Belgian Beer Tasting Help?

Having heard so much about the variety and complexity of Belgian beers, I decided to expand my horizons and try and get an idea of what it's all about. So far I have tried just a couple of Belgian examples and they seem to have the same base flavor profile. It's kind of a sour fruity taste? The two that I tried are Leffe Blond and Hoegaarden. I know that the Leffe is in the Belgian Blonde Ale category and the Hoegaarden is a Witbier, but they taste similar.

What is that flavor that I am tasting? Do all Belgian beers have this same base profile? I know that there are hundreds of Belgian styles, so that question is probably dumb, but just wondering if they all share some basic traits. I don't really care for the 2 that I tried so I don't want to continue my exploration if they all have that same taste.

It may be the Pilsner that's giving you that taste. They all have it to some extent, although in some Belgians it's going to be in the background with the esters of other yeasts or some darker fruits coming through.

Before you give up on Belgians, I'd recommend trying a Belgian Dark Strong, a Belgian Golden Strong, a Dubbel and a Trippel. If you don't like any of those, then there's no hope for you in the world of Belgian beers.

I won't give up hope! I'm going to pick up some bottles of the styles you recommended and see how it goes. I am looking for a new style to brew so I'll make sure I do a thorough sampling (maybe not all in one sitting though ). Thanks for the help!

+1 on trying other styles -- a dubbel would be a good place to start because it's a little different. If you can find it, the Leffe dubbel is brewed a little sweeter than most and that might appeal to you a little more. Grimbergen's a little dryer, but easier to find.

Try a Chimay Red and Duvel. They pretty much define the dubbel and Belgian golden strong ale styles.

Check out the beers, and the beer distrubeter's website I mention in this thread///

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f5/anyone-familiar-global-beer-network-73692/

I still have the other 3 beers in my fridge waiting for me to review...

They have a lot of neat Belgian beer info and stuff on the site linked in the thread...

Get a Chimay sampler pack. It has 3 styles and a kick ass glass to boot!

I'd suggest a Rochefort or Mardesous 8 for a good dubbel. The thing about Belgian beers is that there is a huge swing in the flavor profiles of all the beers, even in the same style. I've never had two grand crus that were really alike, the dark and golden strong categories are about as vague as you can get, and there's such a variety, it takes time to work up to what you actually might enjoy.

Leffe and Hoegaarden are not bad beers, but I would not consider them best of style or even a good place to start when looking for Belgian ales.

Leffe and Hoegaarden are not bad beers, but I would not consider them best of style or even a good place to start when looking for Belgian ales.

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+1 Both are great, but there is much more out there in the way of Belgian beers.

There are a lot of styles out there to try out. For starters, some of the better ones to try out and relatively easy to get a hold of are:

Chimay, try the red and blue (premiere and grand reserve, respectively) - both are a good intro to Belgian beers and are not as far out there as some of them
Duvel, num nums!
Saison Dupont - Belgian farmhouse ale, getting a bit into the more interesting stuff, but still good, somewhat similar to a Bavarian Hefe.

Keep in mind, if you haven't already, to have them at a good serving temperature. In general this is a good practice, but I have noticed specifically that many of the Belgian types benefit greatly at warmer temps. I like around 55 ish, but that's just a generality. What you don't want to do is drink it right out of the fridge. Too warm and they can be more pronouncedly 'hotter' which you may or may not like, but too cold and you lose a world of flavors. I won't get into glass types, but this does have a remarkable affect on the perception of the beer.