Duvel

Duvel is the defining Belgian strong golden ale: deceptively pale, dangerously drinkable, and 8.5% strong — hence a name that means "devil" in Flemish dialect. It is brewed by Duvel Moortgat in Antwerp province, and its tall tulip glass with the outsized head has become shorthand for the whole category it created.

Jan-Leonard Moortgat founded the family brewery in 1871, and for decades it made dark ales. To mark the end of the First World War it released a hefty dark beer called Victory Ale in 1918; the story goes that a taster in the 1920s pronounced it "a real devil," and the nickname stuck so well it became the brand.

The modern Duvel arrived in 1970, when years of yeast selection and recipe work turned the beer pale gold just as Belgian drinkers were shifting to lighter styles. Duvel Moortgat has since grown into an international group of breweries while remaining under Moortgat family control, and the flagship is still refermented in the bottle.

Pale gold beneath a towering white head; pear and green-apple esters with a peppery yeast bite, finishing bone-dry and softly bitter — an 8.5% beer that drinks far lighter than it is.