The end for Trappist beers?

Sorry, it's another post about Belgium. I will start drinking and talking about British beer again soon. On Friday to be precise, before and after Tranmere Rovers' home match. I probably won't want to talk about the football.

An article in the Indy highlights a problem  that some of us were discussing in Belgium over the weekend. Put simply, the Trappist monasteries in Belgium are running out of monks. The Good Lord is claiming the older ones but not enough novice monks are replacing them. Achel, who only started brewing again about 10 years ago after a lengthy break are down to six monks, five of whom are over 70. Orval, who have been struggling to keep up with demand anyway have 12 monks, down from 35 a few decades back.

While all Trappist brewers employ secular workers to do most of the work, they must nominate at least one monk to supervise the brewing otherwise their beers will lose the Authorised Trappist Product denomination. At least there are new Abbeys starting to produce beer. Stift Engelszell in Austria (Gregorious), Maria Toevlucht (Zundert) and even St Joseph's Abbey from U.S.A have been granted the ATP logo. Inevitably, beer geeks are paying over the odds to purchase these 'desirable' beers.

Reality bites

My five days in Belgium flew by. Two nights in the perfect Christmas city, Bruges, an evening with friends from far and wide in bustling Antwerp and then two days at the finest Xmas beer festival in the world set in the unlikely setting of Essen, an otherwise boring dormitory town on the Dutch border. I also put in two shifts behind the bar at the festival, slightly daunting where the pre-requisite is a knowledge of all the numbers in Dutch from one to one hundred and eighty - the number of different beers on sale.

I drank a lot of superb beers and a few rubbish ones too. A few hundred came home in the boot of my car. That's Christmas over for another year in my book. At least I've booked my room in Essen for next year.

Christmas Beers

I'll be setting off to Belgium in the early hours. I've got a couple of days in Bruges followed by the weekend at the Kerstbier festival in Essen (no, not the one in Germany). The festival is expected to have about 180 different Christmas beers on sale. Most of the bars in Belgium will be stocking one or more festive beer.

Here in Britain we are pretty crap at producing beers for the deep midwinter. Some breweries think that it is sufficient to produce a sickly, malty beer in the 4 to 5% range and give it a jokey name. I know one pub that orders far too many casks of Christmas beers with the result that they are still on sale in mid-January when no one is slightly interested, the beer already turning to vinegar. Furthermore, it's strange that the so-called 'craft' breweries who are used to producing strong beers don't seem interested in this sector. Presumably, they deem Christmas beers as a bit naff.

To Blog or Not To Blog

The trouble with blogging is that you have to blog regularly. Readers expect new content even if they don't think much of what is written. So even when I've been tempted to blog during the last few months at he back of mind I've thought "If I re-start can I continue?" The answer's been 'No' but I thought it was time to make an effort again.

What sustains the beer blogging world is the discussion of 'craft beer'. What it is, what it isn't, where it is found, who likes or doesn't like it and if it even exists. What many bloggers fail to realise is that the vast majority of beer drinkers aren't aware of craft or if they are, don't have the chance to drink it/ignore it in their local pubs - I use the word 'pub' because bars are still mostly found in large cities.

I was out in Liverpool on Friday for my firm's Christmas lunch followed by the obligatory piss up. Now Liverpool has been a little bit slow in grasping the craft mantle. Scousers aren't slow in responding to new trends but they mostly like to drink their beer in pints - low gravity and lots of them. Being a sociable animal I was resigned to being dragged wherever the group took me. I knew the beer would be crap but the company of numerous drunken women was one consolation.

The meal was booked for 2:00 p.m. so there was time for a few drinks in a pub of my choice with a few like minded souls. The Lady of Mann was the choice. near to the restaurant and decent beer. I started with a pint of a hoppy beer from a new Welsh brewery who's name escapes me. Very nice too. I then decided I should try a half of a keg beer which is very much in the craft category. Magic Rock's High Wire was available and the pub enhanced its craft quotient by offering the choice of half pint or schooner. Another excellent beer.

On to the Bar and Grill for food. A slightly upmarket venue where it's not unknown for Premier league footballers and other 'celebrities' to be spotted. No beer of note but the bosses had paid for the wine so no problem.

After the food came the difficult bit. The Slaughterhouse is an iconic pub name in Liverpool, but despite it's resurrection as a comedy venue it no longer has any atmosphere and has no decent beer at all. I even sneaked over the road at one point to neck a half of Greene King IPA in the Cornmarket. Desperate measures.

Next was All Bar One. Not my sort of pub, but surely there will be at least one handpump? Surveying the bar my hopes were dashed but there was consolation. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale amongst the keg fonts. £4.50 a pint is extortionate for Liverpool but beggars can't be choosers.  An hour and a half later to time to move again. 'Matthew Street' is the call. The tacky, drunken touristy centre of Liverpool with it's homage to the Beatles and fake Irish bars. A glimmer of hope though. A few of the pubs/bars stock the odd cask beer. My hopes are dashed again when I realise that the Revolution Vodka Bar is our destination. I'd normally not be seen dead in there but on we must go. But perusing the beer menu I'm mildly surprised. Curious IPA, Duvel and Chimay Bleue are listed. Pretty average apart from Duvel but better than the poxy lagers on draught. Three hours in there and I've seen off the stock of Curious so finish with Duvel. Time to move on is the cry but it's the last train home for me. You can't walk across the Mersey and I don't fancy forking out a fortune for a taxi just to have more beer that I don't need.

The moral? Slowly but surely the rise of craft beer is improving the choice of beer in venues you wouldn't expect to stock anything drinkable.

Threat to Trappist Brewer

I read the following report on the Flanders News website:

The monks of the Notre-Dame Abbey of Saint-Remy are deeply concerned about the quality of their famous Trappist Beer Rochefort. The source providing the water for the making of the beer, is bound to dry up due to developments in a limestone quarry nearby. The abbey is situated 5 kilometres from Rochefort, in Namur province in the Ardennes.

The Walloon group Lhoist has been exploiting the limestone quarry since 1956. However, Lhoist has plans to extend its activities further and to make the quarry some 60 metres deeper. This will cause the source that the monks are using to make their beer, to dry up completely, studies reveal.
Lhoist wants to go ahead with its plans, and suggests creating three new wells nearby, in order to pump this water to the original source. However, the monks are afraid that this will not be the same. "We only have guarantees about the quantity, not about the quality of the water", spokesman Christopher De Doncker told De Standaard. The monks are concerned that the taste of their beer will be affected.
As a compromise, Lhoist has offered to carry the extra cost of the new wells. However, the company still needs a permit to get the green light for deepening the quarry.

It would be a great shame if the Rochefort beers were affected. Co-incidentally I drank a bottle of Rochefort 10 last night; a sumptuous end to an evening. Belgian beers have taken a back seat recently behind the juggernaut of heavily hopped beers, but I am a big fan and consider a Trappist or Abbey style beer to be the perfect accompaniment to cheese. Traditional gueuze is an acquired taste they say - well I acquired it many years ago and find it the most refreshing beer on those rare summery days.

The White Queen

I recorded the the first episode of The White Queen on BBC last night but having read the reviews probably won't bother watching it. However, I did check out a few scenes because the series was filmed in my favourite city Bruges.

Anyone who has attended the Bruges Beer festival in recent years would have spotted that the courtyard that featured prominently in the episode that of the 'Hallotoren' or Belfry which is used to provide outdoor seating and a smoking area for the festival. This is it below.

Not all members enjoy real ale admits CAMRA

I received my new CAMRA membership card today complete with the Wetherspoons vouchers that will no doubt rot away in a drawer for the next year. There was a letter from CAMRA thanking me for my support etc. but one paragraph caught my eye and I needed to read it again because I thought I must have mis-read it. I quote:

'We understand that not all members enjoy real ale (my capitals) but love real cider. We are continuing to work with JD Wetherspoon on this matter however all of their locations sell real cider. This could lead to confusion with Managers/Staff offering discounts on ciders such as Strongbow, Magners or some Westons products that do not fit with CAMRA's definition of real cider. We can only advise that in the interim you speak to the manager at your local JD Wetherspoon.'

I was astounded to read this. I thought that CAMRA existed to promote and protect real ale but I'm obviously wrong. My first thought was that the cider drinkers don't appreciate the voucher scheme then tough, they are in the wrong consumer group. However, on reflection what is more ridiculous that CAMRA happily accommodates members who don't like real ale, but when those who do suggest that CAMRA recognises craft beers which are a lot more similar to cask beer than any cider they are cast as traitors.

Cains Brewery in Last Chance Saloon

So Cains are pulling out of the supermarket canned beer market and are hoping to develop a 'Brewery Village' with a hotel, cinema, supermarket and apartments. The brewery tap will be extended to allow increased number of brewery tours and the brewery itself will be modernised and re-positioned as a 'craft brewery'.

I have to say that I'm not a big fan of Cains. As part of the CAMRA Members' Investment Club I saw a large sum of our money go down the drain when Cains went into administration not that long after offering a share issue. Surprise, surprise the owners purchased the company for a knock-down price and started up again. Nothing illegal, it happens all the time, but it cost me money. Also, their beers are pretty rubbish in my opinion. Bland throughout the range the Mild was the one beer of theirs that I liked so they promptly scrapped it. They were the obvious future beneficiary in Liverpool of the Locale campaign but took their eye off the ball and the likes of Liverpool Organic stepped in. You'd be hard pressed to find their beers in any of Liverpool's better real ale ale pubs.

Their real problem is the size of the brewery. It is a huge site and operates at a fraction of capacity. I doubt if it was fully utilised when its predecessor Higsons was at the height of its powers. I very much doubt that Cains will ever be successful in the cask or craft market.