Champagne beers, "Biere Brut" ... beers for special occasions.

Hi there,

The end of 2010 is very near ... this will probably be my last post this year. Let me first start off with wishing everybody a HAPPY NEW YEAR! Have a great ending tomorrow, and an even better beginning. May all your wishes come true!

In this post I'd like to talk a little about our champagne beers. As most of us will party tomorrow-night, it's a good idea to toast to the new year with a good alternative to champagne, a champagne-beer, also called 'brut beers'.

But what exactly is "champagne beer"?

Champagne beer, or "Biere Brut" is a rather new and very interesting style of beer, which is primarily brewed in Belgium. It's not a true Belgian style beer as for example Lambic is, but Belgium is for sure the pioneer in this style (the first one ever made in this class is the Malheur Brut, brewed by De Landtsheer, here in Belgium :).

Champagne beers typically undergo a lenghty maturation, some of them are even cave-aged in the French Champagne region and finished using the "methode champenoise" to remove yeast from the bottle.

Champagne beers are usually rather high in alcohol (11 - 12% ABV) and very sparkling (highly carbonated). Colors range from very pale (just like champagne) to darker colors. Tastes and aromas are very rich and diverse, a true feast for all your senses, beer made for special occasions!

Just like champagne, champagne beers are usually only available in big bottles (75cl) and served alike: very cold in an ice-bucket, and drunk in champagne glasses.

Here, in Bier Central, we have the following champagne beers available:

Malheur Bière Brut (Brut Reserve) 

Brewed by brewery De Landtsheer, this is a exclusive and rich beer, which is 3 times re-fermented in the bottle. The yeast in the bottleneck is removed using the "degorgement"-method.

Beer guru Michael Jackson quoted it as a new "World Classic"; suitable as an aperitif, dessert or digestive: strong but silky-smooth, with a powerfull, dry aftertaste and very aromatic.

Brewery: De Landtsheer, Buggenhout
Alcohol (ABV): 11%
Category: Brut beer

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Malheur Dark Brut

(text below is copied from the celebrator.com site, click here to read the full review) The Malheur Dark Brut, which was initially called Black Chocolate and Brut Noir, was first introduced in 2003. The base beer is the Malheur 12. Spices are added in small quantities to this brew, though Manu would not reveal what they were! He told me: "The key to using spices in a beer is adding just enough that they add to the flavor complexity of the brew, but not so much that anyone could guess which spices are used."

Additionally, the Dark Brut undergoes two weeks of conditioning in American oak barrels. While the wood is American in origin, the barrels are made in France. Manu commented: "We use the barrels to add a subtle wood taste to the beer. We tested for quite a while to see what length of time the beer should be aged in the barrels so that this process would impart the taste we wanted in the Dark Brut: perceptible, but not too much.” He continued, “The reason we used American oak is that it imparts its wood character to the beer much more quickly than French oak." (end copied text).

Brewery: De Landtsheer, Buggenhout
Alcohol (ABV): 12%
Category: Brut beer

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DeuS, Brut des Flandres

This extraordinary and sparkling "DeuS, Brut Des Flandres", brewed with barley, is fermented and matured in Belgium, refermented in the bottle, followed by the traditional "remuage" and "degorgement" in France. Serve chilled (2-4* C) and gently into a chilled flute or chalice glass.

Brewery: Bosteels, Buggenhout
Alcohol (ABV): 11,5%
Category: Brut beer

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Where-ever you have your new-year's eve party tomorrow, start your new year with something different, and try a champagne beer, I'm sure you'll love it!

As mentioned before, here at Bier Central, we have our 123party, which will be a blast for sure. I hope you will be there too, there are still tickets available! If you're not there, I wish you a very happy new year, and hope you'll be visiting this blog and/or pub on a regular basis. Cheers!

Greetingz,
Koen.

How NOT to taste beer ...

Yesterday (Christmas day) I had to work. Not really a day I like to work, as I prefer to be with my family, but that's part of the job. So I'm not complaining.

From a professional standpoint, Christmas is a weird day to work on. During the day there wasn't that much work, as most people spend their time with family, but later in the evening people do come out and want to socialize in a pub. As I worked all day I could stop around midnight, and got to drink a couple of new beers with some colleagues.

We first tried the Ename Tripel. A rather pale blond but very clear tripel with white head. The taste was a bit disappointing. There actually wasn't much of it. It felt a bit as drinking water with alcohol. Very neutral, too neutral. The bottom of the bottle did add a little sweetness, which reminded me to a taste I sometimes find in some Duvels. Ename Tripel is brewed by Roman and has a ABV of 8,5%.

The next one was a Kapittel Abt. Kapittel is brewed by brewery Van Eecke. Van Eecke is located in Watou, a very small town in the West Flandres. Watou is also the home of another very famous brewery, Sint Bernardus. 

Just as the Ename, the Kapittel Abt is an abbey beer, refermented in the bottle. It's a bit darker than the Ename Tripel, and is also unfiltered. The foam-head is much nicer and solid. It has a much richer taste and I was really pleased with it ... a touch of bitternes makes it a very nice Tripel, one that I'll drink again, for sure. The 10% alcohol does find it's way in your blood, so beware ;).

After that my colleague, Mike, insisted to try a Watou Tripel, as this is his favourite. The Watou Tripel is brewed by the Sint Bernardus brewery, which is the only commercial brewery that also brewed the world-class West-Vleteren trappist beers (they had a license untill 1992).

The Watou Tripel is indeed a very nice abbey beer, which does have some nice aromas, that the Kapittel doesn't have, but it did miss a bit of the punch, probably because it's lighter in ABV (7,5%). 

Again, this wasn't really a real tasting ... we were just talking at the bar, having fun while enjoying some new beers. By the time we were drinking the Watou Tripel, another colleague joined us, and we were talking about the strongest beer we have at Bier Central ... we actually have a couple, all with an ABV of 13%. One of them is the Black Albert.

Black Albert is brewed by De Struise Brouwers and is a stout. As most of us aren't really fond of stouts (for me the reference beer in the stout category is a Guinness, and I'm not really fond about that kind of beer), but we were curious about the Black Albert's taste and we couldn't resist buying one and sharing it. It poors into the glass as thin black oil, not producing a lot of foam, allthough it eventually gets a thick brownish head.

To be quite honest, at that point I actually drank already too much, so I don't even remember the smell. I do remember that I was actually surprised by the taste. I still can't describe it, but it sure wasn't bad (or at least not as bad as I expected a stout would be). One thing I will remember for sure is it's strong after-taste ... the taste really lasts very long, and I do like that when drinking a beer. Definately a beer I'll drink again to examine the rich flavours it has.

Meanwhile my colleague was drinking a Floreffe Tripel, and I did take a sip of it. It has a stronger bitterness than the other Tripels we tried, and sure tasted good. But again, at that point I was getting wasted, so I'll have to taste it again to give a good opinion :).

The alcohol was really getting in my head and the ambiance was big fun :) ... so we decided to go upstairs to The Popcorn and have some fun on the dance floor ... no more beer for me, I started drinking Havana Especial 7 years old ... bad idea :) ... actually it was big fun, and we had a blast. But that much alcohol is a sure way to get a huge hangover the next day ... one I'm still struggling with right now :(.

Anyway, lessons learned: it was a fun night, but it's certainly not the right way to have a beer-tasting :) When you drink too much, you can't really make a objective opinion about a beer. And a beer-tasting should not lead to a hangover the next day :). I guess it's better to only taste half of each beer you want to taste and taste only 3 to 4 beers maximum. But I did get to know a couple of new ones I sure will drink again.

Enjoy the year-end, but do drink reasonably!

Greetingz,

Koen.

My (beer) goal for the coming year 2011 ...

Hi beerlovers,

As this years end is very near now, this is the time to set up some goals and things I want to achieve in the coming year. One of the things I really feel important is to get a thorough knowledge of all the beers we sell in Bier Central.

Of course I already tasted a lot of the beers since Bier Central opened it's doors, but despite those efforts, I have to admit that the results so far are actually pretty useless and far from professional as they should be.

So, what is my goal (beerwise) for 2011?

Taste every beer we have listed in our "Bier Encyclopedie" (which is the actual beer-menu that is present on all of our tables in the pub).

The Beer Encyclopedie has 320 different beers listed (20 beers on tap, 300 bottled beers). Tasting them all is not as easy as you might expect ... for several reasons, you can't just say "I'll drink one beer a day, and in one year I have them all" ... so it will require some thinking and planning to succeed in this mission :).

But it doesn't stop there ... with "tasting" I mean: tasting and documenting every aspect of each beer, so all that information can be used in the future, mainly to help our customers choose a beer when they might be overwhelmed of all the choices they get. But also to share that information with my collegues and other beer-lovers.

As I already mentioned in one of my previous posts, I consider myself a beer-newbie, so before I will get started I will have to learn some basics before I can actually start the tastings, which I will of course share with you via my blog and other social media (Twitter, FourSquare, etc ...).

After the initial learning process, I'll have to do some planning (which beers first, how many beers to taste in a week, etc ...).

Only then I'll start the effective tastings ... it's gonna be a long, but fun voyage, and I hope you'll join me!

Please feel free to send comments/tips which can be usefull ... any advice is welcome. You can reach through this blog or via Twitter. Thanks in advance!

Greetingz,
Koen.

Rue de la biere ...

Hi there,

one of the things that makes our interiour so unique are the numerous enamel plates which hang all over the place. I don't know how much there are, but there are a lot. And some of them are really unique (and probably collector item's for some people).

I've started to make some pictures of them, which I will definately show in later posts. For now a small selection for you to enjoy ...

Greetingz,
Koen.

Year End is coming, and it shows ...

Hi there, everyone.

Last weekend was again a very busy weekend in Bier Central. As you might know, Bier Central is a new pub (opened just a few months ago), and though it is new, the owners are already long time experienced in this location (Kelly's Irish Pub is just next door, and that pub has been around for several years).

A few weeks back, my boss told me that beginning of December would be calm and starting around December 15th, the pace would go up. And indeed, this weekend was probably the busiest we had so far. Not only was Bier Central full house, but all the other businesses too ... Kelly's, The Popcorn, Andersen restaurant, and the chip-shop Frituur Oud-Belgie, all had too work at full throttle.

Amazing actually, it's like everyone already get's in party-mode after a year of hard working, and it's time to unwind and have some fun.

In one of my first posts I mentioned that Bier Central is actually part of a concept, in which you can come and drink a couple of nice beers, and once you get in the mood to actually party and dance or enjoy live music, you just go to one of the other businesses like The PopCorn or Kelly's Irish Pub.

So far our management promoted this mainly to companies who wanted to organise a special occassion for their clients or employees, allowing them to eat, drink and party all in one venue. And with success ...

Now they're going a step further and organise such an event for anyone who's interested. I've already posted something about it, and as you may have guessed I'm talking about the coming New Year's Eve Party.

On December 31st, there are a range of packages available for everyone who want's to enjoy the best New Year's Eve Party in Antwerp.

Most people like to start the last night of the year with a nice dinner, and after that the party can get started. The Andersen restaurant offers a couple of choices, where you can choose between the Andersen-menu or a World buffet. Or you can opt to enjoy a Fondue in Frituur Oud Belgie. Which ever package you choose, after your dinner you get access to the main event of the evening: the 123Party!

The party is spread accross the 3 pub's: Kelly's, Bier Central and PopCorn. Tickets for this party cost 10 euro (presales) or 15 euro the evening itself. This ticket includes one free drink. As you see, entrance won't be free that night, mainly to ensure there won't be too much people and preserve a pleasant atmosphere.

In Kelly's there will be live performance of Olly de Quartz, the best cover band in the Benelux. After the show, there will be DJ's playing the best pop & rock hits of 2010.

In Bier Central and The PopCorn there will be Steve Keane's 70s & 80s show, and DJ's playing the best disco and party music, making sure the night will be a party you won't forget!!

Make sure you reserve your tickets as soon as possible, as places are limited. And if you want something special ... reserve a VIP table in the PopCorn!

More information about all activities and packages can be found on a special site set up for the occassion: www.123party.be.

Unfortunately I won't be able to enjoy all of this as you can, since I'll be on duty and will be working, helping you to have the night of the year!

Hope to see you at the party!

Greetingz,
Koen.

Winter and Christmas beers ... what are they?

This time of year is the time of winter and Christmas beers. It's a tradition that goes way back. But what are they exactly and why are they so special?

Winter and Christmas beers are brewed in the winter and finds it's roots when cooling installations didn't exist yet. Fermentation is much harder at higher temperatures (during summer months). As the inventories of hops and barley had to make place for the new crops of the new year, brewers used these last supplies to make unique beers.

As these beers are rich in these ingredients, they are typically stronger, with more taste and aroma than their "normal" versions. Back then, these brews were often used as a Christmas gift that the breweries gave to their employees and special customers.

Christmas beer is usually a maltbeer of high fermentation, and is amber colored. To give those beers extra taste, brewers often add spices like honey, cinnamon, cloves and/or licorice.

As they are usually higher in alcohol-percentage, they are ideal for those cold winter months.

Here in Bier Central we have the following Christmas beers:

- Leffe Christmas - 6,6% - InBev
- Gordon Xmas - 8,8% - Anthony Martin
- N'Ice Chouffe - 10,0% - Duvel Moortgat/Brasserie D'Achouffe
- WinterKoninck - 6,5% - Brouwerij De Koninck
- Val-Dieu Noel - 7,0% - Brasserie Abbaye Du Val-Dieu
- Stille Nacht - 12% - De Dolle Brouwers
- Gouden Carolus Chrismas - 10,5% - Het Anker
- Barbar Winter Bok - 8,0% - Brasserie Lefebvre
- Avec les Bons Voeux - 9,5% - Brasserie Dupont

So, whenever you pass by, be sure to ask for one of the above, as they are seasonal beers, they might not be in stock later on!

Enjoy!

Greetingz,
Koen.

Pictures, 4 dec 2010: BierCentral and The Popcorn

Don't have much inspiration to write at the moment, so I'll just share you some pictures from last night ... a couple in BierCentral and a few from The Popcorn (the club upstairs).

The ambiance is really great on Saturdays ... like this, the new years' eve party is going to be awesome!!

Pictures from Bier Central

Pictures from The Popcorn

Pictures, 3 dec 2010 ...

One of the advantages of this being a personal blog, is that I can also write about the times that aren't so good ... right now is such a moment ... after a day of work, I got myself a couple of Tripel Karmeliet's too many ... it was fun, but too much is too much ... Tripel Karmeliet goes in soooo easy, but eventually the "guy with the hammer" always comes around ... beware!!!! Worked till around 18h, drank untill around 22h, got home, slept a couple of hours, and now wished I was a little wiser 6 hours ago :)

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of today ...

Greetingz,
Koen.

N'Ice Chouffe, another Xmas beer, now available ...

Winter definately arrived here in Antwerp ... it's freezing cold ... not really my favorite season. Luckily we have Christmas beers to get warm :)

Another one in our range of Christmas beers is the N'Ice Chouffe, of the La Chouffe brewery of the equally named popular beer. The N'Ice Chouffe is a strong dark beer that will warm you up during the winter months. It's spiced (with thyme and curacao) and has a light hop taste. Unfiltered and refermented in the bottle.

N'Ice Chouffe is available in 75cl bottles and has 10% alc./vol. ... Ideal to share with a friend/girlfriend and get all warmed up ;)

Enjoy.

Greetingz,
Koen.

Some great resources about Belgian Beer on the internet ...

Hello my fellow beer-friends,

Belgium is considered as one of the most important countries in the world when it comes to beer. And as such there is plenty information to find about Belgian beers on the internet. A lot of good stuff and a lot of crap.

Below a couple of sites which I personally find very interesting.

Enjoy!

Greetingz,
Koen.

The Belgian Beer Odyssey – 1 to 1000
A blog about a guy who talks about his journey, tasting 1000 belgian beers, one beer at a time. Started somewhere in the end of 2009, he is now at his 164th beer (November 29th, 2010). A real good site, giving a lot of background information about each beer he tastes. Wonderful how this guy can write. This guy is a true writer, and he sure loves beer. I can only dream of having such talent.

RateBeer - the best beers of belgium
A list with the highest rated beers brewed in Belgium as they appear in the ranks of RateBeer.com. RateBeer.com was partially responsible to make the West-Vleteren 12 trappist to be known as the best beer in the world.

Beer in Belgium - Wikipedia
Wikipedia page of beer in Belgium, giving a comprehensive overview of all things "beer" in Belgium. Ranging from history, over beer-types and other usefull background information.

Tournee Generale
Tournee Generale is a series of 10 tv-shows on Canvas (National TV channel) in which musician, biker and beerlover Jean Blaute takes his British companion, the legendary MTV-VJ Ray Cokes, on a journey through the belgian beer-landscape. Together they travel across the country in search of our unique and versatile beer culture.
In dutch, but most videos are English spoken, with dutch sub-titles.

YouTube - Belgian Beer
And endless list of videos related to belgian beer. Some of them useless, some of them fantastic. Good for hours and hours of belgian beer entertainment!

Google - Belgian Beer
If you've gone through the link above, and you want more, much more, then there's always Google ... just follow this link and you have enough information to wander around for the rest of your life ;)

Gordon Xmas, now on tap!

In one of my previous posts I already mentioned we now have Leffe Christmas on tap ... another Christmas beer now on tap is Gordon Xmas, temporarely replacing the regular Gordon's Scotch.

Gordon Xmas is a seasonal Christmas beer with an intense flavour and a lot of body. The flavour unfolds gently but steadily from the first mouthful. The stringent woody notes combine with a sweeter base without either flavour gaining the upper hand. The sweetness lingers on the palate, the stringency remains in the throat.

Alcohol: 8,8%
Colour: Dark Rubis
Fermentation: Top
Type: Scotch Ale

Enjoy!

Greetingz,
Koen.

A good alternative for WestVleteren 12??

Hey beergeeks,

I've got a question ...

Anyone who loves beer, knows that the WestVleteren 12 trappist is widely recognized as one of the best beers in the world. The only problem is, it's very hard to get.

To be honest, I never drank one before! And if you know me, that's actually quite a shame. I grew up in the West-Vleteren area, and more so, when I was young I went to the tavern accross the monestary each two weeks with my parents. My father loved to drink a "pater" (that's how we called the trappists back then), but I was still too young, and I only remember the sandwiches with ham, I used to eat over there.

Now I found out some time ago that the St. Bernardus Abbey in Watou, used to have a license to brew the West-Vleteren beer from somewhere in the 30's or 40's. And that license ended in 1992.

So, the brewers of St. Bernardus are the only people who actually know how to brew the West-Vleteren trappists, and have actually done it.

My question now is ... is it true that the St. Bernardus Abt 12 is almost the same beer as the West-Vleteren 12??? I've heard people telling this, but I'd like to hear it from people who actually tasted both beers?

Let me know, I'm curious, cause the St. Bernardus Abt 12 is only a fridge away :)

Greetingz,
Koen.

Some pictures ...

Hey beerlovers,

So far I haven't showed you any pictures ... so, here are there a few, taken with my phone (so quality could be better).

Enjoy ...

Greetingz,
Koen.

Some pictures of the pub:



Some pictures of our cellar:

Making some publicity for the best New Year's Eve Party in Antwerp!

Get your tickets now for the best New Year's Eve Party in Antwerp ... 3 parties, multiple live performances and dj's, great beers and cocktails, one location!!!

Be there (I sure will!).

Greetingz,
Koen.

Leffe Christmas beer, now on tap!

Christmas-time is coming and so are all the christmas-beers ...

From now on, we have the first one (Leffe Christmas) on tap.
Click on the image below for more info about this gorgeous beer ...

I'll soon inform you about all the other christmas beers we'll be serving!

Greetingz,
Koen.

The Beer Hunter - The Burgundies of Belgium

Hello beer-fanatics,

If there is one person in the world that should be honored for promoting the many Belgian beers, it should be the late Michael Jackson (not the singer). Michael Jackson is probably the most famous beer-expert there has ever been. And he had a true love for all the Belgian beers and our beer-culture.

Below the episode of "The Beer Hunter"-series, dedicated to Belgium and it's rich beer-culture.

Enjoy!

Greetingz,
Koen.

Bush de Nuits ... a truly special beer one has to taste!

Hey beerlovers,

Since I started this blog, I actually haven't blogged about a specific beer I tasted. One of the reasons I'm a bit hesitant to do this, is because I don't consider myself as a beer-expert (yet). Allthough I drank quite a few different beers in my life, and even more in the last few months that I work in Bier Central, writing about beer tastings is an art of it's own.

As a waiter/bartender in a beer cafe with over 300 kinds of beer, I do live in a sort of luxury to have "easy" access to some of the best beers Belgium has to offer.

The Dubuisson "Bush de Nuits" is truly one of those specialty beers that stands out of the crowd. Everything about it is in some way special: the bottle, the color, the taste, the brewing process, ...

So where should I start? Let's start at the brewery ...

Bush de Nuits is brewed by brewery Dubuisson. Dubuisson brews the whole range of the "Bush" beers, and also Cuvee des Trolls. Bush beers are well known in Belgium for their high alcohol-percentage (ranging from 8,5 to 13%). Cuvee des Trolls is a lighter and unfiltered (and thus a naturally cloudy) blond beer with fruity aromas.

The Bush de Nuits is a relatively new creation of the Dubuisson brewery and was launched in 2008. Bush de Nuits starts out as a Bush de Noel and is then put in wooden vats that once contained the renowned Bourgogne de Nuits St Georges wine. In those vats the beer matures for 6 to 9 months.

After this "maturing" process, they bottle the beer in 75cl-bottles and place them in a hot room for a third refermentation which takes around 3 weeks. During the bottling process a small amount of sugar and yeast are added. These additions (necessary for the 3rd refermentation) give the beer, besides carbonation and conditioning, a natural cloudiness.

Now the tasting ...

When opening the bottle, the first thing that impressed me, was the carbonation ... if you don't hold on to the cork, it would pop out like a champagne-bottle cork.

Pouring the beer into a glass is in my opinion not as easy as with other bottles, due to it's shape. I prefer to pour beer into a glass without "splashing".

The beer itself has a amber/brownish color, with kind of a dirty foam-head. The smell already reveals some of the flavours in the beer and is pretty complex. I'm not good in describing all those smells and flavours, so I prefer to compare them to other beers I know.

And here I get into trouble, because, truly, I really don't know to which beer I should compare it to. Tasting the Bush de Nuits reminded me more to tasting a single malt whisky than tasting a beer. There are so much aromas, so much flavours in it!

Some aromas and flavours are however pretty strong ... you definately taste the wood and wine of the vats used to mature the beer. Mouthfeel has a lot of carbonation. The strong aftertaste lasts long, and I like that. And as mentioned before, 13% alcohol makes it a strong beer, so drink it with care!

A great beer, ideal for special occassions. If you ever have the chance to taste it, even with a higher price-tag than most beers, go for it. It's worth it!!!

Cheers!

Greetingz,
Koen.

Beer jokes ... always good for a good laugh :)

People who love beer, love to laugh ... don't know if anyone ever made a study out of that, but I'm pretty sure that beerlovers have a good sense of humor :)

Below a few beer jokes that are worth a laugh ;)

Old man Murphy had worked down at the brewery for years, but one day , he just wasn't paying attention and he tripped on the walkway and fell over into the beer vat and drowned.

The foreman thought it should be his job to inform the widow Murphy of her old man's death. He showed up at the front door and rang the bell. When she came to the door, he said, "I'm sorry to tell you, but poor old Murphy passed away at work today when he fell into the vat and drowned."

She wept and covered her face with her apron and after a time, between sobs, she asked, "Tell me, did he suffer?"

"I don't think so," said the foreman: "He got out three times to go to the men's room.

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Yesterday, government scientists suggested that men should take a look at their beer consumption, considering the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer. The theory is that drinking beer makes men turn into women. To test the finding, 100 men were fed 6 pints of beer each. It was then observed that 100% of the men gained weight, talked excessively without making sense, became overly emotional, couldn't drive, failed to think rationally, argued over nothing, and refused to apologize when wrong. No further testing is planned.

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This guy walks into a bar and tells the bartender to line up 10 glasses and start filling them up with beer. So the bartender starts filling the glasses up with beer, and the man is right behind him drinking them straight down. The bartender says, hay buddy whats your hurry? The man says if you had what I have you would do the same thing. The bartender backs up and says what do you have. The man says about 75 cents!

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A Texan walks into a pub in Ireland and clears his voice to the crowd of drinkers. He says, "I hear you Irish are a bunch of hard drinkers. I'll give $500 American dollars to anybody in here who can drink 10 pints of Guinness back-to-back."
The room is quiet and no one takes up the Texan's offer. One man even leaves.
Thirty minutes later the same gentleman who left shows back up and taps the Texan on the shoulder. "Is your bet still good?" asks the Irishman. The Texan says "Yup" and asks the bartender to line up 10 pints of Guinness. Immediately the Irishman tears into all 10 of the pint glasses, drinking them all back-to-back.
The other pub patrons cheer as the Texan sits in amazement. The Texan gives the Irishman the $500 and says, "If ya don't mind me askin', where did you go for that 30 minutes you were gone?" The Irishman replies, "Oh...I had to go to the pub down the street to see if I could do it first."

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There's a big conference of beer producers. At the end of the day, the presidents of all beer companies decide to have a drink in a bar.

The president of 'Budweiser' orders a Bud, the president of 'Miller' orders a Miller Lite, Adolph Coors orders a Coors, and the list goes on. Then the waitress asks Arthur Guinness what he wants to drink, and much to everybody's amazement, Mr. Guinness orders a Coke!

"Why don't you order a Guinness?" his colleagues ask.

"Naah. If you guys won't drink beer, then neither will I."

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HOW TO IMPRESS A WOMAN

Compliment her, cuddle her, kiss her, caress her, love her, stroke her, comfort her, protect her, hug her, wine and dine her, buy gifts for her, listen to her, respect her, stand by her, support her, go to the ends of the earth for her.

HOW TO IMPRESS A MAN

Arrive naked ... with beer.

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This guy walks into a bar and has a drink. And then he looks in his pocket and orders another drink, looks in his pocket and has another drink, looks in his pocket and has another drink, and so on. Finally the bartender says, "What are you doing? What's in your pocket?" And the guy says, "It's a picture of my wife. When she starts looking good to me, I know it's time to go home."

Belgian beers get awarded gold, silver and bronze in international beer-contest ...

At the yearly European Beer Star Awards in Nurnberg (Germany), Belgian beers again proved their quality, by winning gold, silver and bronze in various categories.

See: Belgische bieren internationaal bekroond

As a belgian I feel proud again :p

O, and of course, most of those beers are served in our pub ;) So, come over and taste why those beers are liquid gold ;)

Greetingz,
Koen.

Tasting 101 ... (or at least how I see it :)

I'm far from a beer expert, but I do love beer a lot. And when you taste a lot of beer, you have to make some sort of classification for yourself, to know which beer you love, and which you don't and how you can compare the beers you tasted with each other.

I always get sort of frustrated when I see descriptions of beers. You always get to see so many descriptions with words that mean nothing (at least to me, I'm sure for a lot of people it does make sense).

Let's take such a description as an example: the Rochefort 10 trappist.

In our beer menu, you'll find the following description:
dark trappist | top-fermantation
deep red-brown, honey evolving to very fruity (pears, bananas, raisins) with touches of fondant chocolate, long-lasting aftertaste
Alc.: 10,3%

Ok, it is a good description (been written by somebody who has far more experience than I will ever have), but to me there are too much things in it I just don't see/taste.

Off course I already drank that Rochefort 10, and it is a great beer, one of the trappists you really need to drink whenever you get the chance! But "honey evolving to very fruity (pears, bananas, raisins) with touches of fondant chocolate" ???

Honestly, I don't taste that ... really ... none of the above. That doesn't mean it isn't like that, it just means "I" don't taste that. To me it is "deep red-brown beer with a very rich bouquet of flavors, which I can't define, and a long-lasting aftertaste (which I like)". And I would add the following: for me it's much better than f.e. the Westmalle Dubbel, but I prefer the La Trappe Quadruple just a tiny bit more. However, I will drink it again :). One of the stronger beers when it comes to alcohol percentage, and thus to be drunk with care.

So, what it the difference between those 2 descriptions? And which one is better?

Most obviously, the first one is written by an expert, and gives a rather objective description of the beer. A description that sounds exotic and would help somebody who knows all the underlying tastes, and who knows a lot about beer. To me, it gives me to much information I don't get, and thus in many ways useless.

The second one (mine) is very personal, and thus rather subjective. A description which is good for me, but probably not good for you, as you might have a complete different taste of what is good and not, than my taste.

Which description is better? In this case, I'd have more information from the second, but is pretty useless if you've never tasted the 2 other beers (Westmalle Dubbel and La Trappe Quadruple) used in the comparison.

So, to make sense of the 300+ beers we serve, I'm working on my own classification system which hopefully will make more sense to people, who are just like me, far from as experienced as the people who write those objective descriptions.

How will it look like? Well, it's still in development and far from done. But I do want to share it with you and would be very happy to hear how you people make distinctions between all the beers.

First I make a distinction between color: blond, amber or dark. For me, this is in most cases already a big indication how taste will be (there are off course many exceptions).
Next: strong or light (in alcohol) ... light being beers with alcohol-percentages ranging from 3 to 6%. Strong being everyting above 7%.
Next: sweet, saur or bitter. This is probably (for me) the most important distinction. Those 3 tastes are usually easy to classify as they are tasted by 3 different regions on your tongue. Sweet is tasted by the tip of your tongue, sour are tasted at the sides of your tongue in the back part of your mouth, and bitter is tasted at the back of your tongue.

To make things easy, you first take some "reference" beers. Beers you've drunk more than average, and to which you can compare new beers you taste. For example a few beers I use as reference beers: normal lager beer, Duvel, Westmalle Tripel, Rodenbach, and some others in specific categories (like Kriek and Gueuze).

Each time I drink a new beer, I try to classify them using my first rules, and then I compare them to my reference beers.

It is maybe a less advanced way of tasting than the real experts, and I guess over time my method will eventually evolve to the more "objective" way of tasting. But for now, I find it personally more satisfying and makes my beer-tastings more enjoyable.

Now I'd be happy to hear how you do it? How do you make your tastings as enjoyable as possible?

Greetingz,
Koen.

A little more about our beers ...

In my first post I talked a little about the concept of BierCentral, being an experience and not just a beer pub. But to be 'not just a beer pub', it does need a lot of beers in the first place.

So what beers are we talking about?

Bier Central is about Belgian beers. Belgium has a rich and long tradition when it comes to brewing beer. More so, Belgian beers are seen as the standard and reference worldwide when it comes to brewing high quality beers (see this article for example).

Having that in mind, Bier Central choose to focus just on beers brewed in Belgium. With over 750 different kinds of beer (probably even more actually) it's not easy to make a good selection of what to serve and what not (ideally we'd like to have them all of course). To make a clear overview of all the beers we serve, we categorized all our beers into categories.

Here are the categories as used in our "Bier Encyclopedie" (our beer menu):

• Beers on tap
  
• Large bottles
  
• Trappist beers
  
• Abbey beers
  
• Gueuze and Lambic beers
  
• Kriek beers
  
• Fruit beers
  
• Special Belges or amber ales
  
• Flemish Browns
  
• Belgian golden ales
  
• White beers
  
• Bière brut
  
• 'Saison' beers
  
• Specialty beers
  
• Seasonal beers and beers that are hard to get
  

Trappist beers
There are seven Trappist breweries in the world, 6 in Belgium, one in the Netherlands. We serve all but one (but, if you read my previous post, that may change in the future :).
Abbey beers
Abbey beer is a term associated with beer brewed by non-monastic types, frequently under such a license. These beers cannot be clled "Trappist", but usually derive their name from shrine or some other religious icon. It is typical for abbey beers to mimic the styles of Trappist beer. Doubles and triples, such as appear in Westmalle's line, are very popular.
Gueuze and Lambic beers
Lambic is one of the oldest beer styles in the world, only to be found in Belgium. Lambic requires several years to come of age.
Kriek beers
Kriek is a style of Belgian beer, made by fermenting lambic with sour Morello cherries (with the pits).
Fruit beers
Fruit beers combine the character of gueuze with fresh fruits and pit aromas, most of which are extra flavoured with syrups.
Speciale Belges (amber ales)
Speciale Belges or amber ales are mostly pleasant easy drinking beers, not particularly high in alcohol and are not at all sour.
Flemish Brown beers
A Flemish Brown - or Oud Bruin - can boast the same boldly lactic character of the lambic family but generally without the horsey character.
Belgian golden ale beers
Belgian golden ale is characterised by a very high ABV, around 9%. It resembles to the abbey style tripel, but has several significant differences. tripels are frequently cloudy where for example Duvel is quite clear. It has a cleaner taste, revealing malt and hops.
White beers
White beer is made of pale malts and unmalted wheat and lacks filtration.
Bière brut beers
Bière brut, one of the newest styles, is a top-shelf crossover beer. The few Bière brut beers, all brewed in the same city, typically undergo a lenghty maturation. Typical features are: high in alcohol, highly carbonated and sometimes spiced.
Saison beers
Saison is referred to as "country beer", designed to be medium in alcohol and refreshing and strongh enough to survive the winter when there were no fridges or cooling systems.
Specialty beers
Beers with a specific, pronounced taste or extraordinary brewing process that can't be put inside a different category.
Seasonal beers
There are a number of 'seasonal' beers that are best enjoyed and sold at the appropriate time of the year, as an ideal accompaniment to the weather mood and fare of the season.

As you can see the list of categories is already quite long. In future posts I'll go deeper into some of these categories and actually sum up some of the actual beers.

Greetingz,
Koen.

West-Vleteren goes public?

Before going any deeper into the various beers we have in our pub, I have to put a comment on a recent news-fact about West-Vleteren Trappist beers. One of the most asked questions I get as a waiter in our pub is "Do you have West-Vleteren?" ... The answer always has been "NO" ... as it is not allowed to sell West-Vleteren on a commercial basis.

But now apparantly the monks over in West-Vleteren seem to revise their selling-strategy and are seriously thinking about selling more of their delicious beer. (see Article in De Standaard, Nieuwsblad and a comment in De Standaard)

But the way they're planning to do it is again a surprise to many people. As it looks now (but then again, it just only "talk"), they're only going to sell through one chain of supermarket-stores. Colruyt seems to be the lucky one.

And you might have guessed it ... this drops in as a bomb in beer-land. And personally I do have my doubts about it too.

What will happen if they effectively going to sell it through that one store-chain?

The idea is (probably) to let normal consumers buy West-Vleteren trappist in a shop closer to their homes. But what will probably happen is that once the beer will appear on the shelves, about any pub-owner will be there as first, buying as much as they can, leaving no beer for the normal consumers. As I'm working in a beer-pub, professionaly I hope this will happen, however being also a "normal" beer-consumer, I hope this won't happen, as you'll be obliged to go to a pub to drink a West-Vleteren trappist.

It is quite an odd selling-mechanism they are setting up. Which will definetely lead to some strange situations in the first few weeks/months. Actually I don't understand the reason behind it. Well actually I do ... those monks just need a bit more money to rebuild their monestary and they're looking for a quick and temporary way to sell some of their beer. Once they have enough, they might just go back to the way they used to sell it.

And that is probably the main reason why they're not setting up a more traditional line of selling through the usual beer-movers who eventually sell their beer to pubs and grocery-stores as most of the other beer-brands.

What do you think? If they're going to sell it, should they do it the "normal" way, or is the way they're planning it right now a better one?

Greetingz,
Koen.

Welcome to the BierCentral Blog

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the BierCentral Bier Blog. Don't know exactly where to begin with this blog, and actually I'm even not certain which language I should use for this blog.

Since most people understand English, I'll go for that for the moment.

For those who don't know yet, BierCentral is THE new beer-pub in Antwerp. Check out their website, or come and check it out yourself, it is truly an amazing place. Who am I? I'm a guy who works over there, and I love it every day. So much I have to write about it.

What will this blog be about? I actually don't know precisely, since there is so much going on over there. One thing for sure, it's gonna be a lot about beer :).

Ok, so what is BierCentral? BierCentral is a pub on the de Keyserlei in Antwerp, very near to the central station. With 20 beers on tap, and around 300 different bottled beers, it is for sure a beer-lovers paradise.

But to just say it's a pub with a lot of beers, is quite an understatement, it is so much more. BierCentral is actually a part of a much bigger concept. BierCentral is only one pub of a group of cafes which are all linked together and actually make one big place where you can spend a whole night in different atmospheres.

Next to BierCentral is "Kelly's Irish Pub" (which you can enter through a door in BierCentral), and above BierCentral there is "The Popcorn", a 70's disco bar/club. Next to Kelly's Irish Pub, you can have a nice dinner in the "HC Andersen" restaurant, or if you prefer authentic French fries, you can visit "Frituur Oud België" below Kelly's Irish Pub.

So whether you're in for a nice special beer, watch some live sports on big screen televisions, enjoy live performances, have a nice dinner or dance into the early hours on some disco-tunes, it's all possible, and you don't have to worry about transportation, it's just a door away!

Now, I hear you thinking: this guy is giving us a marketing-talk to lure us into those businesses. And agreed, it may sound that way, but it is actually a great experience. In one night, you have the freedom to go to different places while actually stay in one place. It's just so much fun to be able to move to a completely different pub, just by going through a door, or go up a stair, and get in a completely different atmosphere.

In the past few weeks (we're only open since beginning of September) I've seen countless groups who come into BierCentral, enjoying a couple of specialty beers for a couple of hours, and then move on to The Popcorn to enjoy the rest of the evening dancing like it's 1979 :).

BierCentral is not just a pub with a lot of beers, BierCentral is part of an experience!

Now you know a bit more about the place itself. In my next blog-post I'll go a little deeper into the real stuff ... the BEER :)

Greetingz,

Koen.