European Beer News (Issue 20)

by Carl Kins

Wild beers are on the rise. Duvel’s Antwerp subsidiary De Koninck launched a new beer, Wild Jo. This comes after BOM Brewery’s Triporteur Wild & Funky and Halve Maan (Bruges) re-released Brugse Zot Wild for the second year.

Halve Maan is now launching a sizeable crowdfunding exercise to fund the two-mile pipeline between the brewery and the bottling plant. There are three possibilities, but the “Gold” funder will get a Brugse Zot daily for the rest of his/her life. This comes at a hefty price of 7,500 EUR (approx. 8,300 USD). Plus, they successfully continue to claim the term “Zot” (fool) worldwide, such that Finnish brewers had to recall their beer “Vlaamsche Zot”. 

Sports and beer are getting more and more intertwined.

The Brussels breweries teamed together recently in honor of the local soccer club (Union St. Gillis) winning their championship and being promoted to Second League. For this, Manneken Pis, the famous Brussels/Belgian symbol was dressed in club colors and beer was poured from, amongst others, Cantillon and Brasserie de la Senne. 

Cycling is huge in Belgium and more breweries are trying to hook up somehow. Brouwerij De Bie launched Vélo, a typical tripel, in cooperation with the Etixx-Quick Step team. This follows in the successful footsteps of Kwaremont (a hill in Flanders, famous amongst cyclists) brewed by Brouwerij De Brabandere and Koerseklakse (meaning cycling cap) brewed by Gaverhopke.

A strange limited-edition collaboration recently occurred involving the heavily expanding lambic brewer Lindemans and Mikkeller. They developed SpontanBasil, an old gueuze to which fresh basil was added.

Johan van Dyck, who has Seef beer under contract, is starting his own brewery in Antwerp, and he has also launched a new beer, Bootjesbier, with a link to the Red Star Line Museum. The Red Star Line transported tens of thousands of immigrants to Ellis Island in the U.S. This link to the United States translates into the beer via the use of U.S. hops.

The fourth edition of the successful Brussels Beer Challenge beer competition will take place in Antwerp in November.