From the Beer Writer: There are sexy beer styles, and then there are ales and lagers that come across like Plain Jane dressed in sweatpants and a ratty baseball cap. Sure, at her core, she’s beautiful, but you have to work harder to see it and lean on your appreciation of her more basic attributes rather than rely on the glitz of high ABV, barrel character, big hops, adjuncts or buggy funk. Such is the case with the Belgian singel. The lightest-bodied and lowest-alcohol of the beers produced by Trappist monks and breweries who pay homage to their monastic ales, singels—or table beers, as they are also referred to—aren’t usually sold, but instead brewed to be consumed by monks. Over the past few years, this style has been experimented with in the U.S. They don’t get much play by craft beer enthusiasts who focus in on IPAs, sour ales, imperial stouts and other more complex, robust offerings, but when done right, a singel is a thing of beauty. In my humble opinion, the best one in San Diego County is being produced by Benchmark Brewing Co. (6190 Fairmount Avenue, Grantville), a session-centric operation that believes in its Table Beer enough to make it a core brew and one of the first beers to make its way through the company’s new canning line. There may be no better locally brewed, aluminum-housed beer better suited for the hot summer months. It’s simple, but pretty damn sexy.
From the Brewer: “I’ve been searching out the best of table beers for over a decade. These small Belgian beers have always interested to me and my wife Rachael. We find the tradition of the style interesting in that it’s one of the last holdovers from a time when beer was part of the meal. Trappist monks still make them, but don’t really label them for sale. The beer is generally a small version of the flagship beer from a brewery, designed to utilize ingredients that are available regularly. The key here is that they are not ‘second runnings,’ but thoughtfully crafted recipes using what’s on hand; sort of an Iron Chef beer, if you will. Table Beer was a late addition to our core line. It was initially brewed as part of a special-release duo alongside our Dubbel for Thanksgiving, the idea being that you’d have Table Beer to go along with the Turkey and then Dubbel for the pie. I took the first pour from the tap and said, ‘man, now I’m going to have to make this year-round.’ Our Table Beer’s fermentation offers citrus, pear and pepper notes, and has a bit of an acid bite in the finish. It is the perfect accompaniment to so many meals and really sings when served with oysters or fresh Mexican food.”—Matt Akin, Owner & Brewmaster, Benchmark Brewing Co.