Drunken Crayfish

The company produces three excellent ranges of beers: St Martin Abbey beers, Organic beers, and Regional beers.

St Martin Abbey beers were previously brewed (since 1096) in the St Martin’s Abbey in Tournay. Brunehaut’s brewmaster uses the recipes developed by the monks, following the same spirit and using the purest ingredients.

St Martin Abbey beer family includes St Martin Blond, St Martin Dark, St Martin Triple, and St Martin Cuvée de Noël. Let’s taste the first of them, St Martin Blond.

Hazy gold with a creamy white head, St Martin Blond is a yeasty, slightly spicy and fruity beer of 7% alc. vol.

Its perfect taste has won a number of important awards  the silver in World Beer Championship 2007, a Superiour Taste Award in 2007, and the bronze medal in the Australian International Beer Awards 2008.

Keep it up and cheers!

World: More than 50% of global beer market held by the four largest brewers

The world’s four biggest brewers now account for over half the global market for beer, researcher Plato Logic communicated on February, 8.

Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev, London-listed SABMiller, Dutch Heineken, and Denmark’s Carlsberg have moved ahead of the rest of the pack led by China’s Tsingtao Brewery in fifth place.

“The new Big 4 have established a clear lead, with combined market share estimated at just over 50 percent (pro forma 2009),” Plato said.

Budweiser-brewer AB InBev had beer volumes of around 350 million hectolitres in 2009, well ahead of Miller-brewer SABMiller at just under 250 million, Heineken at just over 200 million, and Carlsberg around 125 million, while Tsingtao trailed at just over 50 million hectolitres a year.

In sixth place was North American Molson-Coors Brewing Co, while Mexico’s Grupo Modelo, China’s Beijing Yanjing Brewery Co Ltd and Japanese brewers Kirin Holdings Co Ltd and Asahi Breweries Ltd made up the rest of the top 10.

Plato said the world beer market grew less than 0.1 percent in 2009, but expected it to pick up in 2010 to growth of about 3 percent.

“While this may appear quite optimistic, we would expect growth to resume in some emerging markets,” Plato director Ian Pressnell said.

Latest beer production statistics show variable results

The majority of brewers in Europe, North America and Japan have reported bad results for 2009, an analysts report summed up on February, 1.

South America, Africa and Southeast Asia showed variable, but mostly positive results.

Where output figures were negative, the large brewing groups of the world managed anyway to show profits due to price adjustments and severe cost-cutting measures, analysts said.

Bulgaria’s beer production declined by 11% last year, initial estimates of the Czech beer output show a 10% decline (domestic sales  minus 7%, export  minus 12%). Beer production in Denmark dropped by 8% in 2009, in France by 0.8% to 14.3 mln hl. Germany last year produced less than 100 mln hl of beer for the first time in recorded history as output declined by 2.8% to 99.983 mln hl. The nation’s domestic sales declined by 2.1%, exports fell by 7.2%. UK’s beer production dropped by 4.2% in 2009, it is reported.

Russian brewers reported a 4.2% decline in output (result has been improved artificially by large December sales ahead of the tax increase in January). Ukraine’s beer output dropped by 6.2%, that of the US  by 2.2%.

Brazil is expected to report a total output of 107 mln hl, as sales in January  November showed an 11% increase. Colombia and Peru produced 6% and 1% more beer respectively last year, according to SABMiller’s estimates. Japan’s beer production declined by 2.1% in 2009, whereas China produced 406 mln hl in January  November last year (+6.4%).

There is no beer without hops

In the beer making process, hops act as a preservative and a flavouring agent adding a bitter taste that offsets the sweetness of the maltose or malt suger. Hops also add an aroma that resembles a piney come citrus smell, Beverage Answers informs.

Beer making has not always included hops and their use as an ingredient only came about in Europe around 1100 AD. The use of hops helped to produce more beer from the same amount of malt.

As a preservative, hops allow for a lower alcohol content to be present, whilst serving to keep the beer fresh enough to be consumed after more than a few weeks.

Since the alcohol in beer is the product of fermentation of barley grain, adding hops to the mixture allowed for the use of less barley grain to make the same amount of brew, thus reducing the grain cost and the overall beer production costs.

Hops also act as a flavoring agent and contribute to the overall flavour in multiple ways. The fruit of the hop plant contains compounds called alpha acids which when heated become bitter.

Hops, like many plants, also contain oils that add distinctive aromas. Since aroma and taste are closely related, the addition of a herbal or piney like smell can greatly influence the perceived taste of the final product.

Some of those oils will vaporize during heating, so it is not unusual for additional hops to be added all through the brewing process, even right at the end solely to add additional aroma and flavor. The technique is commonly used when brewing ales, contributing to their more heady nose and flavor over many lagers.

Hops even possess a mild antibiotic that helps suppress some of the organisms in the wort (the liquid fermented to make beer), allowing the yeast to carry out the fermentation process more efficiently.

Today, there are many basic varieties of hops together with numerous sub types.

Considering that hops have practically no other commercial use beyond their application to beer making, the world is fortunate that clever brewmasters exist that can turn a limitation into such delightful advantage.

Serve beer at home in a correct way

Here is the perfect way to serve a beer at home, as recommended by the Union of Belgian Brewers:

First of all, bottled beer should be stored in a dark, dry place.

In order to properly cool the beer, place the bottles in the fridge at least 24 hours before serving.

The serving temperature for thirst-quenching beers is +/- 3°C, that for gourmet beer +/- 6 to 8°C.

Clean glasses with cold water in which a good detergent is dissolved and rinse thoroughly with water. Glasses for gourmet beers should be dried.

If you choose thirst-quenching beer, pour it all in one go. Tip the glass slightly to one side and then raise it gradually to an upright position. Let the froth flow over the sides and then skim off the surface bubbles of the froth with a clean knife. Rinse the outside of the glass.

Gourmet beer is served slowly so as to create a rich foamy head. Leave some beer in the bottle so the glass can be topped up afterwards. For beers that are refermented in the bottle, leave the yeast deposit in the bottom of the bottle and present the bottle with the glass.

Cheers!

Leonidas offers a new way to enjoy real Belgian chocolate

Always true to its principle of surprising us with increasingly refined chocolate treats, Leonidas, the famous Belgian chocolate magician, now gives us Pyramids, a new way of making hot chocolate.

Pyramids by Leonidas are a new way of making velvety smooth hot chocolate. All you need to make our favourite drink is to plunge a succulent Pyramid into hot milk. The Pyramid dissolves, releasing irresistible aromas and forming a creamy foam. The preparation process is in itself a genuine treat for the senses and a delicious moment of luxury we can all enjoy.

High quality plain chocolate Pyramids by Leonidas are available in three flavours: Caramel Chocolate, Classic Chocolate and Cappuccino Chocolate. They come in boxes of five Pyramids. These boxes can in turn serve as refills for the presentation box which contains an assortment of no fewer than fifteen Pyramids. It is also something beautiful to place in front of your guests at snack or dessert time!

Focus your sights on a chocolate-flavoured ritual of relaxation and wellbeing. Enjoy and be happy!

The brew has a 9% alcohol content and is matured in oak.

Eerwaarde Pater is distinguished by port and wood notes and a well-balanced sourness. It is a very complex and unusual beer.

Enjoy!

Japan: Kirin-Suntory merger talks terminated over clash of opinions

Japanese brewers Kirin and Suntory announced on February, 8 that they had terminated their merger negotiations.

Despite months of talks, Japan?s second- and third-largest brewers failed to resolve deep-rooted differences over who would own and manage the future company.

Suntory said it acknowledged discrepancy of understandings of two companies including integration ratio and considered that it would be difficult to realize a desirable new integrated company which Suntory had been seeking for.

Kirin claimed it had been negotiating on the premise that the new entity would be managed as a listed company in order to ensure appropriate management independence and transparency. However, it became apparent that Suntory held a different view on this matter, and Kirin determined that even if negotiations were to continue, they were unlikely to result in the establishment of a company that would fulfil Kirin’s aim of developing as a leading global company and earn the understanding and approval of Kirin’s domestic and overseas customers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders. Kirin therefore resolved to terminate the negotiations.

The merger plan, first unveiled last July, would have created a company with annual revenue of about 3.8 trillion yen ($43 billion) rivaling the world’s leading brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V. in terms of sales. But while Kirin, with a market capitalization of over 1.3 trillion yen, outweighs privately held Suntory in terms of size, the Suntory family’s near-90% stake in its company meant it could have ended up with a controlling stake of over one third of the merged firm.

When the deal was first announced, catching industry watchers by surprise, the pair said they hoped to reach accord on merger details by the end of last year. But Japanese media reports suggesting trouble in hammering out a deal seeped out toward the end of last year, and the pair subsequently said the talks could take longer.

Kirin, best known as the maker of such beer brands as Kirin Lager and Kirin Ichiban, was established in 1907. The Tokyo-based company operates beer maker Kirin Brewery, soft-drink maker Kirin Beverage and pharmaceutical company Kyowa Hakko Kirin. It generated sales of 2.3 trillion yen for the business year ended Dec. 31, 2008, and is due to report earnings for 2009 on Feb. 10.

Established in 1899, Suntory produces whisky brands such as Yamazaki but has diversified into soft drinks, food and health-related fields. While domestic consolidation has been difficult, both companies have independently been active in trying to expand in faster-growing overseas markets. At the same time that it was pursuing the tie-up with Kirin, Suntory also agreed last year to acquire privately held European beverage maker Orangina Schweppes Group for about $3.3 billion, the largest purchase by a Japanese company in 2009 of a foreign firm.

Drink beer to keep your bones healthy

A new study suggests that beers containing plenty of hops or pale barley malts could promote better bone health thanks to their dietary silicon content, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture posted on February, 8.

Previous studies have established that beer is an important source of bioavailable silicon but little research has been done to find out which beers to contain the most silicon.

Researchers from the Department of Food Science & Technology at the University of California sought to plug this scientific gap because dietary silicon appears to support bone development and fight off osteoporosis ? a common disease that increases the risk of fractures.

The Californian researchers said beer contains silicon in the soluble form of orthosilicic acid (OSA), which yields 50 per cent bioavailability, making it a major contributor to silicon intake in the Western diet.

Beers full of hops were found to be particularly good sources of silicon. Some were found to contain as much as four times more silicon than is found in malt.

But malt may be ultimately more important overall because hops are used in much smaller quantities than grain in the brewing process.

Looking more closely at malt, the researchers said barley is a better source than wheat. As for the malting process itself, pale colored barley malts were found to contain higher levels of silicon than darker varieties because they face less heat stress.

But generally, the malt process did not cause any major changes in silicon content of barley as most of the silicon in barley is in the husk, which is not affected greatly during malting.

So making an overall comment on the best silicon option, lead author Charles Bamforth said: ?Beers containing high levels of malted barley and hops are richest in silicon.?

Bamforth and his colleagues also tested 100 commercial beers for silicon content and categorized the data according to beer style and source. The average silicon content of the beers sampled was 6.4 to 56.5 mg/L.

Beer is perfect when skilfully poured

Having the proper glassware to best accentuate the flavors, aromas and appearance of a particular beer is only the first step in serving the ideal Belgian beer. For the full experience, it must be properly poured from the tap, Sir Marc Stroobandt from Stella Artois advises.

The Belgians have mastered the art of the perfect pour, which not only ensures the utmost enjoyment of the beer, but also showcases the pouring process itself.

This art, known as The Belgian Pouring Ritual, is a nine-step, time-honored tradition that contributes to the country’s legendary gold standard of beer service. Each of the nine steps serves a specific purpose, optimizing serving consistency, drinking enjoyment and the romance of the beer itself.

Step One: THE PURIFICATION
The bartender selects the signature glass for the beer being poured. The glass is scrubbed in a cool-water bath, preferably with a mild detergent. It’s then rinsed with cold water to chill the glass.

Step Two: THE SACRIFICE
The tap is opened in one swift motion to let the first burst of foam flow away. It must never enter the glass, thus ensuring every drop of beer is fresh.

Step Three: THE LIQUID ALCHEMY
The glass is held at a 45-degree angle to create the perfect balance of liquid to foam.

Step Four: THE HEAD
The head is created by straightening and lowering the glass. The foam is visually appealing and releases the beer’s aroma.

Step Five: THE REMOVAL
The bartender closes the tap in one quick action and moves the glass away from the faucet to ensure no drops spoil the perfect head.

Step Six: THE BEHEADING
While the beer is flowing over the edge of the glass, the bartender cuts the head gently with a head cutter at a 45-degree angle. This eliminates the larger bubbles that burst easily and accelerate the dissipation of the head.

Step Seven: THE JUDGMENT
The bartender now stands in judgment. The beer’s head should be two fingers thick.

Step Eight: THE CLEANSING
The bartender then rinses the bottom and sides of the glass. This keeps the glass clean and cool and makes it comfortable to hold.

Step Nine: THE BESTOWAL
A perfectly poured pint of Belgian beer is presented with the logos of the coaster and glass facing the customer.

Marc Stroobandt is a Master Beer Sommelier and Belgian Beer Ambassador with The F&B Partnership in the United Kingdom. Recently, Stroobandt began working with Stella Artois, Hoegaarden and Leffe to promote Belgian beers, brewing history and pouring rituals as well as educate consumers on the art of beer and food pairings.

United States: Craft brewers grow in difficult times

Last year was horrible for the brewing giants of the US but craft brewers saw shipments leap almost nine percent, St. Louis Post-Dispatch posted on February, 5.

The nation?s total beer shipments were down 2.2 percent from 2008, the worst single-year decline since the mid-1950s, according to trade publication Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Anheuser-Busch was off 2.1 percent nationwide. MillerCoors was down 1.9 percent. Both companies combined represent almost 80 percent of the U.S. market.

At the same time, craft brewers added capacity, tapped new markets, some of them even hired people – notable in an industry that has been making headlines with layoffs.

Two craft brewers, Boston Beer Co. and Yuengling of Pottsville, Pa., managed to do so well in 2009 that they are now too big to be called craft brewers (defined as producing fewer than 2 million barrels a year).

“The trend is toward flavor, innovation and localness, which craft is playing on,” said Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Craft brewers – made up of regional brewers, micro-brewers and brew-pubs – still occupy a small niche, hundreds of brewers who together add up to about 4.7 percent of the U.S. beer market.

But the stouts, porters and ales that once found the fancy of just beer snobs have discovered a broader audience in recent years. And 2009 might prove to be the breakout year.

Despite the struggles of big beer, the megacompanies are still posting healthy profits, thanks to price increases and cost cuts.

Many of the trends playing out for craft brewers can be seen in the growth of St. Louis Brewing Inc., maker of Schlafly. The brewer saw shipments increase 28 percent last year.

“We’ve never been up that much,” co-owner Dan Kopman said of the 18-year-old company.

Make Valentine?s Day even more special by enjoying Guylian chocolate

Love and chocolate share the same sensational feeling: passion. To make Valentine?s Day a memorable occasion, the renowned Belgian chocolatier Guylian offers a selection of seductive chocolate gifts.

Why not treat your special person to a box of Guylian ‘I love you’ hearts?

You will both fall in love with the individually wrapped, delightfully sculptured Belgian chocolate hearts filled with exquisite roasted hazelnut praliné. For the Sea Shells lovers, there is also a tempting Sea Shell Valentine box.

Enjoy love in combination with the incomparable Belgian chocolate!