When you were born and raised in Belgium, like I was, love of beer is a given. Make that a birth right. A requirement, even. So imagine my parents’ dismay when I announced at the age of 18 that I did not care for beer. They cried. They yelled. They threatened to disown me. They tried to make me see a shrink. All to no avail. I could not understand for the life of me why anyone would love to drink fermented barley juice. What’s the fun in that, when you can have a Mojito instead? Or a Piña Colada? Beer, to me, was just a foul-tasting beverage that I would only consider if I’d been stuck in the Mojave desert for three weeks straight. And only if the beer was ice cold.
So for years, I was the butt of the joke every time my friends took me drinking. While they were having beers with exotic names like Westmalle, Chimay and Herkenrode Triple, I was ordering chocolate milk. On the rocks. With a straw, please. Hilarity ensued.
In my late 20′s, I met a Canadian couple living in Brussels. They loved Belgian beers, being particularly fond of trappists and abbey beers. I didn’t get it. Weren’t those beers for people with senior cards?
After hearing them rant and rave about my country’s biggest export product after chocolate, my curiosity got the better of me. I went to out and bought one bottle of every beer I’d ever seen them drink and took them home. For the next two weeks or so, I sampled. I vowed to keep an open mind. And honesty compels me to admit that I was pleasantly surprised more often than not.
Without further ado, allow me to introduce to you, some of Belgian’s finest.
With the help of Dr. Patrick McGovern, a biomolecular archeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, and one of the worlds most leading experts on ancient fermented beverages, they began to delve into the past of ancient brewing and resurrect the past. A tomb was found in Turkey which is thought to have belonged to King Midas. In this tomb Dr. Patrick McGovern found a drinking vessel that dates back 2700 years! Using modern technology they determined that the beverage within the drinking vessel was a beverage somewhere between wine and mead. Deeper analysis revealed that this beverage was made using white muscat grapes, saffron, and honey.
Midas Touch was the first Ancient Ale to be reconstructed. Dogfish Head liked the beer so much and the ingredients were easy enough that they decided to make this a year around beer available four packs of twelve ounce bottles. This beer is pretty incredible all around. Aside from the fact it’s a beverage once enjoyed by King Midas it definitely speaks volumes for how similar beer and wine can be.
The next of the Ancient Ales takes place 9000 years ago. Dr. Patrick McGovern had the opportunity to inspect a preserved pottery jar from the Neolithic Village of Jiahu. Jiahu is in the Henan province of Northern China. This pottery jar showed evidence that a fermented beverage containing honey, rice, and hawthorn fruit was being produced ages ago. Right around the same time as this beverage was being made fermented beverages using grapes and barley were being produced in the Middle East.
Chateau Jiahu was the reconstruction of the ingredients found in the pottery jar of Jiahu. In 2005 Dr. Patrick McGovern teamed up with Dogfish Head to recreate the oldest known fermented beverage in the history of mankind. In order to keep with the traditional aspects of this beverage Dogfish Head brewed Cheateau Jiahu using brown rice syrup, Orange Blossom honey, Muscat grape, barely malt, and Hawthorn berry. The wort, mixture of all the above heated to a boil and then it’s fermented using sake yeast for one month before being bottled. This Ancient Ale is one of the most coveted by beer connoisseurs and aficionados across the globe. This ale is released in July.
In 2008 Dr. Patrick McGovern made another very interesting discovery. Pottery fragments from Honduras were found and using chemical analysis they discovered something very unique. The beverage that was held in these pottery fragments contained the earliest known alcoholic chocolate beverage known to man. Early civilizations used this beverage to celebrate special occasions. These pottery fragments dated back to 1200 B.C. Dogfish Head teamed up with the doctor again to recreate the past.
Theobroma translates to Food Of The Gods. To reconstruct this Ancient Ale Dogfish Head stuck with the data from Dr. Patrick McGovern and used Aztec cocoa powder and cocoa nibs from Askinosie Chocolate; award winners of Sofie medals and leading craft chocolate producers. They brewed the beer using ancho chilies, honey, ground anatto seeds (fragmented tree seeds). The beer itself pours a bright honey gold with little to no head. The aroma is bready and full of honey. The first sip reveals the flavor of honey, bready malts, and slight spice and earthiness on the finish. Pouring a bright gold this is a very different beer than just about any chocolate beer out there. Having tried this beer just the other day I would love to save a bottle and sip it on the steps of a Mayan temple on Dec 23, 2012. They release this beer in June.
The business aspect of buying groups can be very advantageous. By pooling together on a large order, members can gain access to the finest wines, which they can then distribute among the group. Each member can then choose to sell this on at a higher price, ideal for restaurants. Alone, a restaurant owner may not be privileged to such wines but by being a member of a buying group they now have the option.
This can help to attract higher paying customers, define a higher-end clientele and offer people products that competitors cant. A prestigious wine selection goes a long way among certain types of customers and will keep them coming back again and again. As a united buying group they can also go directly to wine merchants and suppliers and establish first rights for exclusive produce, creating a unique selling point for your company.
Kwak
I’ve added this beer to the list mainly because of its original glass, rather than its taste. Legend has it that the glass and its holder were designed back in the 19th century by Paulus Kwak, the brewer and owner of a tavern, called De Hoorn (The Horn). The tavern was frequented by coach men who weren’t allowed to leave coach and horse behind, so Kwak designed the holder so it could be hung from the coach.
If you ask me, the real story behind the name of this beer and glass is the sound the beer makes when someone, who is not carefully drinking from the glass when it’s nearly empty, gets the last of the beer in his face. Just my two cents.
Angela Gymmy Resource Box
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