St Valentine’s Day presents a chance for men to impress the opposite sex with their astute taste and sensitive side. In other words, they can prove that beer is not merely for blokey gatherings to gulp at the bar but a fine drink for a romantic tete a tete.

Forbidden Fruit has a label depicting Adam tempting Eve with a glass of sinful ale in the Garden of Eden. If that’s not enough to set the mood, then the shamefully indulgent rich potion should do the trick.

Another Belgian beer, Orval, rates attention for a more subtle reason - history and romantic legend as a good chat-up line. The label pictures a trout holding a ring in its mouth. Legend says the fish returned the gold band to its owner, the Countess of Lorraine, in the 11th century. She was mourning her assassinated hubby when she lost the wedding ring, and built a monastery by the lake in the Valle d’Or in gratitude when she got it back.

Giving chocolates in a fancy box may be a routine wooing aid, but consider chocolate in a beer bottle as an alternative two can share.

If the lady believes she’s worthy of champagne, there are at least two beers that bubble and create the same ambience as their corks pop.

For Valentine’s Day trysts in daylight, a sunshine and raspberry drink made with wild yeast can be uncorked and drunk guilt-free because it’s low in alcohol.

And a meal date at the pub doesn’t have to be accompanied by white wine when there’s a “forbidden” wheat beer fresh from the tap at the scenic Elizabethan Village pub near Armadale.

THE BEERS

HOEGAARDEN FORBIDDEN FRUIT (8.8 PER CENT)

Forbidden Fruit is a deep copper-red colour, strong witbier abbey-style ale with a distinctly fruity and spicy aroma and palate and rich residual sweetness. Berry fruits combine with mushroom and creamy-coffee flavours of this long fermented style-setter that’s a favourite with both men and women.

ORVAL (6.9 PER CENT)

Monks have been brewing for centuries and the Trappist ale from Orval in Belgium’s Ardennes has a romantic connotation. Orval is fermented with semi-wild yeast and packed with malt for fruity notes and dry-hopped for complex aroma. This bottle-conditioned almost orange-coloured beer is a classic, best sipped from a goblet to get the most from its heady, swirling smell and flavours.

YOUNG’S DOUBLE CHOCOLATE STOUT (5.1 PER CENT)

Forget chocolates; give her a 500ml bottle or two of this dark luxury beer. As well as Fuggle and Goldings hops and pale ale and crystal malts, the English brewers load the silky stout with chocolate malt, a blend of sugars, real dark chocolate and chocolate essence. Tell her it isn’t as fattening as chocolates and – as everyone knows – stout is good for her.

DEUS (11.5 PER CENT)

A pale, lively, dry Flanders ale brewed by Bosteels of Belgium and fermented champagne-style in caves in France, where the 750ml bottle are turned regularly for several months so the residue can be removed before the wire-held cork is inserted, like sparkling wine. It does sparkle, bubbles stream ever upwards to the fine head and hoppy “brut” bitterness replaces grape acidity.

EISENBAHN LUST (11.5 PER CENT)

A Belgian beer made with a French methode champenoise flourish by a German brewery in Brazil has to be exotic. Like Deus, the fermented beer goes to a winery for three months secondary fermentation in the 750ml bottle. This produces a sparkly, fruity and refreshing champa ... er, beer . . . aperitif to turn the head of anyone who thought “bubbly” meant wine. The name? It’s just a language thing.

LINDEMANNS FRAMBOISE (2.5 PER CENT)

Lambic is a wild-yeast fermented specialty of Belgian breweries like Lindemanns. Framboise is a raspberry version. Think pink froth atop a glowing red beer with nostril-tickling fruit aroma and fresh, tart, refreshing flavour bubbling on the tongue; how well that will go with dessert at a romantic dinner for two? There are 750ml and 375ml bottles, both with wine-corks under the foil-wrapped crown cap to open for added drama.

LAST DROP FORBIDDEN ALE (4.6 PER CENT)

Belgian wheat beer’s hallmark aroma of banana is only slight, with a touch of ginger, and instead of the expected sourness in the mouth there’s citrus and berry tartness and herbal spice. While not as nakedly flavoursome as its Belgian almost-namesake, the smooth, creamy, fruity beer suits female palates. Available on tap only.

ALE TALE

DOS EQUIS (4.5 PER CENT)

Drawing a long bow, the XX on the label could be translated as Valentine’s kisses. If you thought one global Mexican lager was enough, think again. Dos Equis has arrived on a marketing wave designed to equate the parent company’s drinks with the “Most Interesting Man in the World”. The idea comes from America, where Dos Equis is said to be “the fastest-growing imported beer”. The lager does have credentials, however. Although new to Australia, it’s been around for more than a century. It was originally brewed at the 125-year-old Moctezuma Brewery to bridge the old and new at the start of the last century, hence the two crosses or “equis”, XX (20 in Roman numerals). The face on the label of the 330ml green “premium” long-neck bottle represents 16^th century Aztec ruler Moctezuma. Dos Equis has some body and malty character. The sweet, fruity drink lingers on the palate longer than the froth lasts on the glass. Dos Equis is available at BWS and Dan Murphy’s, $18 per 6-pack or $50 a case of 24 bottles.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

From Fresh, The West Australian, 11th February