 by beeradvocate.com, based on some 3,000 reviews, Saison Dupont is crisp and bubbly, with a long, dry finish. It displays great complexity, with balanced fruity and spicy flavors that are enhanced by yeast additions.
  Saison Dupont would be a fitting choice to pour into a glass and raise to salute the riders of this year’s Tour de France, who face daunting challenges over the three-week-long event, and the organizers of the race, who paid tribute to the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I by beginning stage five in Ypres, Belgium.
  Known as Ieper to the Belgians, this small town in Flanders was a British stronghold and the scene of horrific fighting for four years. Even today, Belgian farmers pull tons of still-live German and British explosives out of their fields and leave them by the side of the road for EOD technicians.