Just a reminder....check out DrinkBelgianBeer.com!

It's been a couple of months, so I thought I'd repeat it again: My new website,
DrinkBelgianBeer.com, is now live.

This blog will not be updated with any new material any more...so please point
your browsers to the new website!

Cheers,

Chuck

DrinkBelgianBeer.com is live!

I haven't been posting much here of late, and there's a good
reason for that.

It's called drinkbelgianbeer.com. Yes, my new website is finally
live. Please head on over and take a look!

I probably won't be updating these pages much in the future,
but I'll likely keep it active as an archive of past articles.

Or, maybe we'll move 'em to the new site. I haven't quite decided.

Thanks for years of reading and viewing....and I look forward to
being far more active with DrinkBelgianBeer.com!

Cheers,

Chuck

Stillwater Artisanal and The Brewer's Art craft new collaboration beers

Photo: Brian Strumke, smelling the wort

Brian Strumke, the gypsy brewer behind Stillwater Artisanal Ales,
and The Brewer's Art have teamed up again to produce a couple
of new beers.

"This is sort of a 'remix' of each other's beers," Strumke told me
on Tuesday, September 17, during the collaboration brewing day
at Brewer's Art, in Baltimore's Mt. Vernon neighborhood.

"I came up with a take on their Green Peppercorn Triple. It's going
to be Green Peppercorn Single. It's a golden ale using Tettnang,
Styrian, Hallertau, and Sterling hops, with dried green peppercorns
added. It will come in at around 4% abv," Strumke remarked. "It
should debut during Baltimore Beer Week in October," he added.

Photo: some of the sage from Steve's garden

Brewer Rob Perry of Brewer's Art stated: "We brewed a beer called
'Down Bar Door' which is our take on Stillwater Cellar Door. It's
brewed with Amarillo and Citra hops, and sage from my colleague
Steve's back yard. It will clock in at 4.5% abv, so is very sessionable
as well. It should on tap here next week."

Photo: Rob Perry (left) and Brian Strumke

Around eight barrels of each beer was produced.

Both beers should be available at Brewer's Art and Of Love
and Regret, Strumke's bar/restaurant in Canton.

Ebenezer's Belgian Beer Dinner 2013

Below is a link to photos from a fabulous beer dinner at Ebenezer's
Pub in Lovell, Maine, last week.

I'll be writing about the dinner in various publications. I'll
post info here about that when it happens.

See here for the photos. Click on the arrow button inside the
rectangle in the top right corner to play as a slideshow.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Chuck

Lambic experts to speak at Ebenezer's Belgian Beer fest August 23

(Photo, above: Gert Christiaens, 

Oud Beersel)

Gert Christiaens doesn't get away from his Oud Beersel lambic
blendery very often. The demand for his excellent lambic,
Oude Geuze, Oude Kriek, and other beers far exceeds supply,
so he's usually in Belgium, slaving away, producing more lambic
so we beer lovers can be happy. He also runs the business, with
the help of his father, Jos.

Good news, though: Gert is headed stateside in less than two weeks.
You'll have to go to Maine to meet him, and hear a talk from one of
Belgium's hardest working lambic makers. Gert will be there with Yves
Panneels, one of the two brothers that run and own In de Verzekering
tegen de Grote Dorst, one of the Payottenland's premier lambic cafes.

(Photo, above, left-right: Yves and Kurt

Panneels, In de Verzekering Tegen de 

Grote Dorst)

Yves is also in charge of Public Relations for HORAL, the group that
helps protect and promote lambic beer in Belgium. Yves is also an
expert on lambic beer, and is Chairman of the "Geuzegenootschap" a
Gueuze Society that organizes several special lambic events at his cafe:
Night of the Great Thirst; Day of the Kriek; and Day of the Lambic.
I have been to all of them. See here for more info about the cafe.

(Photo, above: In de Verzekering tegen de 

Grote Dorst, Eizeringen, Belgium.)

In fact, this year's Night of the Great Thirst (Nacht van de Grote Dorst)
will be on Saturday, August 24th at Ebenezer's Pub in Lovell, Maine.
"I'll be bringing a special blend that the Gueuze Society made last
December. It's drinking beautifully right now," Yves told me today.
Night of the Great Thirst is held on even years in Belgium, hence
the date in Maine for this year.

(Photo, above: Chris Lively, right, in black

shirt, of Ebenezers Pub, Lovell, Maine.)

Yves will give a lecture titled: "The Typology of Lambic Beers"
at Ebenezers on Friday evening, August 23. Gert will give a talk
"The Revival of Oud Beersel and Authentic Lambic Beers" that
same evening. Contact Ebenezer's Pub directly for details and
ticket availability. See here for their email address and telephone
number.

Ebenezer's owner and lambic lover Chris Lively is organizing
the events. As if anyone needed another reason to celebrate, Chris's
40th birthday celebration is also the same day as
the Night of the Great Thirst, Saturday August 24th. It surely
should be a day of great enjoyment.

(Photo, above: the bar at Ebenezers Pub,

Lovell, Maine.)

There may be a slideshow to accompany the talks. This is sure to
be a special event and sell out quickly!
Ebenezers Belgian beer festival will run from Friday, August 23,
through Sunday, August 25.

Four Fabulous Cafes in the Payottenland-Celebrator Beer News

Well, looooong time no post here. Moving for the first time in five
years, and writing content for a new website will do that to you.

New website, you say? Yep. More on that later this summer.

Meanwhile, here's a link to a piece I just had published in Celebrator
Beer News. It's about four great lambic cafes in Belgium's lambic
country.

Cover page is here

Article here

Continues here

I just received the sad news that one of them will be closing soon,
but I'll leave it to them to make the announcement.

Cheers,

Chuck

Dry-hopped Girardin Oude Lambik to debut at Zythos Beer Fest this weekend

ZBF, Belgium´s biggest beer festival, begins in two days.

There are lots of special brews that will be offered, such as
the unblended version of Liefmans Kriek.

There will also be 200 liters of Girardin Oude Lambik, run through
a randall filled with Nelson Sauvin hops.This should be a great beer!

Better get to the Girardin/Brouwerij Montaigu stand early. I know
I will...

Leuven's "Extra Muros" event, ZBF weekend, April 26-28.

(M Cafe, a great new bar in Leuven.)

Well, it's less than 2 weeks now to the second time the
Zythos Bier Festival (ZBF) will be held in Leuven, Belgium.

(Part of the beer board at M Cafe.)

Leuven has embraced the festival like previous cities never
did, as it promotes it own beeriness at the same time.

(Evert Thys, Cafe Metafoor.)

See my new article in Celebrator Beer News, "The Bars and
Breweries of Leuven, Belgium" here for more info about the
cities' pubs and local breweries in the region.

(Leuven's beautiful old town hall.)

So just what is "Extra Muros"? Well, the city of Leuven got together
with local beer speciality bars and members of the local beer
appreciation and promotion club, LBT (De Leuvense Biertherapeuten-
"The Leuven Beer Therapists"-see here for more info) to develop
events in the city worth a diversion during the ZBF weekend,
April 26-28.

During that weekend, bars in the city will offer beers that are not
available at the fest, as well as several tastings and other events.
About twenty bars are involved in Extra Muros over the weekend.

The Extra Muros website, with details, is here.

I expect that Friday night, April 26th, will be very busy, as the fest
starts the next day.

I know that Extra Muros will be a hit for beer lovers, as I have been
drinking....I mean, researching, beer with LBT members, such as
Luc Smekens and Steven Vermoere, for about 15 years. They know
beer and they know Leuven, so it should be a fun, beery time.
Be there. Tell 'em I told you so.

Late 1940's-1950's St-Sixtus Abdij Westvleteren bottle

This Sint-Sixtus Abdij/Westvleteren bottle likely dates to
the late 1940's or early 1950's, and is one of the few I have
seen from Westvleteren with a label.

I have heard different stories behind the origin of the bottle.
There are also two different versions: one with the word
"Abt" in the lower left corner, and the other with "12" with a
degree mark to the upper right of the "12." While the bottle
shown above is slightly torn in the area, it is clearly the 12
and not the "Abt."

This video from Tournée Générale Season 2 Episode 2 shows, at
the 9.30 mark, Brouwerij St. Bernardus Sales and Marketing Manager
Marco Passarella with a number of old St. Bernardus bottles, of which
he says this one is the first ever with a label.

However, the bottle shown here and the third one from the left
in the video both have the Palm tree of St. Sixtus on the label,
rather than the metallic-appearing cross that appears on later
St. Bernardus bottles.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/belgianbeerspecialist/2286217594/in/set-72157603966458566/lightbox/

The photo linked above, which I took, shows the two of the same
bottles on the floor of the old brewery at Westvleteren. So the question
remains: were these bottles brewed and filled at Westvleteren, within the
walls of the abbey, or at the St. Bernardus brewery in Watou?

The website of expert Cyril Pagniez shows Westvleteren labels here
and St. Bernardus labels here

Note that the 1941 Watou/St. Bernardus labels cannot have been
made that year, as the St. Bernardus brewery did not exist until 1946.
The 1941 date must have referred to something else.

If anyone can shed any light or has a definitive answer for this
mystery, please let me know!

3 Fonteinen's new brewery set to be christened

3 Fonteinen has a new brewery, and it will soon be officially
christened. I can't give details, but watch this space for news.

Check out the brewery's new logo, above. Disregard the leafs
at the top, as they are not part of it. Very cool, eh?

Look for more and more great things (meaning beers!!) from
a reinvigorated Armand Debelder, with the help of wife Lydie
Hulpai and protege/brewery co-manager Michaël Blancquaert.

Full speed ahead.

Biercentrum Delvaux and Brouwerij de Kroon

(Photo, above: from left, Dr. Filip Delvaux, 

Dr. Freddy Delvaux, and Peter Delvaux,

inside the new but still under construction 

brewhouse, at Brouwerij De Kroon.)

      

There are a lot of very interesting projects going on in the Belgian beer world 

right now, and I’ve had the privilege of visiting many of them in the last couple 

of years.

One that really stood out during my December 2012 trip will be a major 

destination spot for beer lovers from around the world. The principals involved 

are big names in the Belgian beer world, and internationally.

(Photo: the site before renovations began.)

Professor Emeritus Freddy Delvaux of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and 

sons Dr. Filip Delvaux and Peter Delvaux, are working on a multi-purpose site 

called Biercentrum Delvaux and Brouwerij de Kroon.
This translates as "Beer Center Delvaux and the Crown Brewery."

(Photo: a look from the street.)

Dr. Freddy Delvaux is an expert on brewing science, quality control, and recipe 

creation who worked at what is now AB-Inbev in Leuven for 17 years, and then 

went on to create a laboratory of brewing science at the University in Leuven, 

where he has worked to this day. The lab began with a 60-liter test brewery and 

was later expanded it to 500 liters. Courses on brewing science are offered, and 

the brewing school at KU Leuven has awarded over twenty doctorates.

   His son Filip was awarded his Ph.D. for his studies on Belgian witbier, and 

has worked at the University lab for 15 years himself. The two formed a 

consulting company where they perform quality control, recipe creation, and 

lab analysis for about twenty breweries, most of which are in Belgium.  

(Photo: part of the brewery complex prior to

renovations.)

   During my visit on 14 December, Filip told me: “I usually visit each one 

of the breweries we consult for about once a month, to discuss the results of 

our analysis from the previous month, and to pick up new samples for testing. 

So we always have fresh beer here.”

 That’s certainly a nice advantage of visiting breweries on a regular basis!

Freddy then mentioned: “About 3 or 4 years ago, we started thinking about 

doing something different, as normally I would have to retire at age 65 in 

Belgium. I’m past that by a couple of years now, and will likely retire from 

my position at KU Leuven in the near future. So, we looked for a suitable 

site for our plans and found this place.”

(Photo: a brewkettle in the old brewery.)

The locale is Brouwerij De Kroon (The Crown) in Neerijse, a little town 

about 10 km south of Leuven. De Kroon opened in 1897, and closed in 

1972. The German army took away the brewery’s copper brewkettles 

during the First World War. The circa 1920’s to 1930’s brewhouse still 

exists, with a mash tun, direct-fired boiling kettle, and a coolship. The 

boiling kettle is 35 hl in size.

(Photo: another old brewing kettle.)

The old brewhouse still needs renovation, and will be a museum when it 

opens. The last owner’s grandson still lives on site, and will conduct tours 

of the old brewery. Look for a couple of 1955 Opel Blitz beer delivery 

trucks to add to the museum experience. Very cool, it shall be.

(Photo: one more old piece of brewing 

equipment.)

“Let’s see the new brewery now,” Dr. Filip Delvaux suggested. I agreed, 

without hesitation. “This is a 5-hectoliter (about 4 U.S. barrel) Italian built 

Velo system, where we will make many experimental beers. It is fully 

automated, so we can do as many as three or four batches a day if we want,” 

Freddy commented. He continued: “We will serve these beers in the brewpub 

that will also be constructed here. We’ll have piping running under the brewery 

to the brewpub, and there will be four duotank serving vessels there.”

Filip added: “We haven’t yet decided how many taps we will have in the 

brewpub. But there won’t be too many, as we want to make sure all the beer 

served here is fresh. At first, all our beers will be exclusively served on site. 

Down the road sometime, maybe we will offer special cafes some of our beers. 

But that is something we will decide in the future.”

(Photo: this will be the second floor tasting room, 

where tastings and lectures will be given. It is above 

the brewpub's main floor.) 

“We additionally have some old recipes from the old De Kroon brewery, and 

we may try and recreate them on our new brewery,” Filip commented, smiling.

“We will also have guest beers on tap and in bottles from the breweries that we 

consult for,” Freddy remarked. Some of the experimental brews may end up 

being new beers at breweries that enlist the Delvaux’s services.

Above the brewpub, which will serve food, including beer cuisine, there is 

a tasting room where courses/lectures about beer will be given. I suspect that 

some of the brewers reading this article will be sitting in that room taking a 

course in the not too distant future…and that you will be loving every minute 

of it!!

Peter Delvaux ran an event management company for 15 years, and he will 

manage the brewpub, marketing for it, and events associated with it.

Barrel-aging, you ask? Yes, indeed. Ask and ye shall receive: “It’s another 

very interesting thing that we want to do here, and we will have barrels in 

the cellar, aging various things. But we won’t tell you all our secrets about 

that yet,” Filip commented, grinning.

(Photos: the coolship/koelschip in the old

brewery.)

Hmmm, with a renovated coolship in the old brewery, and barrels in the 

cellar…it makes one think of what goes on in places on the south and west 

sides of Brussels. Places like Beersel, Itterbeek, Kobbegem, Lembeek, 

St-Ulriks-Kapelle, and Vlezenbeek. But I won’t mention the “L” word here.

Neerijse is in the Province of Flemish Brabant, as is the Payottenland. 

Will spontaneous fermentation be a part of Brouwerij de Kroon? Only time 

will tell, but my fingers are crossed for the answer to be….yes! J

(Photo: inside the new lab at Biercentrum Delvaux.)

The lab that Drs. Freddy and Filip Delvaux ran at the University in Leuven 

was moved to the new site in mid-November, and it is now officially named 

Biercentrum Delvaux. “Beer starts and ends here. So, we got the lab up and 

running first,” Freddy remarked. It is definitely a high-tech laboratory, as 

demonstrated by the equipment I saw inside. Two women were conducting 

labwork during my visit, late on a Friday afternoon. I had the feeling that 

sipping a Belgian beer wasn’t too far off in their future that evening.

(Photo: inside the new lab.)

“This is what we call a beer center. Science, tasting, history, and brewing,” 

Freddy said, beaming. Filip added: “To summarize, Biercentrum Delvaux 

is the brewing lab which serves the Belgian brewing industry with technical 

consulting, an analytical lab, product development and research. Brouwerij 

de Kroon will encompass the old museum brewery, the new, small-scale 

brewery, and brewpub with tasting room. There, you can learn about ancient 

and modern brewing, and taste house-brewed beers, and a selection of 

Belgian specialty beers. In short, it will be the place to be for Belgian beer 

lovers!”

(Photo: a baudelot/heat exchanger in the old brewery.)

As is obvious from the photos, the project is still a work in progress. The 

Delvaux’s began brewing on February 12, and plan to open to the public 

on April 22nd. That, my friends, is the weekend before the Zythos Beer 

Fest (ZBF), which is Belgium’s biggest.

(Photo: the old brewery under renovations.)

“We started work here on 28 April 2012,” Freddy told me, as we sipped 

a brew after my visit. “It would be nice to be open within a year, especially 

by the time of the ZBF weekend.”

Happily, it looks like that will happen! However, please note that the 

April 22nd opening date is not an absolute guarantee. You never know what 

can come up at the last minute when opening a new brewery, restaurant, and 

the like.

(Photo: on the second floor of the old brewery,

where the coolship is.)

I have even more good news for those taking public transport in Belgium: 

there is a bus that runs from Leuven and stops at the brewery, which runs 

till 11 pm weeknights, and till 2 am on Friday and Saturday nights. It takes 

about 15 minutes. I’m not going to tell you which one, yet, until the marvelous 

new beer destination is open to the public.

        Cheers to Biercentrum Delvaux and Brouwerij de Kroon!!

Special thanks go to Marie and Tourism Vlaams-Brabant for
their help. See here for more info on the Province of Flemish Brabant
and here for more info on Flanders.

(Photo: new fermenters in the new brewery.)

(Photo: brewing equipment under renovation.)

(Photo: an old bottling line.)

1963 Abdy Westvleteren bottle

It's a shame this 1963 Abdy Westvleteren bottle is empty.
Perhaps this one contained the mighty 12, or Abt as it was
known in those days. Must have been a good one. Or a
great one.

Beautiful bottle though, eh?

Belgian Babble column in Ale Street News February 2013

I'm a little late posting this, but as it is still the current issue,
I'll tell you that I have a 1,000+ word piece on several
Belgian subjects in the February/March issue of Ale Street
News.

and you can read it, for free, here


I'll let you know that I covered Brouwerij De Plukker,
Seizoensbrouwerij Vandewalle, Brouwerij Alvinne,
and B&B with cafe, De Schraevenacker.

I hope you enjoy it!

Belgian Spring Beer Fests article in BUZE Magazine

I'm happy to say that I have a nearly 1,000 word piece on
three of Belgium's best spring beer festivals in the second
issue of BUZE Magazine.

BUZE is a digital magazine targeted at tablets like iPads.
The first two issues are available for the iPad, and for issue
3, it should be compatible with Amazon Kindle Fire HD as
well.

I cover the superb Toer de Geuze, the open house where many
of Belgium's lambic producers open their doors to the public
for a day, every two years. It is Sunday, April 21st this year.

The Zythos Beer Festival, Belgium's premier beer fest, is
also a focus. There should be close to 500 beers on offer
on April 27-28 in Leuven.

The Weekend of Spontaneous Fermentation is the third in
this trio. It's focus, as the name suggests, is lambic-based
brews. It will be held May 25-26 this year, in Buggenhout,
East Flanders.

You can read about these fantastic events by downloading
the BUZE app at the iTunes store here

Cost is $3.99 for a single issue or $19.99 for a year.

Enjoy!