Hi,
This is a small notification mentioning that the upcoming 15 and 16 November 2008 already the second edition of the most prestigious Bruges' Beer Festival will happen inside the Medieval Halls of the Bruges' Belfry. A wonderful location !

This fantastic beer festival is organized by the local Bruges Autonomous Beer Tasters, and this in cooperation with the city of Bruges.
This time, the complete Belfry halls will be occupied, which is a remarkable improvement.
Remember that last year only half of that space (the left side) was available.

More than 50 brewers and more than 180 beers will be awaiting for your optimal beery pleasure.
Interesting to notice that bry. Strubbe from Ichtegem has made a unique BAB-beer, which will be presented for the first time at this upcoming Bruges Beer Festival. Note that bry. Strubbe is doing quite well lately. Strubbe beers like Keyte Osténdse Dobbel Tripel (see also...), and the ever wonderful oak aged Oud Bruin Ichtegem's Grand Cru are only a couple of most delicious examples.

There also will be that gastronomic Beer Cuisine Culinaire happening, where 8 top-chefs (4 per day) will create some exclusive beer menus.

There is free transport from the Bruges station towards the Belfry. This can be done with the special bry Vansteenberge beer-horse tram. A not to miss fun experience, including some great Vansteenberge beers on board !

More details:

• www.brugsbierfestival.be
  
• www.babbierproevers.be
• A picture report about last years first edition: fotoreportage.brugsbierfestival.be

BAB wants to invite you, and everyone, to their fantastic beer fest.
Folks, this is most probably the best beer festival in whole Belgium. (PS: this is not an exaggeration :))

Cheers,
Filip

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Hi,
Time for a real scoop! Brugse Bok !

This beer is still not available, but already a picture of the coaster can be seen.
A brand new bok beer brewed at Bruges' brewery De Halve Maan.
This is another fine newcomer from this most innovative Bruges' brewery, the admirable job of Xavier Vanneste, Head Brewer - Manager.
Brugse Bok is a light brown seasonal autumn beer at 6.5 vol%, brewed with roasted malts, which will give the beer a full malty flavor.
It will be commercially available starting from week 37, and will be sold during the month of Oktober.
People, this is the ever first Bok Beer produced inside Bruges !

Most of the production will be exported to The Netherlands where bok beers are very popular. Hence also the orange colors on the labels - coasters. Please, do notice the altered Bruges' fool image. I observe that the Bruges' fool is wearing buck horns and has buck paws on that coaster.

Luckily a small part will also be sold inside Belgium !

Interesting to mention that later this year another new beer from bry. De Halve Maan will be launched: Brugse Zot Tripel !
More from that later..... stay tuned.

www.halvemaan.be

Cheers,
Filip

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Hi,
Recently, we did a Bob Hendrick' "210 Original Cafes in East- and West Flanders" boekerijden (book riding) in the region of Roeselare.
This book is really a must companion when heading towards great original beer bars here in Flanders. Details: http://www.bloggen.be/originelecafes/
A nice place, which is already published in previous editions, but somehow we never attempted to try, is this small and old looking Eat & Talk Cafe Sanseveria.
A Bockor tied place, located near the harbor of Roeselare, inside the industrial region.

                                       Eet- en Praat Cafe Sanseveria - Website

A great looking inviting place with a lot of old antiques decorating the interior.
This picture is taken towards the old bar. The two hand pumps were for decoration purposes only.

Pictured more towards the right side, we notice that the wall is covered with old pictures - portraits, gives it that old ancient feeling about it.
About 30 well chosen beers were on the menu.
Katrien went for an aged Orval. I choose the malt roasty Ellezelloise Hercule Stout at 9.0 vol%, brewed at www.brasserie-ellezelloise.be
The stout was perfectly served at room temperature. Gives that more flavors. A really excellent brewed beer this is, and newly available here at beer pub Sanseveria.

A picture taken towards the front window. A row of Sanseveria plants giving green colors to the bar. Hence the name of the bar.
Interesting to notice is that bottle curtain ! Quite original.
In front, some old wooden casks could be observed. They were still filled with bottles.

Right behind me there were more from those old crates.
I notice these were from defunct brewery Bevernagie at Lichtervelde.
To my upper amazement and excitement I clearly see bottles with the cap still on them !!! ==>> FULL BOTTLES !!!
No hesitation, pulling out one bottle and taking pictures was of course a necessity.

Jeez..... that's what I call something very special.
An original, painted, Oude Piro bottle, in this case still full with beer ! The Bordeaux colored cap still intact, and this without  any traces of rust.
Brewed at bry. Bevernagie Hector, and this certainly 'before' 1981. Note that this brewery was closed in that year.
A brewery producing beers like 2e kat., Oude Piro, Oude Piro Speciaal, Speciaal, Stout, Tafelbier, Tafelbier Bruin.
Their flag ship being that Oude Piro, an Oud Bruin aged in oaks barrels with a refreshing lactic taste.

Here some more examples of very old Bevernagie labels.

Turning the bottle gives some more details.
Extra quality, pure malts and hops.
Bottle refund: 1 Belgian Frank.

A special "Speciaal Oude Piro" was available in big 75cl-80cl bottles at that time.
Apparently those big bottles were labeled with an old example shown here above.
The bottle refund was 2 Belgian Franks.
Observing those antique labels also gives details about the beers, categorized within quality categories.
1 Klas - 2e Kat. (=abbreviation of Kategorie = Category) - Hoge Kat. (High Category).
I presume that all Bevernagie beers with the name Speciaal were their best beers being classified withing the Hoge Kat. range.
Anyway, quite some interesting details.

Sanseveria has still that beer Piro on their menu.
But, these days this Oud Bruin is brewed at bry. Verhaeghe, one of the few Oud Bruin producers left here in Belgium.
A beer you should drink chilled. And this is what was done here at Sanseveria.
Poured out, it gives those big "sticking" CO2 bubbles, as you can see on the picture.
A rare phenomenon seldom seen when pouring out a Belgian Beer. After some swirling, the CO2 bubbles escaped the glass and gave a more creamy look.

The back label from the Piro mentioning the ageing in oak barrels (foedres). Sweet sour in taste.
Alcohol% being 5.4 vol%.
This beer is certainly based on the normal Vichtenaar, although this one has that more sweetness about it, and is 0.3 vol% stronger.  Queue de Charrue Brune 5.4 vol% could well be the exact same beer ! A wild story ?
“Vichtenaar” is a beer, brewed with roasted malts, spicey hops, fruity yeast and soft water, pumped up from a 172 m deep well, guaranteeing constant quality and pureness of the liquor. After primary and secondary lagering, “Vichtenaar” gets a ternary fermentation in oak vessels during 8 months. These oak pipes are big tuns with a capacity varying between 500 and 2500 hectolitres. “Vichtenaar” is a traditional and specific Western Flemish beer, from the northwest of Belgium. Its taste can be described as mild-sourish and suitably complex, thanks to the long lagering on oak. This tart flavour makes it eminently suitable for the hot summer months. “Vichtenaar” is one of the last Flemish “Oud bruins” that are really lagered in the oak tuns, and are as such appreciated by the connoisseur, looking for authenticity. As early as 1958 “Vichtenaar” was crowned as the top in an international concours in Gent.
Brewed for All Drinks Bevernagie Lichtervelde, which is now part of Prik & Tik.
Opening hours, see...

New and old next to each other.
For the record, we did not try the Oude Piro !
Those bottles are for decoration purposes only. Asking the bartender to open one of the remaining bottles is simply undone ! Imagine everyone would do that, and the bartender would accept. This would lead to a crate with empty bottles and a complete loss of magic !

Apart from good beers and historic evidences, some great food can be ordered and tasted.
Especially the spaghetti and lasagna were top notch !
Note that since 1 January 2008, this place is run by Tony & Francine. A fantastic job !

People, I can only recommend this gorgeous place to try..... 

Website Sanseveria

Cheers,
Filip

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Hi,
On Saturday 23 August, the 16th. beer prince(ss) Competition was held again at the "Biermuseum" in Ertvelde.
The Belgian Beer Board was present, and became second !

The "Biermuseum" at Ertvelde is a wonderful beer bar museum.
An amazing collection of beer glasses and full bottles can be observed. An exceptional piece of beery history !
Full details about this gorgeous place can be found on their web page: biermuseum.justdrop.in

The competition was a true joy to participate, and consisted out of answering some rather difficult beery, and non-beery questions, including some blind tastings.
Here above we see the handing out of the price towards the third place, being won by Bianca.

The overall winner was Thierry Vanmullem, husband from Bianca.
Note that Thierry & Bianca have set up a great Belgian Beer Blog, called Goddelijke Drank (Heavenly Drink), consultable via www.bloggen.be/bier_in_beeld (bookmarking is the message)
Here we see the handing over of the Beer Prince ribbon by owner Biermuseum Remi  D'Haene.

Beer Prince Thierry Vanmullen carrying the heavy price, being a big basket full of great beers and other delicacies.
On the left side: Remi D'Haene - Right side: Organizer Beer Prince(ss) contest Frank Devilder (great job Frank!)
Note that Frank's shirt is showing the Biermuseum housebeer, called Beremietje. A great spicy session beer brewed at bry. Lefebvre.

Bianca and Thierry, my felicitations with the first and third place ! A BIG APPLAUD !!!!
We celebrated this happening with a most excellent Satan Red, an 8.0 vol% strong ale brewed at bry. De Block in Peizegem.
I was quite well surprised with this hazy amber dark "bottle conditioned" beer. Great body structure. Good creamy appearance.
Wonderful caramel flavors and some kind of funkiness clearly present. A great beer !!!

Owner Remi D'Haene has done some titanic efforts to achieve that amazing big beer glasses collection.
A collection that is too big to fit the room. The most beautiful pieces are exposed, including this one.
One of the oldest beer glasses present.

From defunct Grote Brouwerij Concordia N.V., Hunnegemstraat 19, 9500 Geraardsbergen (raised in 1923)
Closed in 1983 and taken over at that time by Brewery Safir.
Brewery Safir was taken over in 1979 by InterBrew's Stella Artois brewery in Leuven where in 1988 the complete production was moved to.
This is a very old (pre-war) enameled glass of Helles Concordia - Grammont - Geraardsbergen.
The beer was a kind of German style lager, very popular in that period here in Belgium.
The enameled lettering is clearly damaged ......

Googling gave more glasses from the same brewery

The fun thing about taking pictures of old glasses is the fact that this leads to wading through old times.
A bit of research on the internet leads to quite some interesting historic evidences.
Even a picture of the Helles Concordia cap was found.

Including this old collection of bry. Concordia labels. (click for big)

..... and this Concordia enameled plates, including the Helles Concordia one.

Even an old Helles Concordia coaster was found !
One thing I actually didn't found was the beer in question ! Call this a bummer :(

Great sources were:
http://www.chopescollection.be/nl/marqtt.php?idbrie=126

http://www.bierdeckelsammler.net/deu_brauerei_show_464.htm

...........and eBay . It's stunning how much Belgian Beer history is inside that website !!!

Cheers,
Filip

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