For the first day of December I selected a U.S.-brewed Belgian-styled ale for the Advent calendar pick, so today I thought I would select an ale brewed in Belgium proper to commemorate this second of December.

Brasserie du Bocq was established in 1858 by Martin Belot and over six generations has remained in family hands, and:

…has remained independent of any Belgian or foreign brewer. Located in the heart of the Condroz, wonderful tourist region, this dynamic company still uses the traditional manufacturing process of top-fermentation beers with secondary fermentation in the bottle.

Their Gauloise line of beers was inspired by “the first beer brewed by the Brasserie du Bocq in 1858. At the time, Martin Belot, the Brewery’s founder drew his inspiration from the many Gallo-Roman sites in the region to create an authentic beer representative of Gallic brewing know-how.”

I’ve selected their Gauloise Christmas as today’s Advent pick, a strong dark ale at 8.1% abv brewed with specialty malts and coriander, a rich and warming Christmas dessert beer (I like to think of these strong Belgian beers as something akin to a figgy pudding or fruitcake, in all the best ways).

Untappd. BeerAdvocate. RateBeer. Facebook.