Spitalgarten Regensburg

With its setting just off the end of the centuries old Steinernen Brücke (Stone Bridge), on an island in the River Danube, Spitalgarten ranks as one of my favourite German beer gardens. I can think of few better ways of spending a summer’s evening than sitting at one of  Spitalgarten’s  tables next to the river, and enjoying the view of old town Regensburg and its imposing cathedral. With a half litre mug of Spital Helles, fresh from the brewery behind the beer hall and restaurant, a hearty Bavarian dish of roast pork and the company of friends or family, then it’s safe to say, life doesn’t get much better than this.

  

I first visited Spitalgarten in 2008, when my son and I took a week’s holiday in Regensburg. Matthew was only 16 at the time, but under Germany’s liberal licensing laws was legally allowed to drink beer. We made several visits there, including one memorable evening when Germany were playing Turkey in the semi-finals of the Euro's Football Championship. A large screen TV had been erected at one end of the garden, and the place was absolutely rammed. We enjoyed chatting with the German fans and joined in their delight as their team went through to the finals. (They  subsequently lost to Spain, but that’s a different story!).

Spitalgarten viewed from the Stone Bridge

 I was determined to re-visit Spitalgarten on our recent holiday, so on a baking hot late September day, my wife, son and I walked over the ancient stone bridge across the Danube, and found ourselves a nice shady table with views back across the city. This was Eileen’s first experience of a German beer garden and she got into the spirit by ordering half litre mug of Spital’s alcohol-free beer. Matt and I had a couple of mugs each of the brewery’s tasty Helles, and we all enjoyed some equally tasty and filling local dishes.

 

The garden was quite empty when we first arrived, but soon began to fill up; mainly with pensioners, it 

has to be said. This was in contrast to what I remembered from our previous evening visits, when the clientele had been mainly students and other young people. With reasonably priced food, good beer and a pleasant outlook, it is easy to understand Spitalgarten’s attraction for both age groups.

None of us had room for any more beer after our meal, so we paid the bill and wandered off. Eileen was impressed by the way the waitress remembered exactly what we’d had to eat and drink, and also by the way she totalled it up on a slip of paper.

Looking back towards the city

On the way back I made a detour to the brewery, to pick up some bottles, whilst wife and son went and got an ice-cream each. For the oldest brewery by far, in Regensburg, with a history dating back to 1226, Spitalbrauerei are very much a go-ahead modern company. They have started brewing English-style beers, such as Pale Ale, IPA and Stout.

As far as I am aware, these are only available in bottle form, and it was to purchase some of them that I headed to the brewery shop. There will be more about the shop and the beers in a later post.

Can the Can

Before I write further about my recent trip to eastern Bavaria, I want to pick up on a beer-related story which is much closer to home, and one which broke the day we flew out of the country.

In case you haven’t guessed already, I am referring to the Campaign for Real Ale’s decision to declare that canned beers, produced by Bristol-based Moor Beer Company qualify as “real ale”. This accreditation comes about following tests carried out at the recent Great British Beer Festival which apparently demonstrated that the beer in the Moor cans still contained live yeast. Additional tests also showed that the carbonation in the beer was created by natural secondary fermentation. CAMRA thereby concluded that the beer in these cans qualified as “real ale” under the Campaign’s own definition.

Before attempting to refute these claims I want to say that like many other drinkers I have been aware that several of the new wave of “craft brewers” have been selling unfiltered beer in cans for some time. Beavertown are one company which springs to mind, as are the London Beer Factory; but I am sure there are many others. Just what these breweries are trying to achieve is beyond me as, if we are honest, no-one really likes cloudy beer irrespective of whether it meets CAMRA’s definition of "real ale" or not.

As an illustration of this, during our recent holiday I drank several bottles of Zoigl – an unfiltered “natural”  beer, brewed by Regensburg’s largest brewery, Bischofshof. This was the sole beer brand stocked in the bar of our hotel, and whilst it was pleasant enough, it was cloudy, rather than just slightly “hazy”. The end result was an underlying note of yeast which, although not totally dominating the overall taste of the beer, was still there in the background masking the much more desirable flavours expected from the malts and the hops.

Contrast this with the much more subtle flavours of the Original 1649 and Urhell, from the same brewery, and available in many of Regensburg’s pubs and bars and you will get some idea of what I am talking about. Both these beers are filtered, and are much "cleaner" in taste than the Zoigl, with aromas and flavours derived primarily from malt and hops.

It may be heresy to some, but I can’t help thinking that canned beers from the likes of Beavertown, Fourpure, London Beer Factory et al, would be better without all that suspended crud in them. (I can’t really comment on the Moor Beer Company’s cans, because I haven’t yet drunk any of them). Surely this is just a trend started by a handful of “craft breweries”, which many others are now blindly following?

So why exactly, has CAMRA decided to get in on the act and endorse the canned products of one, relatively small micro-brewer as “real ale”? And why did they select Moor Beer Company from amongst all the rest?

Returning to the results of the tests carried out by CAMRA at their “quality control laboratory” at GBBF for a moment, I would like to know how they distinguished between the carbonation produced by the claimed “natural secondary fermentation”, and that already present in the beer from the main primary fermentation. I fully understand how the presence of live, viable yeast cells could be demonstrated, in the beer, but attempting to claim these cells were capable of producing anything more than a minimal amount of additional carbonation in the finished beer really is pushing the envelope and smacks to me of desperation.

As a scientist, I would challenge CAMRA to publish the results of their tests in the form of a proper scientific paper, rather than just attempting to hoodwink the drinking public with this amateurish, and rather laughable piece of “pseudo-science”.

I was going to go on and list some of the drawbacks of trying to pour a clear beer from an opaque can, but the Pub Curmudgeon has done an excellent job on this on his own post, which can be read here. I am certain that we are both in agreement that CAMRA’s backing of so-called Real Ale in a Bottle (RAIBs), or "bottle-conditioned beers", to the exclusion of many otherwise excellent "brewery-conditioned" bottled beer, has been a prime example of dogma triumphing over common sense and best brewing practice; something which gives little credence to the Campaign and confuses the hell out of the average beer drinker.

To apply the same sort of crooked thinking to cloudy, unfiltered canned beer takes things to a whole new level; one which will only cause yet more confusion amongst the public at large, and one which could even backfire against CAMRA.

Regensburg 2016

The family and I arrived home in the early hours of Monday morning, following a very pleasant four day break in Regensburg. We were extremely lucky with the weather, with temperatures in the low to mid twenties, and wall to wall sunshine for virtually the whole of our stay, and this really enabled us to see this lovely old city in its best light and to experience a little of the “café culture” for which Regensburg is famed.

I chose our hotel carefully; picking a location right in the heart of the old city, or Alt Stadt. As virtually the whole of this area is pedestrianised, it was easy getting around on foot, especially as the heart of Regensburg is fairly compact anyway. Before going any further, I want to stress we were there for a family holiday, which of course meant fitting in with everyone’s needs, so despite enjoying quite a few local, and not so local beers, it was not an endless pub-crawl. 

I will be writing about our time in Regensburg, in more detail, over the next few days, but as one might expect for a town which is the fourth largest city in Bavaria, good beer and decent pubs were not hard to come by. In addition there was also a nice sprinkling of more cosmopolitan establishments, with Italian restaurants and ice-cream parlours leading the way.

During our stay, the city was thronged with tourists, but the fact that Regensburg is out on a bit of a limb, on the edge of the Bavarian Forest, does mean it is necessary to  make a special journey there in order to experience its charms; but this only adds to its appeal. I believe that during our stay there we only heard two other English accents, and they were from a couple we passed in the street, but in contrast we noticed quite a few American visitors; including several who were staying in our hotel.

Regensburg is situated on a sharp bend of the River Danube, at the most northerly point of what is the second-longest river in Europe. The historic Steinerne Brücke (Old Stone Bridge), across the Danube, is one the oldest in Germany, and from its ramparts, one is rewarded by spectacular views of the old town which, unlike many German cities, suffered very little damage during the Second World War. Regensburg is capital of the Oberfalz region of Bavaria; even though it only became part of the latter state in 1812. Prior to this it was an Imperial Free City, with its own rulers.

We flew into Nuremberg, using Ryanair, who now operate the only direct flights from the UK. The city's airport is a nice compact affair, and from here a short journey by Underground, takes travellers into the heart of the Nuremberg. From the Hauptbahnhof, there is an hourly train service to Regensburg, with the fast Regio - Regional Express service alternating with the sleek, non-stop ICE - Inter City Express trains. Journey times vary from an hour to an hour and twenty minutes. We treated ourselves to a ride on the ICE train for our homeward journey.

If all this hasn’t whetted your appetite, then perhaps some of the photos used in this post might, and even if you are not keen on beer, I can still recommend Regensburg as a great place for chilling out and spending a relaxing few days.

A Short Break

Looking back over the past month, I appear to have been rather busy bashing out posts on a wide range of subjects. With two brewery visits to write about, a pub threatened with closure, but granted a reprieve, fish products in beer, green hops, trying to take the perfect photo of that perfect pint and the desire to enjoy that pint in peace and quiet; September’s certainly been a busy month!

It’s time for a short break now, as this week I’m heading off to foreign parts; to the city of Regensburg, in eastern Bavaria, to be precise, for some rest and relaxation with the family and the chance to chill out for a while.

My son and I have been to Regensburg before; back in 2008. It’s a lovely old city in its setting on the River Danube which, unlike many German cities, suffered very little damage during the Second World War. Today it’s a thriving university city, and is also home to substantial plants operated by both BMW and Siemens.

More importantly, for the beer lover, Regensburgis also home to three long-established brewing companies in the form of Bischofshof, Kneitinger and St Katherinen (Spital Brauerei). The latter has a beer hall and lovely shady garden, overlooking the Danube, which must rank as one of the best settings imaginable to enjoy a few beers. It is also possible to enjoy beers from the nearby Kloster Weltenburg in the city, as well as Hofbräu and Kloster Andechs from Munich.

As often seems to happen, there are a couple of events happening locally, which I will miss. The first is a “tap-takeover” by Tiny Rebel Brewery, of Fuggles Beer Café in Tunbridge Wells, whilst the second is a similar event at the Old Fire Station in Tonbridge, with Old Dairy Brewery, providing the beer.

Never mind; you can’t win them all, as the saying goes, and some tasty Bavarian beer, served and enjoyed in an historic city, should more than make up for me missing these events at home. So, no posting for a while, but no doubt there will be plenty to write about when I return.

Kent Green Hop Beer Festival 2016

Friday 23^rd September was the date for the launch of this year’s Kent Green Hop Beer Fortnight. With the weather set fair I booked the day off, and joined a group of 10 local CAMRA members and friends, to travel across the county to Canterbury to attend the launch of this now annual event, at the Canterbury Food & Drink Festival.

I was probably over-dressed for the weather, although the fleece I was wearing did prove useful towards the end of the day, when the sun started to go down; but walking through the busy streets of Canterbury, en route to the festival, it seemed as though summer was still well and truly with us.

The Canterbury Food & Drink Festival takes place over a long weekend, and is held in the city’s Dane John Gardens. This is an attractive public space which lies in the shadow of Canterbury’s medieval city walls. The festival was in full swing when we arrived, and the Gardens were thronged with people who had come along to enjoy the autumn sunshine and to sample some of the goodies on offer at the event.

The festival is Kent’s largest food festival, and with around 100 traders signed up, there was something in the culinary line to suit all tastes. I last attended the event back in 2013, and was surprised to see how much the festival has grown in the last 3 years. The types of food were too many and too varied to list, but must have covered virtually the whole spectrum of comestibles and the range of different drinks was just as wide and varied.

Cider as well as beer was available

Although we had come for the beer, there were local ciders, wines, cordials and even a stall from Kent’s first Micro-Distillery! The Green Hop Beers were housed in a separate marquee, at the foot of the ancient mound, just around the corner from the main section of the gardens. With the organisers claiming this will be the one location and occasion where all available Kent Green Hop Beers will be served in one place at the same time, it was definitely the place to be, for anyone wanting to sample these stunning beers.

Beers are normally brewed using hops which have been dried. Drying helps to preserve the important flavouring characteristics of the hops and ensures the harvested crop lasts throughout the year. Hops providing the “seasoning” to the beers and impart tanginess, bitterness and aroma which contrast with the sweetness and “body”, obtained from the malt.

Enjoying the festival and the sunshine

Green Hop Beers are made with fresh or “green” hops, and the resulting beers have a characteristic fresh taste because the green hops used contain oils and other aroma compounds that are normally lost when hops are dried. The brewers make sure the hops are as fresh as possible by using them within 12 hours of being picked. Because brewing with green hops can only be done during harvest, their use creates a very special beer with a truly unique flavour.

Brewing using green hops is a relatively new idea, and whilst some might describe it as slightly “gimmicky”, the idea has really caught on, especially as they have some amazing flavours due to the abundance of hop oils and other flavouring compounds. These are elements which are either diminished, or lost altogether during the drying process. There is a normally a resinous tang to the beer, and a distinct mouth-feel, which is noticeable in the form of a slight furriness on the tongue and the roof of the mouth.

There were around 30 Green Hop beers available at the festival; all were brewed by Kent-based breweries, with some companies producing more than one. We were disappointed not to see a beer from local hero Larkin’s, but we knew from the brewery’s Facebook page that the hops were only harvested last week (Larkin’s grow the bulk of their hops),  which would have left insufficient time to brew the beer and have it ready for sale.

There will undoubtedly be a Green Hop Beer from Larkin’s at the SpaValley Railway Festival, which my local CAMRA branch helps run ever year, in conjunction with this heritage railway organisation, which operates trains on a restored railway line, between Tunbridge Wells and Eridge. This year’s festival, which takes place between 21^st and 23^rd

October, will be the sixth such event, and like previous years Green Hop Beers will be an important feature. We have ordered 28 of these beers and so far 22 have been confirmed; so if you were unable to get to Canterbury, take a trip to Tunbridge Wells, ideally by train, for what must be the second largest collection of Green Hop Beers available, anywhere this year.

So what of the Green Hop Beers at this year’s festival? Well, according to the judges, the overall winner was Green Giant a monster 6% IPA from Kent Brewery, hopped with an enormous amount of East Kent Goldings, but my personal favourite was the 5% East Kent Brewers’ Collaboration Beer. Also good was the Gadds’ Green Hop Ale 4.8%, bittered with East Kent Goldings and the 4% Challenger Green Hop from Old Dairy Brewery. Incidentally, Old Dairy brewed three different beers; each using a different Green Hop variety.

Pork

There was talk amongst our group though, that this year’s beers seemed somewhat “tame” compared to previous years. Most seemed to be lacking the intense resinous hop oil finish which is such a characteristic of Green Hop Beers, and we put this down to a number of factors; the chief being experience.

By that I mean when brewers first started making these beers, they were unsure how many hops to add to the brew. Brewing calculations, and hence ideal hopping rates, are based on the alpha acid content of dried hops; information which is normally supplied by the grower. In most instances, figures for alpha acid content are not available for un-dried Green Hops, so it was very much a case of “suck it and see”.

or beef?

The result was these intensely oily hop bombs, which we all loved, but did the public at large? And given the high price of hops generally, were such large amounts of hops economically unviable? Brewing Green Hop Beers takes a fair bit of organisation, as the hops have to be used within 12 hours of being harvested. Several breweries have competed to set records for the fasted time from picking to adding the hop cones to the copper, but again with all hands required, Green Hop Beers can work out expensive for the brewer. At the Festival, they were all priced at £4 a pint, but there were obviously extra overheads involved in exhibiting and selling at the event.

I am looking forward to sampling many more Green Hop Beers over the coming few weeks, and especially at our Spa Valley Railway Festival, towards the end of next month, and will make a note of which I find the hoppiest and most true to form.

The obligatory visit to the New Inn

Finally, it is worth mentioning that there were some “ordinary” non-Green Hop beers available at Canterbury. It was pleasing to see relative newcomer, Romney Marsh Brewery there, with a stand selling three of their cask beers and also some of their bottled ales. The 4.1% Marsh Gold, which is normally a bottled beer only, was absolutely stunning and was enjoyed by all of us who tried it. Kent Brewery were also selling three of their non-Green Hop beers, as were Canterbury Brewers.

We left the festival shortly before it closed at 6pm, calling in at the lovely little New Inn on our way back to the station. As always it was good to visit Canterbury and the fact that we were again lucky with the weather, made it a smashing day out.

Photographing Beer

Just about right

As a regular blogger I have always tried to include relevant photos in my posts, as not only do they break up what can sometimes be, large and somewhat daunting-looking blocks of text, but they also attract the reader’s interest and help draw him or her into the main subject matter.

I have tried, wherever possible, to use my own photos, as not only are they more personal, but they are often more relevant. Of course, this is not always possible, but relying upon online sources is often fraught with difficulties, especially over the issue of copyright, so it is always preferable to try and use original and topical photos taken by oneself.

Now I used to fancy myself as a bit of a lens-man, and back in the day I had a pretty decent 35mm SLR, complete with a number of interchangeable lenses. I also had the equipment to process my own black & white films; it's still up in the loft! However, times change and technology moves on, and the world of celluloid film, along with developing and printing photos, now seems like ancient history, following the rise of modern digital photography.

Too much reflected light

Despite jibes from my family, about lugging all that camera gear around, I stuck with my trusty Pentax, until about eight years ago, when I finally accepted the inevitable, and switched to digital. So from carting a bulky SLR around, I went completely the other way and started using the camera on my Smartphone.

It made sense, as I normally had the phone with me. It was also light enough to carry in my pocket, easy to use, and I didn’t have to wait for the photos to come back from the processors. More to the point, digital photos are easy to upload and can, if necessary, be altered using simple computer software. The only trouble was, the quality was nowhere near that achievable from a decent camera.

It's easier with dark beers

I bit the bullet again back in 2015, when I pooled the money I’d been given for my 60^th birthday, and bought a half decent, compact digital camera. The difference in quality was noticeable straight away, so having now acquired a reasonable camera it seemed a good idea to learn how to get the best out of it.

Step forward renowned Dutch photographer TeoKrijgsman, who gave a presentation on “Beer Photography”, at last month’s European Beer Bloggers Conference in Amsterdam. Perhaps the presentation should have been titled “How to take eye-catching photographs of beer”, because whilst I had never heard of Teo before the conference, once he had shown us some of his work, I realised that here was someone who could take photos of beer and make them look really sexy!

Teo started with the basics and said that whilst the advent of digital photography has made things a lot easier, taking a good photo is as hard now as it was 100 years ago. So to try and précis what we were told, especially in relation to photographing beer, I will attempt to break the topic down by listing out some of the bullet points.

• The basis of a good image is making the right choices.
• It is important to know what goes on inside the camera, as well as what is happening in front of it.
• It is vital to have total control over this, as it is the key to taking a good photograph,
• A tripod is often essential in order to hold the camera still, and in one place.It also ensures your photos are sharp, and in focus.
• When photographing beer, remember it is a product and photographing a product well is one of the hardest things to so.

Too much refelction from use of flash. (Good head though)

Moving on and going into slightly more detail, remember that light will pass straight through glass, almost as if the glass does not exist. It is therefore vital to understand the importance of light when making a photo; especially one incorporating a glass of beer.

Light will obviously pass through the beer, but some will also be reflected back; the amount varying with the colour and/or clarity of the beer. A glass of beer will have foam on top of the beer, and bottles will normally have labels. Bottles in fact can be tricky because of the colour of glass, the presence of any labels and, of course, the curved shape of the bottles. This curvature effect also applies to a glass.

To overcome problems associated with reflected light, make sure there is a light source behind the beer, when taking the photo, but try and ensure the source of the light is out of sight. Photographing a glass of beer with a window, or a lamp behind is one way of doing this, but make sure the light source is not so powerful that it “washes out” the rest of the image. A more subtle way of providing additional light, is to place a piece of white paper underneath the glass.

A good effort

Professional photographers use many tricks to enhance the look of the product they are photographing, and in the case of beer, Teo told us how a pinch of salt, added to the beer, causes it to foam quite dramatically, creating that tight, thick head which advertisers like to show us. Another trick is to spray a mixture of glycerine and water on the outside of the glass, using one of those cheap, hand-held spray-bottles. This gives the impression of beads of condensation on the outside of the glass or bottle, with the added advantage that these droplets won’t run down the outside and spoil the effect!

Teo did show us some quite stunning examples of his work, in the form of a series of magazine shots he did for Dutch brewer, Grolsch, but these were all carefully staged and composed, and not the sort of work taken in the heat of the moment in a crowded pub or bar.

Outside in shaded light - just right

Obviously the detailed stage-management of the scene and the sorts of tricks mentioned above are for professionals, and as most of us would want to drink the beer once the shoot has finished, adding salt to it, or spraying glycerine around, would quickly render the beer unpalatable. So in the question and answer session which followed, I asked Theo what tips he could give for photographing beer in a “live” environment. By that I meant in a pub, or bar, both of which could be busy, with all sorts of distractions both in front of the subject and behind it.

Subtle backlight

This is important, as many writers and bloggers will want to write something about the beer they have just drunk, so they need to know how to take the best picture under what an often be, trying circumstances. Theo drew attention to the window option, highlighted earlier, but accepted that as this wasn’t always practical, or even possible, the next best thing was to provide light either directly behind the glass or bottle, or from the side. (Side-lighting is more effective for bottles, because the glass will normally be coloured).

Don't use flash when photographing unfiltered beers!

One of the best and most practical light sources is the torch, which many people have as an accessory on their Smartphone, so after the afternoon’s session had finished, many of us had a go at using this technique. You can see some of my efforts interspersed amongst the text of this blog, and there are also some examples showing what not to do. But in general I feel we all came away from the session with an enhanced knowledge of how to take a better photo and, more importantly, how to apply some of these techniques to photographing beer.

In the Pipeline

Just over a year ago I was fortunate to visit the De Halve Maan Brewery (the Half Moon Brewery), in the historic city of Bruges. I was there with a group of beer bloggers and writers, on the last day of the European Beer Bloggers post-conference tour. We had spent the night in Bruges, after a packed day touring round East Flanders, and the following morning had been treated to a walking tour of the city.

The picture-postcard centre of Bruges attracts some 6.5 million tourists a year and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is filled with Gothic brick buildings, canals and historic churches. I had been to Bruges twice before this visit, but on each occasion had only scratched the surface. It was really good then to walk around, in the company of a locally born guide who really knew her stuff, and learn about the history and the development of this beautiful city, as well as discovering more about some of the lovely old buildings and the stories of the people behind them.

After the final part of the walk, which was through the city’s peaceful and historic Begijnhof community, our guide deposited us at the entrance to the Halve Mann Brewery, where we were expected, as guests, for lunch and a brewery tour. We soon became aware that a new brew house has been installed and shoe-horned into the rather cramped city-centre the site and now occupies much of the downstairs area. 

Picturesque Bruges

De Halve Maan brews beers under two distinct brand names; Brugse Zot with a 6% Blonde beer and a 7.5% Bruin, and Straffe Hendrik, with a 9% Tripel and an 11% Quadrapel. We were fortunate to try both beers over lunch.

Of more interest was the old brewery, which is constructed on a traditional tower principle. The old equipment has been left in situ, and gives a fascinating insight into days gone by. It is open to the public as a museum, but with the help of our attractive and knowledgeable guide we were given access right to the top of the tower, and out into the open, from where we had an amazing view over the rooftops of Bruges. From the rooftop we could see towards De Halve Maan’s modern bottling plant on the edge of the city, and it is the story associated with this facility that I now want to concentrate on.

Whilst we were at the brewery, we were informed of the company’s innovative and ambitious plan to run a pipeline from the brewery, to the bottling plant. This would enable them to remove, at a stroke, the 40 tonne tankers which run daily, back and forth between the two facilities. If you have ever been to Bruges you will at once realise that the city’s narrow streets, many of which date back to the Middle Ages, were not designed with modern transportation in mind, so De Halve Maan were really keen to turn this pipe dream (if you’ll pardon the pun), into reality; not just for their own convenience, but because they desired to give something back to the city.

It is a distance of 3 km (2 miles) between the brewery and the bottling plant, and whilst this may not sound much, a considerable amount of work would be involved in order to bring the scheme into fruition. The pipeline was four years in planning and five months in construction. The cost was €4 million, and De Halve Maan received a subsidy from the Flemish Regional Government, but they also raised about €350,000 through crowd funding. This was one of the largest ever such undertakings in Belgium and contributors are paid back in beer. According to the news reports, those paying the top-rate €7,500 will be rewarded with a bottle of Brugse Zot every day for the rest of their lives.
 

Old original mash-tun

New mash-tun

I was therefore extremely pleased last Friday, to see the story which appeared on several news sites, that the pipeline is now complete and that beer is flowing from the brewery to the bottling plant. So the previous day the brewery finally bid farewell to the trucks, which had been running at between 10 and 15 per week, through streets designed for a horse and cart and now packed with tourists. The pipeline can pump 4,000 litres of beer an hour, equivalent to 12,000 bottles, all under the streets as you’re walking over them, totally unaware of what is happening below. 

De Halve Maan’s managing director, Xavier Vanneste, said the idea of a pipe had seemed crazy until he saw local workmen laying underground cables and started looking into it. He said that he could have moved the brewing to beside the bottling plant built in 2010 and kept the old site as a museum, but he wanted to retain the beers as products of the old city. “People want to see something that is alive and not just some dusty museum,” he declared.

The brewery should also benefit after volumes grew by 30 percent last year to 5 million litres and are set for a further expansion of 20 percent in 2016. Vanneste said, “We could potentially increase by a factor of four or more with the new pipe. The bottleneck has been the trucks.” 

As a scientist I’m bound to ask a few awkward questions, such as how is the pipeline cleaned, and what happens if here’s a leak? But having said that, pipelines are used to convey commodities such as water, oil and gas over vast distances, without any problems, so transporting beer over a few kilometres shouldn’t be too much trouble.

Missing the Point?

A nice cool pint of Pilsner Urquell

One of the best, and certainly one of the most looked forward to beers I sampled at the recent European Beer Bloggers Conference in Amsterdam, was Pilsner Urquell. Dispensed from one of the brewery’s specially designed, mobile bar and Tankovna set-ups; complete with an integral tank containing  lots of lovely  unpasteurised Pilsner Urquell, the prospect of a few chilled glasses was something definitely worth waiting for. The fact is there are only so many over-hopped Double IPA’s, Imperial Russian Stouts or barrel-aged sour beers one can sample, before ones palate becomes jaded and a longing develops for something clean tasting, and much more refreshing.

Oddly enough, I felt the same, the previous year, at the EBBC in Brussels, when after various Lambics, Saisons, strong Trappist Ales and Sour beers I was almost gagging for a pint of something more “normal”, and something more refreshing.

Some serious beer sampling

This got me thinking that much of this beer geek stuff has lost sight of what beer is all about. Sure I enjoy sampling some of these extreme beers, but by their very nature they are not every day quaffing beers; and they are certainly not session beers. Beer is essentially a long drink best enjoyed in the company of friends or like minded individuals, and whilst beers at the cutting edge of what’s possible in a brewery obviously have their place, the pursuit of something different, just for the sake of it, is a road which will eventually lead nowhere.

Like the Emperor’s New Clothes, devotees of the new, the novel and the downright bizarre, will eventually get tired and move onto the next “in thing”. We have already seen this at the extreme end of the craft beer movement, where these acolytes have graduated onto artisan gin, as being the next trend to follow, and the next drink to be seen drinking.

Tankovna - mobile bar-system

It is a pity really because there are some really interesting beers being brewed, with brewers really pushing the boundaries as far as established styles are concerned. Breweries such as De Molen, which I visited recently, and wrote about here, are a case in point. 

The trouble is that for every innovative brewery like De Molen, which 9 times out of 10 gets it right, there are an awful lot of breweries who don’t! I get the feeling that some just experiment for the sake of it; fair enough if you’re not attempting to foist your undrinkable, grossly un-balanced mishmash of a brew on the unsuspecting public. However, if you are nothing more than a crowd-pleaser, turning out the latest “in thing” in the beer world, just to make a fast buck, without having done your homework properly, then you are doing the world of beer and brewing a grave disservice. 

Beer menu - De Molen

Unfortunately, even if you are turning out amazing beers, unless you can shift your market focus away from these fickle followers of trends; fair-weather friends, who have no real appreciation of what your beers are about, and who are only looking for the next “awesome” beer style, then much of your effort and innovation will be wasted. 

I admit it will be a hard task trying to convince the average pub drinker to slip that far out of his or her comfort zone, but a steady trickle down may in the end have some effect. After all, who would have thought we’d see drinkers enjoying a glass of cloudy wheat beer, of a strong Abbey-style beer; even if it is Leffe. Going back even further, who would have predicted the rise and general dominance of that most Germanic drink – lager; especially just a couple of decades after the end of the Second World War?

Lager is obviously now well-established as a mainstream beer in the UK, and some native styles such as mild ale, are in terminal decline, but there is still a huge world of difference between the beers the vast majority of pub goers, and home consumers drink, and the much more “extreme” beers enjoyed in specialist beer bars, or purchased through online suppliers.

For me the ideal strength for a beer is between 4 and 5% ABV. Stronger than this and the beer can be cloying, and even too sweet; but equally a beer much below 3% will be thin and lacking in body. This is why those glasses of Pilsner Urquell were so appealing, and this is why it is so enjoyable to sit in a local pub and quaff a few pints of one of the best beers available in this part of England; namely Harvey’s Sussex Best. 

There really are few things finer in life than the appreciation and enjoyment of good beer; especially when it takes place in an unspoilt country pub, here in the UK, or under the shade of the chestnut trees in a sunlit Biergarten in Bavaria. Some of Belgium’s classic beers too are best enjoyed in a quiet, atmospheric café, tucked away down a side alley in one of the country’s historic towns, and knocking back a few mugs of hoppy Pilsner, in a bustling Prague pub, takes a lot of beating.

Gasthof Brückenwirt - Munich

In effect, what I am trying to say is there’s a beer for every occasion and for every location. In other words, as the advertising campaign tells us, “There’s a Beer for That!” What we shouldn’t’ lose sight of is that beer is a drink to be enjoyed, rather than be dissected and analysed (or should that be analised?), to the nth degree. Somewhere along the way there are people who have lost sight of this, and completely forgotten (that’s if they even knew in the first place), what beer is all about.