What Next To "Belgianize"?

There's a trend among brewers to create new beers that are a blend of traditional styles. The cider makers are picking up on that too. The folks at Woodchuck Cidery have added a new product to their Private Reserves lineup. They've added a belgian yeast strain to cider to create Private Reserve Belgian White. We've previously look at other "Belgianized" styles, such as the "Belgian IPA" from Flying Dog Brewery, Raging Bitch. I've recently come to enjoy ciders, and have written about a couple from Woodchuck already, so this is intriguing.

There was a time when the thought of adding belgian yeasts to disparate beer (and cider) styles would have turned off this fan of hoppy beers. However, there's something about the sharpness of hops and the funk of Belgian yeast that makes for a good mix. I'm pretty sure I'll like it in a sharp cider too.

We seem to be limited to finding the basic Woodchuck ciders in our area so I don't know if I'll get to try it or not, but it does sound interesting.

Of course this trend will probably only serve to increase the enormity of the beer styles guides.

H/T to Draft Magazine.