We are very much looking forward to meeting some of you at the “all-new” BGBW Awards event at Big Penny Social on 29th November 2023. As one of the sponsors, VISITFLANDERS is proud to introduce you to some of our skilled and passionate craft brewers and their amazing beers. This year, we’ll be joined by two breweries from Flanders, De Dochter van Den Korenaars and the 3 Fonteinen Brewery. We’ll also have a selection of exceptional collaborative beers created by teams of brewers from Leuven and Norwich, originally for the Leuven Innovation Beer Festival and the Norwich City of Ales festival in May this year.
Joining us for the De Dochter van de Korenaar Brewery will be husband and wife brewers, Ronald and Monique Mengerink. The name of the brewery hails from a term used for beer by the 15th century Emperor Charles who ruled at the time. Ancient chronicles stated he preferred “juice from the daughter of the ear of corn” (meaning beer) over wine. Their celebrated brewery is situated in one of the Belgian enclaves surrounding the Netherlands in a municipality known as Baarle-Hertog. The town is divided by a series of international borders separating the Belgian enclaves from the Dutch ones which sometimes divides homes. Ronald and Martha will be bringing four special beers. Firstly, Bravoure, a dry, but also slightly sweet, caramel-smoked beer with a hint of beechwood smoke, caramel, and earthy hops to taste. Bravoure derives its smoky flavour from the use of a generous dose of beechwood-smoked ‘Bambergse Rauchmalz’ and is a 6.5% smoky beer with a subtle caramel taste. Also being served will be La Renaissance, a 7% full-bodied English-style IPA with hints of earthy and spicy hops mixed with some fragrant fruitiness from the fermentation process. The beer is dry-hopped with East Kent Golding and Nelson Sauvin hops. Next, a wheat beer, entitled Nouveau Riche, a slightly sweet and spicy offering with clear rosemary and thyme flavourings, followed by hints of slightly sweet rosebuds, with an ABV of 6.5%. Their final beer is the very special L’ensemble di Montalcino. This is a slightly sweet full-bodied barley wine with a defined aroma and strong flavours of quality Italian red wine. The beer is aged in wine barrels from Casanova di Neri vineyard in Montalcino, Italy, and its base notes add the flavour and aroma of dried fruit and a dry after-taste that emanates from the oak tannins of the red wine. Part of the fermentation uses wine yeast, resulting in a high ABV of 13%.
Joining the event from the world-famous Pajottenland region, just outside of Brussels is Raf van Pottelberg from the Lambic and Gueuze blender brewery 3 Fonteinen. Variations in yeast strains, fruit blends and fermentation provide their own distinct flavours to these unique beers. Raf will be bringing an interesting collection of the brewery’s best lambics for us to try. Starting with their signature gueuze, the Oude Geuze Curvee Armand & Gaston is a blend of 1-3 years of their spontaneously fermented lambics, and no two bottles taste identical because of the variables in the blending process. Bottle-fermented, with an ABV of 6.5%, its flavours keep developing – a real treat for the senses! Next is Oude Kriek, also with an ABV of 6.5%, with hand-picked whole sour cherries with the proportion of 1kg of cherries per litre of lambic. The beer is then re-blended with a young lambic and stored in cellars for at least 5 months to produce a pleasing almond and cinnamon tart flavour. Unfiltered, unpasteurised, and completely natural without sweeteners, it epitomises the best of lambic Kriek. The brewery’s third beer, a Prium Belle de Louvain is a juicy unfiltered and unpasteurised maceration of hand-picked whole plums, with no addition of juices, syrups or artificial sweeteners, and an ABV of 6.8%. The final offering from 3 Fonteinen brewery is a Schaarsbeeke Kriek. Another fruity blend featuring local Schaarsbeek cherries with a young lambic and bottle fermented for a year. Once again completely natural in its sweetness with a slighter lower ABV of 6.2%.
Finally, we invite you to taste the beers of a series of Anglo-Belgian collaborations, established following the “twinning” of two great beer cities: Leuven in the Flemish province of Vlaams-Brabant and Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom. Just under a year ago, Moon Gazer Brewery, Grain Brewery, Poppyland Brewery and Tindall Ales took the Eurostar across to Flanders and met with four breweries in Leuven: Den Adept, Braxatorium Parcenis, Brouwerij de Couruer and Hof ten Dormaal. With ideas and inspiration in abundance, the Flemish brewers headed to Norwich in early 2023, and the first collaboration beers were created, launched first at the Leuven Innovation Beer Festival, and then, less than a week later, formed a key element of the Norwich City of Ale festival. David Holliday, from Moon Gazer Ales will be presenting the beer he created with Den Adept, Donkere Haas (4.5%), which is Dutch for ‘Dark Hare’, and is formed a from a 16th century hoppenbier receipe and Moon Gazer’s dark English mild. Also available will be Champagne Apple Wit Bier created by Tindall Ales and Hof ten Dormaal, ‘Strangers No More’, created by Grain Brewery and Braxatorium Parcencis and ‘Strangers Wit Bier’ from Poppyland Brewery and Brouwerij de Coureur. In case you’re wondering…‘strangers’ was the name the townsfolk of Norwich gave to the refugees from Flanders and elsewhere in the Low Countries who were welcomed during the Middle Ages, bringing expertise and prosperity to the city’s weaving industry. Their contribution to the development of the city of Norwich is celebrated in the Strangers’ Hall Museum.
Come and visit the VISITFLANDERS bar at the British Guild of Beer Writers Awards dinner from 18.00 on 29 November 2023 to meet the brewers as well as Anita Rampall and Andrew Daines from VisitFlanders. We look forward to meeting you there on the night.
24 November 2023
Notes to Editors:
About VISITFLANDERS
This Flemish government agency is the official tourist organisation for Flanders. The organisation strives for the sustainable development and promotion of tourism to and within Flanders, with a view to boosting the economic return, employment and the well-being of its inhabitants. www.visitflanders.com
For more information please contact :
VISITFLANDERS
Anita Rampall
anita.rampall@visitflanders.com
0207 299 3594
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