Do you know that?

The family Boelens, whose brewery is based in the village of Belsele, has been brewing beer since the mid 1800?s, in the Waasland region of Belgium.

Kris Boelens, today?s owner and brewer at Brewery Boelens, took over the beer distributorship from his dad in 1980. During the 1970?s and 1980?s a revival for new and authentic beers emerged. Kris started to put the family?s old brewery back together and upgraded it with some stainless steel tanks, as legislation in Belgium and in Europe guarantees a hygienic brewing process. It was in 1993 that Kris started brewing Bieken, his first commercial specialty beer.

Today, Boelens brewery offers seven delicious brews: Bieken, Pagijs, Kerstbier (renamed SANTA-BE since 2006), Pagijs, Prinsesken, Waaslander, Wase Wolf. Every beer lover will find something to please him in the rich range of Boelens beers!

Cheers!

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Belgium: Duvel Moortgat reaches agreement to buy De Koninck brewery

Belgium’s Duvel Moortgat nv said on August, 5 it has reached agreement on the acquisition of 100% of the shares of its rival, Brouwerij De Koninck group.

With this acquisition, Duvel Moortgat expands its portfolio of specialty beers; it also aims to reinvigorate the De Koninck beer brand.

Brouwerij De Koninck is located in the heart of Antwerp. De Koninck’s Bolleke is most popular in Antwerp and the surrounding area as well as in the Netherlands, but it also enjoys strong brand recognition throughout Belgium.

Duvel Moortgat is also acquiring significant real estate, mainly located in the Antwerp region. The acquisition also includes beer trader Brouwerij De Valk, based in Wijnegem. De Valk has grown to become a key supplier in the Antwerp region, delivering to hundreds of cafés and restaurants on a daily basis.

Michel Moortgat (CEO of Duvel Moortgat) states: “We are very pleased to be able to incorporate Brouwerij De Koninck into the Duvel Moortgat Group. Bolleke is not only a strong brand but also a quality specialty beer that fits perfectly into Duvel Moortgat’s range (Duvel, Chouffe, Maredsous, Liefmans, Vedett, Bel Pils). Our international distribution, including our own branches in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, the UK and the USA, provides an ideal operating base to progressively develop De Koninck. It did not take us long to reach agreement: family values and traditions are concepts that both breweries feel strongly about.”

The company did not disclose the value of the deal.

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World: Asia overtakes Europe as biggest beer producer

Asian beer manufacturers produced 700 mln hl of beer in 2009, marking an increase of 5.5 per cent compared to the previous year.

At the same time, European beer companies experienced a production drop of 5.1 per cent to 115 billion pints during the same period, according to a study by the research department of Kirin Holdings Co, the Japanese beer giant.

Defying cultural stereotypes of beer-swilling Europeans, it is the first time that Asia has assumed the top spot in the world’s beer producing since annual records began in 1974 by the Kirin Institute of Food and Lifestyle.

Vietnam fuelled the surge in Asian beer production, with an increase of more than 24 per cent in beer manufacturing over 2009, according to the report.

India followed closely behind with an increase of 12.3 per cent, while China’s beer manufacturers also increased their output by seven per cent over the past year.

With the average Asian still consuming less beer than his or her European counterpart, there was still further scope for Asia to continue growing, according to Kyodo News.

‘There is more room for further growth in Asia down the track because Asians’ per capita consumption is relatively small,’ the report read.

Japan, however, did not contribute to the surge in beer production in Asia, instead experiencing a two per cent drop in production levels during the same period.

The figures reflect a long-running trend: the nation’s home beer market has shrunk by more than 15 per cent in volume terms over the past decade.

The continued decline in Japan’s beer industry has prompted breweries to increasingly invest outside the country.

Asahi Breweries, ranked the world’s 12th-largest beer maker, recently announced plans to keep 785 billion yen (£5.8billion) on tap for potential investments outside Japan over the next five years.

Vietnam, however, is enjoying a steady increase in the popularity of its beers, with its popular labels Hanoi Beer and Saigon Beer recently chosen to be the official beverages at this year’s Berlin International Beer Festival.

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Hops festival in
Val de Sambre – Fête du Houblon

Great hops festivity with best-gatherer contest: a unique event in Wallonia!

All amazing animations throughout the weekend: music, guided tours of the brewery, hot-air balloons with first flights opportunity, handicraft exhibitions and demonstrations, street animations.

Tourist and education garden with hop field.

Opening periods: from Friday 10 September 2010 to Sunday 12 September 2010.

Extra information: Free entrance!

Learn more about the Hops Festival on:

http://www.bierenaturelle.be

Tel.: +32 (0) 71 55 86 66 / +32 (0) 479 88 78 35
E-mail: angelus.br@swing.be

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The history of Belgian beer:
From the 17th century until the Second World War

In the 17th century, many different types of beer began to appear up and down the country. Each variety was characterized by the specific ingredients used and the quality of the water. Small breweries flourished at this time, and as in those days there were no sophisticated means of preserving the product, each village had its own brewery.

At the end of the 18th century, a historical event took place that was anything but beneficial to the tradition of brewing: the French Revolution. In addition to the fact that it put an end to brewers? guilds, the Revolution led to the destruction of many monasteries and abbeys, effectively wiping out much of the brewing industry. However, with the arrival of Napoleon on the scene brewing took off again thanks to a general economic recovery, although from that time on brewing would no longer be reserved for monks. It became a fully-fledged industry in its own right.

At the end of the 19th century, the scientific progress achieved by Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) in the study of yeast and the preservation of food by pasteurization gave breweries new impetus for some time. And these discoveries not only made it possible to preserve beer more efficiently, but they also improved the quality of beer, as the various types of yeast produce different flavors.

By the year 1900, there were 3,223 registered breweries in Belgium, including Wielemans’ Brewery in Forest (Brussels), which was considered to be the biggest and most modern in Europe. It was also in Brussels (in the brewery called the Grande Brasserie de Koekelberg, to be precise) that the first bottom-fermenting beer (Pils) was brewed in 1886.

After the First World War, there was a considerable drop in the number of breweries. In fact, by 1920 there were only 2,013. The reason was that there was a dearth of the raw materials and manpower needed for brewing, and the few breweries that resumed production had to be mechanized. In the 1930s, the economic crisis made the situation even worse, and the Second World War caused a further reduction in the number of breweries. As a result, in 1946 Belgium had only 755.

To be continued…

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What is unique about Belgian chocolate?

Belgian chocolate itself has been popular since the 18th century, but a new process created by Jean Neuhaus in 1912 increased its popularity ten-fold. Neuhaus used a special version of chocolate called “couverteur” as a cold shell for what he called ‘pralines’.

These pralines are not the same as the sugary treats offered in American candy shops. Belgian chocolate pralines could be filled with a variety of flavored nougats or creams, such as coffee, hazelnut, fruit or more chocolate.

Few other chocolatiers in Neuhaus’ day could duplicate the complex flavors of his pralines. Many of the Belgian chocolate praline companies are still in operation today- Leonidas, Neuhaus, Godiva and Nirvana are famous for their gourmet pralines.

One technical advantage Belgian chocolate has over other chocolatiers is the storage of couverteur before use. In the chocolate making process, the cocoa beans are ground and mixed with sugar and cocoa butter and then smoothed out through tempering (careful addition of heat).

Most chocolate companies receive their chocolate in solid form, which means it must be reheated in order to be usable. Belgian chocolate companies often receive their couverteur in heated tanker trucks soon after the tempering process. Because the chocolate has not cooled, it retains much more of the aroma than the cooled varieties.

“History flows forward on rivers of beer”

Do you know that?

The Affligem brewery located in the Flemish village of Opwijk (Belgium) made its first brand (amber beer Op-Ale) in 1935. The brew was launched and immediately adopted by beer lovers and even received a gold medal at the Luxembourg International fair of 1951.

Around the world, however, Affligem brewery is best known for its abbey beer of the same name.

Affligem Abbey is located on the border between the provinces of Flemish Brabant and East Flanders. It was built in 1074, after six pillaging knights established themselves in Affligem to adopt the monastic life of the Benedictines.

Until the French Revolution, brewing at the abbey was undertaken by lay staff that were paid for their labour, until the monks decided to brew for themselves. During the First World War, the brewery had to stop working and close its doors as the Germans requisitioned the copper vats. New equipment was bought in 1920. In 1970, the abbey entrusted the current Affligem brewery with the mission of brewing the abbey beer according to its Formula Antiqua Renovata: an authentic recipe developed for modern brewing. So beer fans are ensured of enjoying the traditional taste of Affligem abbey beer.

Within the Affligem abbey range, you could taste three brews: classic clear Affligem Blonde ale (6.8% alc.), a very dense brown Affligem Dubbel (6.8% alc.), and Affligem Triple, the pride of abbey beers (9.5% alc.).

Cheers!

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Brussels to host Belgian Beer Weekend

People with a soft spot for beer might be interested in arranging a trip to Belgium this year to attend a popular festival.

Returning for its 12th edition, the Belgian Beer Weekend will be held at Grand Place in the centre of Brussels from 3 to 5 September.

At least 50 breweries will participate in the festival, ranging from small, independent outlets to large companies.

Visitors will therefore have the opportunity to sample a wide range of regional and unusual beers while enjoying some of the special events and entertainment that will take place over the weekend.

The festival will officially open to the public at 18:00 local time on 3 September, following a celebration of Saint-Arnould, the patron saint of brewers, and the inauguration of the beer stands earlier in the day.

Displays and parades of old brewery carts and beer wagons will take place on the Saturday and Sunday.

Travellers can catch flights to Brussels with a number of carriers, including bmi, British Airways and Brussels Airlines.

Opodo cheap flights, hotels and car hire – let the journey begin!

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How to choose natural beer. Part 3

Last time we gave you more tips on choosing natural beer. Today we continue:

8. Determine the risk for chemical contamination.
Many cleansers, sanitizers, and other chemicals are used during the beer production process. Traces of such chemicals can be found in finished beer, and different breweries use different types of chemicals. Large breweries analyze their beer for contaminants using sensors and sophisticated laboratory techniques to ensure that the product has not been adulterated. Cleansers are typically rinsed from the inside of brewing vessels and fermentation tanks, but sanitizers are typically not rinsed, as the rinse water can introduce unwanted microorganisms. Remnants of sanitizing chemicals do make it into finished beer, but the active chemical compounds that kill microbes are oxidized or otherwise neutralized and converted into harmless compounds. Nevertheless, the sanitizer does introduce unnatural compounds to the beer. Some breweries such as the Belgian Anheuser Busch use pure steam to sanitize vessels and tanks, thus minimizing or eliminating chemical contamination.

9. Choose beer that is brewed in archaic breweries or with old equipment.
Historic breweries (such as those found in Europe) that use vintage equipment may brew beer using natural ingredients, processing aids, and components. The brewery equipment may lack plastic components and chemicals may be used sparingly. Old brewing equipment that is made of copper, iron, and wood may be incompatible with many modern chemicals, thus eliminating the use of certain potential contaminants. The beer made in such archaic breweries may not be filtered or overly processed.

10. Select organic beer.
Organic beer will be made almost entirely from ingredients that are free of pesticides and other chemicals. However, not all organic beer is made solely from organic ingredients. In the US, organic beer may be made using 95 percent organic ingredients. Certain non-organic ingredients may be used for the remaining 5 percent of the total ingredients. Conventionally-grown hops and certain other non-organic ingredients are allowed. Check with breweries to determine if their beer is made using only organic ingredients, and determine if they use processing aids, additives, or chemicals that may not be desirable.

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The health benefits of moderate beer consumption

In his capacity as a General Practitioner it was the task of the author of this paper to pass on the lectures of the symposium to the delegates in an understandable form. The key word for a physician outlining the health benefits of moderate beer consumption is moderation:

To drink moderately is to drink within the limits set by your health, your economy and your obligations towards your family and friends: 1-2 drinks (1 drink = 12 gms of alcohol) a day for most women and 1-3 drinks a day for most men.

Bar-drinking may end up as binge-drinking – food in the stomach will help to protect you from alcohol intoxication.

One drink for a women is almost the equivalent of two drinks for a man as women have more fatty tissue per kg body weight than men; that leaves men with more body water (ca. 10 liters) to dilute their drinks than women. Males also have a more efficient “First-Pass Metabolism” of alcohol than females due to a larger concentration of alcohol dehydrogenase in the stomach.

Is beer a boon to old people? Beer improves appetite, promotes secretion of gastric juice, aids digestion and may reduce the risk of stomach ulcers caused by Helicobacter pylori infection. Regular drinkers of beer (and wine) seem to be less prone to developing dementia. At bedtime beer is cherished as a mild sedative. Moderate beer consumption is likely to reduce the risk of maturity-onset diabetes and a recent investigation has shown a reduced risk of heart failure in light drinkers. The result of a moderate intake of beer for a group of elderly Australian beer drinkers was a 7.6 months increase in survival.

Is red wine better than beer? The results from recent research has directed attention to a link between beverage choice and lifestyle showing that beer drinkers in some countries tend to make unhealthier lifestyle choices than wine drinkers. Therefore the apparent good health of wine drinkers compared to beer drinkers in some studies seem to be a lifestyle effect and not a beverage effect. In Germany, where beer is the common alcoholic beverage, all research show that moderate consumption of beer protects against CHD.

In conclusion Beer is a well-balanced, low-alcohol beverage with significant levels of vitamins (in particular folates), minerals and silicon. Regular, moderate beer drinking may be a part of a healthy lifestyle together with wholesome food, exercise, keeping your weight down and not smoking.

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The history of Belgian beer:
The Middle Ages

In spite of barbaric invasions, brewing never quite disappeared from our regions. As early as the 7th and 8th centuries, the first monastic communities consumed beer, which had by then become a popular beverage. At that time, monks lived just like everyone else, but of course they were isolated from society. In the region of the Meuse, the oldest monastery appears to be the Grand-Axe, which is first mentioned in documents in the year 805.

As we have just seen, the first Belgian abbeys already each had their own brewery. This was the case for Villers-la-Ville, which has had a community of monks since 1146. The immense abbey they built was inspired by the architecture of the Cîteaux (the order of the Cistercians). The brewery, in the Romanesque style, was built in the first half of the 13th century. However, the abbey destroyed waste in the religious wars of the 16th century and the French Revolution. Also around this time, the first guilds were set up. The purpose of guilds was to maintain the quality of products and to ensure respect for traditions based on strict rules.

Breweries then proliferated in the 14th and 15th centuries, as beer became a popular beverage. Around this time, it was commonly believed that it was better to drink beer than water, because epidemics like cholera and the plague could be transmitted by water, while the cause of these diseases was eliminated in the brewing process.

The Renaissance (around the 16th century) was the golden age of brewing. Their corporations were very rich. In Brussels, brewers bought the Arbre d’ or’, a fine building that is now the Maison des Brasseurs (House of Brewers) on the Grand Place. They restored this dwelling and embellished it in the 17th century. Although it was completely destroyed in the bombarding of Brussels by the Marshal de Villeroy, it was quickly rebuilt, at great expense, in the 18th century, when it was adorned with the facade that is still admired to this day by countless tourists. It was sold off by the French revolutionaries in the 18th century, and then in 1954 after some radical conversion work it once again became the Maison des Brasseurs.

to be continued…

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Chocolate destination:
Brussels, Belgium

The entire country of Belgium is a chocoholic’s paradise, boasting 12 chocolate factories, 16 chocolate museums and more than 2,100 chocolate shops.

Brussels, however, stands above the rest. The city is home to two of the biggest chocolate companies in the world, Godiva and Leonidas, as well as many smaller chocolate boutiques.

While all kinds of chocolate treats can be found in Brussels, pralines are king. In fact, they were first created there by Jean Neuhaus in 1912.

If you visit Brussels, make sure you go to the Musee du Cocao et du Chocolate where you can learn how chocolate is made.

Best chocolate shops

The “Chocolate Capital of the World,” Brussels is filled with chocolate shops. Grand Sablon, a small square in the heart of the city, houses some of the best- it is home to Wittamer, Pierre Marcolini, Neuhaus, Godiva, Leonidas and Zaabar.

No trip to Brussels would be complete without a visit to Mary, which was founded in 1919 and has been a favorite of the Belgian Royal Family since 1942.

“If you do not have patience you cannot make beer.”

Do you know that?

Bouillon brewery is located very near the French border and is surrounded by Ardennes.

The brewery is situated in a shop, Le Marché de Nathalie, that sells over 300 different types of Belgian beers of which four are brewed on the spot: Cuvée de Bouillon, Bouillonnaise, Blanche de Bouillon, and Médiévale. Le Marché de Nathalie is the only place where beer is brewed in Bouillon. That is not its only originality of course.

Besides the four beers produced on a regular basis, Bouillon brewery offers three more special beers brewed during limited periods for special occasions. Those are: Spéciale Fête (dark beer), Saison des Chasses Blonde, and Saison des Chasses Ambrée.

The company is also planning to produce Bière de Pâques, a special Easter beer.

Cheers!

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Beer made with industrial enzymes will never be equal to real natural beer

Beer has been brewed for thousands of years and can be an absolutely natural, minimally-processed fermented beverage. However, a lot of modern beer brands are commonly made with artificial and highly refined industrial products.

Almost all over the world, industry sources report a decrease in malt input in beer production, for different reasons and with different replacements, and most often to the detriment of beer quality.

Chemical engineers coming fresh into the brewing industry are astonished to encounter normal malting and fermentation processes each lasting a week or more. They are convinced that there must be a better way. Why malt barley? Surely the production of a feedstock for yeast ought to be achievable in a single stage extractor, with raw barley digested by a regulated mix of enzymes of exogenous origin? Indeed, why use barley at all, for surely any source of fermentable carbohydrate could be used, with the characteristics of different beers (notably colour and flavour) introduced by additions post-fermentation?

It can be admitted that indeed this could be a way forward for the bulk production of cheap and cheerful potable alcoholic beverages. They would, however, bear little resemblance in quality to the successful, mainstream beers of today. This is primarily on account of a less than thorough appreciation of all of the manifestations of flavour: palate (including texture), after-palate and nose. Besides, the health effects of artificial substances (just like that of GMO) could be assessed in the long run only, modern medicine points out.

Industrial enzymes may be derived from bacteria or other sources and are processed into a usable form. Such enzymes are not synthetic, but it is unlikely that most people can consider beer to be made with these enzymes to be completely natural.

Besides quality and health concerns, there is also the key aspect of tradition. Many brewers emphasize their caring producer approach, stressing the use of premium raw materials (malt, hops, yeast, water) handled by processes that are slow and geared to excellence. What is more, it really does not make sense to take short cuts, bearing in mind that the cost of malt pales virtually into insignificance when compared to other production costs (e.g. packaging and packaging materials), the commitment to marketing and sales, the extent of taxation, quite apart from the invariable on-cost of trying to deal with inferior grist materials. The risk of being exposed for not using premium raw materials is far greater than marginal savings to be made by downgrading the quality of the malt supply, or going as far as to using unmalted barley with industrial enzymes. Particularly in markets demanding ingredient labelling, the vector is toward clean labelling, which is perceived as an opportunity for stressing the presence of positive materials, but also an absence of negatives. For many brewers the need to use the word enzyme on such a list would be deemed undesirable. For some, it is only in circumstances where perhaps good quality malt is unavailable where compromise in this area can be tolerated.

A recent launch of an enzyme product allowing brewers to switch completely from malt to barley and promising to help cut costs has been much discussed by both industry players and observers. The company behind this debatable breakthrough has even collaborated with a Danish brewer to create an all-barley beer. Taste tests indicate that there is no discernible difference between regular Pilsner and Pilsner brewed with the new enzyme, it is claimed.

We think true brewers and beer connoisseurs will never buy it (in both senses). Adopting such method of production would turn beer into a chemical product. Which would health-conscious consumers choose  malted barley or factory produced enzymes? No chemical substance can replace the flavours and aromas brought to beer by dark roasted malt. It might work for some pilsners and some watery, yellow lagers that large beer factories churn out but other styles, real craft beers that are increasingly gaining market share, would still require a maltster’s touch.

The use of industrial enzymes could have an adverse effect, rather unpleasant to the discerning customers in the first place. In the end, prices could rise significantly for craft and traditionally brewed beer while prices for mass-produced lager and the so-called new ‘unmalted beers’ might go down slightly, analysts believe.

It turns out, German brewers predicted such a turn to artificial ingredients in beer as early as in 1516 and made the first step to protect natural beer by adopting the famous Reinheitsgebot (the German beer purity law ensuring that beer is only made from barley, hops, water, and yeast).

Recently Euromalt, the European maltsters association, and Pilsner Urquell, the No. 1 brewer of the Czech Republic, have protested the continuing change of the product beer to an unspecific drink, and asked for legal help to protect the real beer, which is not exclusively, but mainly brewed of malt, water, hops and yeast.

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How to choose natural beer. Part 2

Last time we gave you a couple of tips on choosing natural beer. Today we continue:

5. Avoid beer packaged in clear bottles.
A relatively large amount of beer is made with light-stable hop extracts. Such extracts may be used with beer that is packaged in clear bottles because clear bottles provide no protection from harmful light that causes beer to become skunky. These hop extracts are used in the place of actual hops (whole flower or pellet hops), and are made by reacting hop alpha acids (and sometimes beta acids) with certain chemicals. Such hop-derived manufactured compounds include tetrahydro-iso-alpha-acids and hexahydro-iso-alpha-acids. Beer that can become skunky when exposed to light is typically packaged in protective brown bottles, but is also found in less protective green bottles.

6. Choose beer that contains living yeast.
Beer that contains living yeast in the bottle may be relatively natural because harmful additives or preservatives that may be present would kill the yeast. Live yeast produces carbon dioxide, and therefore bottle-conditioned beer that is carbonated naturally in the bottle must contain living yeast. Unfiltered beer will contain yeast, but may not contain living yeast. Kegged beer may be unfiltered and contain living yeast, but is usually carbonated before it is added to the keg.

7. Find beer that has been naturally carbonated.
There may be unwanted contaminants in industrially-produced carbon dioxide. Yeast produces carbon dioxide that naturally carbonates beer. Naturally-carbonated beer may be bottle-conditioned with living yeast, carbonated by yeast before bottling in pressurized fermentation tanks, or carbonated using recovered carbon dioxide that is stored in pressurized tanks. Large breweries are able to recover and purify naturally-produced carbon dioxide from fermenting beer using sophisticated equipment. This carbon dioxide can then be used to carbonate beer. Beer that has been naturally carbonated before bottling need not contain living yeast, and can be clear and brilliant.

To be continued?

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Beer, bones and silicon

When the question is what beverage to drink in order to get strong bones milk, as an important source of calcium, clearly has the upper hand. In his lecture Dr. Jonathan Powell, Senior Lecturer and head of a research group on mineral metabolism at the Dept. of Gastro-intestinal Research, St Thomas Hospital, London, drew attention to silicon – an essential element for growth and development, especially of bone and connective tissue.

Recent work has shown that a supply of low levels of soluble silicon promote bone fracture healing. Normal dietary silicon intake in adults is 20-50mgs/day. The content of 10-40 mgs silicon in a bioavailable form (orthosilicic acid) makes beer a major dietary source of silicon. In several population studies a moderate intake of alcohol was associated with a higher BMD (bone mineral density) = stronger bones. Whether dietary silicon and moderate beer drinking protects against reduced BMD in humans and therefore, protects against osteoporosis is presently under investigation.

In a paper published in the Lancet 1977 Klaus Schwarz presents a logical argument for the hypothesis that lack of silicon may be an important aetiological factor in atherosclerosis. Silicon is essential for growth of connective tissue and unusually high amounts of bound silicon are present in the arterial wall, especially the intima. In atherosclerotic arteries silicon levels are greatly reduced. Industrial refinement can greatly reduce the amount of silicon in foods. Hence the hypothesis that lack of bioavailable silicon in modern diets may play a part in the promotion of atherosclerosis, and silicon may exert a protective effect against CVD. Klaus Schwarz found an inverse relation between silisic acid in drinking-water and the prevalence of CHD in Finland. They never investigated the silicon content of beer and, therefore, they missed the opportunity to look for an inverse relation between the silicon intake of beer drinkers and CHD in beer drinking countries like Germany and the Czech Republic.

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The history of Belgian beer: Antiquity

Beer has been brewed since time immemorial. It is thought that it was first made in Palestine around ten thousand years ago, in 8000 BC, by macerating barley bread in water.

The Sumerians developed no fewer than ten varieties of beer, and the Babylonians added at least 34 more. Later on, the Egyptians developed what can be called government breweries, making brewing a state monopoly. These barley wines were used as offerings to the gods. Pharaoh Ramses II, who is referred to as the brewing Pharaoh, imposed very strict rules on the making of beer.

Beer made its way to Europe around 5000 – 4800 BC along two routes: the Danubian route (Eastern Europe) and the Mediterranean route (south of France). Contrary to what is generally believed, beer was brewed and consumed very early in Greece and Rome until it was to some extent replaced by wine.

However, while the Romans were more fond of wine, this did not prevent them from appreciating beer, in particular in the northern regions, where conditions were better for barley fields than for vineyards. For example, the remains of a Gallo-Roman villa were found to contain a brewery dating from the 3rd or 4th century. Among Belgium?s ancestors, the Gauls, the brewing of barley beer was a cottage industry; it was brewed within the family by the women. It were the Gauls who came up with the idea of replacing recipients made of pottery by wooden barrels, which, by the way, they invented. They called malt ?brace?, a word that has come down to us in the French terms brassin (beer mix), brasseur (brewer), etc.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the church took control of the land. The monks took an interest in this beverage, and eventually it appears that there were breweries in every abbey in Christendom. And brewing also went on in inns, castles and homesteads.

to be continued…

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Chocolate could help treat high blood pressure

Just a chunk of chocolate a day could have the same effect on high blood pressure as half an hour of exercise, new research suggests.

For those suffering from high blood pressure the effect of chocolate was so dramatic it could reduce their chances of having a heart attack or stroke by 20 per cent over five years.

Chocolate  and especially dark chocolate  contains chemicals known as flavanols which naturally open up blood vessels in the body.

That means blood flows more easily and the pressure drops.

“You don’t always need medication to reduce blood pressure,” said Dr Karin Ried, at Adelaide University who carried out the research.

“This shows that there are some foods that can help.”

An estimated millions people in the world suffer from high blood pressure, also known as hypertension ? around half of them undiagnosed.

About one in 10 sufferers cannot control the condition with medication or cannot tolerate the drugs, leaving them at greater risk.

Hundreds of thousands face a lifetime on medication to reduce the risk of suffering heart disease, strokes or kidney failure.

For the latest research, Dr Ried and her team combined the results of 15 other studies looking at chocolate and cocoa between 1955 and 2009 covering hundreds of people.

They found that for people with hypertension, eating chocolate could reduce the blood pressure by up to five per cent. For those with normal pressure it had no effect.

“This is a significant finding,” said Dr Ried.

“We’ve found that consumption can significantly, albeit modestly, reduce blood pressure for people with high blood pressure but not for people with normal blood pressure.

She said it will take more research to see what is the optimal amount of chocolate that was needed to make the most difference.

She said the studies varied from just one chunk (6g) to a whole bar (100g) a day.

The research was published in the journal BMC Medicine.

People with high blood pressure are seen to have it consistently higher than 140mm Hg systolic or 90mm Hg diastolic. Normal is 90/60.

The results showed that chocolate would make it drop 5mm in systolic pressure which is comparable to the known effects of 30 daily minutes of moderate physical activity such as brisk walking or swimming.

Chocolate has been found to have health giving benefits in the past.

Research published earlier this year showed that people who eat just one bar a week are 22 per cent less likely to suffer a stroke.

However the health giving benefits have to be weighed against its contribution to obesity.

The only thing worse than a brewery without malt is a pub without beer.

Unknown thinker

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Do you know that?

Founded in 1890 in the Belgian village of Brunehaut (Brunehaut is the name of the paved Roman road running between Amiens, France, right down to Cologne, Germany), Brunehaut Brewery is famous for its wide range of craft beer.

In 1990, the year of its 100th anniversary, the brewery was relocated in new purpose-built premises, allowing the brewmaster to perpetuate the tradition using modern equipment.

Environmentally aware, the Brunehaut brewery is the first European brewery to export its beer in recyclable kegs and grow its own barley and wheat.

Besides its abbey and regional beers, the company produces a selection of excellent Organic beers:

Brunehaut Bio Blanche: Golden clear in color with white head. Little citrus aroma, nice wheat character. Bitter and dry at the end. (5% alc.vol.)

Brunehaut Bio Blond: Hazy golden with a medium white head. Yeasty and slightly spicy aroma with some earthy and dusty hops. (6.5% alc.vol)

Brunehaut Bio Amber: Amber copper color with a beige head. Caramel malts smells with reminiscences to vanilla, some toffee, butterscotch and ripe fruits. (6.5% alc.vol.)

Try any of them we are sure you’ll love it!

Cheers!

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How to choose natural beer

Beer has been brewed for thousands of years and can be an absolutely natural, minimally-processed fermented beverage. However, modern beer is commonly made with artificial and highly refined industrial products. Unfortunately, it is not required for ingredients to be listed on beer labels. In fact, this practice is discouraged. This means that beer can be made with a host of ingredients that may not be natural.

Drinking beer that is not made with natural ingredients is a questionable pleasure and real beer connoisseurs prefer to only consume natural ingredients. It can be difficult to know exactly what a beer has been made from, but WikiHow provides the following advice that can help you to ensure that only natural beer enters the temple that is your body.

1. Look for ingredients listed on labels.
Ingredients may be listed on bottled and canned beer. Listed ingredients provide strong indication that the brewer strives to or indeed does only use natural ingredients. But there is no absolute guarantee that only the listed ingredients are used because beer is not regulated like food. Therefore, there is a chance that ingredients may be excluded. Also check to see if the label states that only natural ingredients were used to make the beer.

2. Be wary of light beer and verify that it has been brewed with natural ingredients.
Light beer may be produced using industrial enzymes. The completely natural enzymes that are usually used in the brewing process are provided by barley malt and wheat malt. Industrial enzymes may be derived from bacteria or other sources and are processed into a usable form. Such enzymes are not synthetic, but it is unlikely that most people can consider beer to be made with these enzymes to be completely natural.

3. Look for unfiltered, hazy beer.
Various additives, brewing aids, and modern technologies can be used to make beer look clear and brilliant. Perfect filtering can, however, be conducted purely with natural, inert diatomaceous earth (the primary filter medium) if sophisticated equipment is properly utilized. Diatomaceous earth is the fossilized skeletons of ancient algae.
Beer can be clarified using other natural ingredients, for instance isinglass. This is merely collagen (protein). This collagen used for brewing is actually the ground-up swim bladders of sturgeon, and if anything is nutritious, but not vegetarian. Gelatin can also be used to clarify beer.

4. Be wary of beer packaged in clear bottles.
A relatively large amount of beer is made with light-stable hop extracts. Such extracts may be used with beer that is packaged in clear bottles because clear bottles provide no protection from harmful light that causes beer to become skunky. These hop extracts are used in the place of actual hops (whole flower or pellet hops), and are made by reacting hop alpha acids (and sometimes beta acids) with certain chemicals. Such hop-derived manufactured compounds include tetrahydro-iso-alpha-acids and hexahydro-iso-alpha-acids. Beer that is produced with natural hops is typically packaged in protective brown bottles, but is also found in less protective green bottles.

To be continued?

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Yeast: essential ingredient of beer

Marketers long have viewed water as one of beer’s strongest selling points. Malt and hops are also familiar concepts.

But beer’s fourth ingredient often gets overlooked, Chron.com reports.

It’ll be a rare star turn for an otherwise unglamorous fungus that gives ales and lagers their personality as well as their kick.

The home-brewer in his garage and the head brewer down at the beer plant follow the same basic formula: they mash water and malt into a pre-beer mixture called wort and then add yeast, which goes to work devouring sugars and turning them into alcohol, while emitting CO2 for carbonation and adding other flavors and aromas.

Yet for most of beer’s 10,000-year history, yeast went about its business anonymously. People knew they liked beer, but they didn’t understand the debt they owed to naturally occurring yeast. They didn’t even know there was such a thing until the invention of the microscope.

In 1836, Cagniard de Latour showed that beer yeasts were indeed living organisms, and not chemical substances as was believed before. He also proposed that yeast cells were necessary in the formation of alcohol and carbon dioxide.

In 1860 Louis Pasteur proved that fermentation is caused by living organisms and asserted that the agents which are responsible for the reaction are connected with the yeast cell. Pasteur did not invent pasteurization specifically for milk or other food items, he did it to kill yeast so it would halt further fermentation.

That allowed breweries and, later, laboratories to begin tailoring strains of yeast to produce specific tastes and various alcohol levels and to maintain consistency between batches of beer. Almost none of the brewer’s yeast used today occurs naturally in the wild.

The yeasts are converting the sugars in the wort into alcohol. The first stage of this process is called the “lag” phase, marked by the breaking of proteins into their constituent amino acids

The ferment then enters the “respiration” phase, where the yeast absorbs oxygen and reduces the pH of the wort, so that it becomes acidic and anaerobic.

The yeast breaks down the glucose sugars into carbon dioxide, water, and pyruvic acid. Pyruvic acid later becomes alcohol.

Yeast cannot ferment all sugars, which is why beer still has a sweet taste at the end of the ferment. The strain of yeast will impart its own flavor although malt and hops are the main flavor components.

Yeast that adds little in the way of flavors are usually described as having a “clean taste”. Yeast produce three metabolic by-products that affect beer taste: phenols – spicy or clove like taste or medicinal taste; esters – a fruity taste; Diacetyls – a butterscotch or “woody” taste.

The presence of any of these flavor components depend largely on the style of beer being brewed. Much depends on individual palates and the effect the brewer is aiming for.

Small changes in the yeast make huge differences in the way the beer tastes. For example, an experiment in which a group of home-brewers made 14 batches of beer, identical except for the yeast, showed a stunning result: 14 very different beers.

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Vitamins in beer

Beer, primarily an enjoyable drink, also contains important vitamins. The main ingredient of beer is malt – sprouting barley – and during malting the vitamin content increases, AIM Digest informs.

One litre of beer supplies the body with the following percentage of its daily requirement:

B6 17%
Niacin 13%
B2 (riboflavin) 17%
Biotin 17%
Panthothenic acid 8%
Folate 10-45%

Dr. Caroline Walker, a biochemist for Brewing Research International is investigating the healthful aspects and nutritional value of beer. In the last decade it has become clear that increasing folate intake may provide protection against cardiovascular disease and cancer:

High levels of homocysteine in the blood are linked with an increased risk of cardio-vascular disease. If folate supplies are adequate, homocysteine is converted to harmless methionine. Adequate folate intake could prevent 2-4% of cardiovascular deaths.

An adequate level of folate in the blood is essential to the normal function of the enzymes maintaining healthy DNA. Lack of folates due to an inadequate folate intake may lead to DNA damage and cancer.

Unfortunately folate is one of the vitamins most likely to be lacking in Western type diets typically low in fruit and vegetables. Caroline Walker pointed out that beer accounts for 10% of the total folate intake by adults in the UK. The folate content of 1l beer corresponds to the folate content of 300g tomatoes.

A study of 2290 men from Wales found that alcohol consumption was linked to lower homocysteine levels. A similar population study from the Czech Republic found beer consumption linked to lower homocysteine levels and higher folate levels.

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Millenniums of beer & brewing

Archaeologists excavating a mysterious mound in Syria have uncovered what may be humankind’s oldest city, a habitation dating back over 5,500 years. The city at Tell Hamoukar is as old as those of Mesopotamia, and may be even older. Within the walls they have found remnants of an active communal baking industry, with myriad dome-shaped bread ovens. Not surprisingly, they also found a brewery, where these ancient people brewed a barley-based beer, Syria-Wide reports.

“They were almost certainly a beer-drinking people,” said Professor McGuire Gibson, of the University of Chicago, leader of the dig at Tell Hamoukar. It has been well known that beer brewing was a central part of man’s early civilizations. Some of the oldest Sumerian tablets are inscribed with recipes for beer, and barley brews also played a role in ancient Egyptian and Northern European cultures. But this latest discovery is one more confirmation of the crucial role beer has played in human history. In the millenniums since, beer has remained a greater or lesser part of various human societies.

It wasn’t a big deal for the Romans, but the aggressive, exploratory Anglo-Saxon civilizations have ensured the spread of beer to every corner of the modern world. People in Asia, Africa and South America drink pilsners and lagers descended from the Bohemian and German brews of the 19th century. It is quite astonishing that this ancient drink, albeit in modern form, is still such a part of human culture in the 21st century. The question is why? One reason for beer’s survival may be its properties as a healthful tonic. New research has found that beer flavored with hops contains a powerful anti-oxidant. Other research has pointed to a reduction in risk for heart attack and stroke. These beneficial aspects of beer may have contributed to its longevity, even though the specific protective effects were not known.

Just as the pharmacopeia of healing herbs has been passed down from generation to generation, knowledge of the wonderful characteristics of beer was transmitted through the millennia. It is likely that people have also valued beer for its properties in helping transform behaviour. It makes people gregarious and inquisitive and allows them to view the world through a new prism.

Beer should not just be a commodity, a “box” to sell. A brewery should never be referred to as a “plant” or “factory.” Beer is beer, a magical substance that has been passed down to us from our ancestors. Next time you crack open a bottle of beer, let your mind wander back to those Ancient Syrian brewers, and the vile stuff they drank and called beer. Then give a silent thanks to master brewers who carried on this ancient art, and for making beer better than it has ever been made before.

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With Leonidas, going back to school is becoming indulgent

School bags will soon be overrun with chocolate cats, rabbits and hamsters.

Summer is in full swing but, before we know it, our tiny tots in short trousers will be pulling on their school bags and returning to the classroom.

Leonidas, the Belgian chocolate wizard, constantly seeking to surprise and support our little food lovers at each important step, wishes to encourage them once again this year as they go back to school.

This year, Leonidas is offering its lovely little chocolates in the shape of animals to be slipped into the little ones’ satchels.

The children will be able to enjoy munching them on the way to school or share them with their new friends in the playground.

Little cats, rabbits and hamsters made of chocolate? what better way to delight the palates of youngsters going to school for the first time.

These little chocolate animals are all equally delicious and offer tastes specially prepared to appeal to children:

Crispy: white chocolate rabbit with chocolate curls, puffed rice and crackling sugar

Nutsy: milk chocolate hamster with a smooth chocolate and hazelnut filling

Milky: milk chocolate cat with a milk cream filling

These fun-shaped pralines are sold by weight or in a delightful colored box which can contain 12 animals.

Who said going back to school wasn’t great?

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Do you know that?

Finesse, the newest beer by De Dochter Van De Korenaar brewery, is a degustation beer of world class.

Finesse is a pure-malt ale made of barley-, wheat- and ryemalt. Three types of German noble hops and a long maturation on pine resin give this beer its outstanding taste and class.

Fruity and yet spicy, this tripel has a smooth pleasant bitterness, full flavour and a sufficiently dry aftertaste that guarantee its drinkability.

De Dochter Van De Korenaar brewery is located in Baarle-Hertog, Belgium. The name translates into English as “the daughter of the corn ear” and is actually an old Flemish synonym for beer dating back to the 16th century.

Today, De Dochter Van De Korenaar offers five excellent beers, all of them are malt ales brewed according to the German Reinheitsgebot, or Beer Purity Law.

Cheers!

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10 healthy reasons to drink beer

Everyone is looking for a reason to drink beer. Right? It turns out that a lot of people are. So here are 10 great reasons to drink more beer. Not only that, but they’re all true. Beer really is good for your health, so drink up!

1. Beer reduces stress
Alcohol in general has been shown to reduce stress. This one is obvious, and may be the best reason beer is good for your health.

2. Beer is good for the heart
A study was conducted from 1982 – 1996 on the elderly. It was found that those who drank at least 1.5 per day had a 20-50 percent less chance of having heart failure.

3. Beer improves blood circulation
Beer increases your “good” cholesterol, or HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol. Its basically a kind of blood fat, so it reduces blood’s tendency to clot.

4. Beer is chock full o’ fiber
The fiber comes from the cell walls of the malted barley. A liter of beer can have as much as 60% of your daily recommended fiber. The extra fiber will keep you regular and can also lower the risk of heart disease.

5. Beer as a multi-vitamin
Beer is a significant source of magnesium, selenium, potassium, phosphorus, biotin, folate, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12

6. Beer can prevent strokes
A study published in Stroke magazine in 2001 showed that alcohol drinkers have fewer strokes. Because it thins the blood, it increases the circulation in the brain, thereby protecting from silent strokes which are cause by tiny blood clots.

7. Beer keeps your brain young
A large study, published in the December 2001 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, was conducted on elderly italian men and women. It showed that moderate drinkers had a 40% lower risk of mental impairment.

8. Beer is good for your liver
Alcohol expands the small blood vessels in the liver. This speeds up metabolism so it can help clean all the toxins out of the liver. This is from Beer Net Publication, April 2001 Biological Institute.

9. Beer cures insomnia
Lactoflavin and nicotinic acid, both present in beer, can promote sleep. Also hops are a natural sedative.

10. Beer fends off gallstones
According to Professor Oliver James at the University of Newcastle, beer protects against gallstones and kidney stones.

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Beer tasting? Ladies first!

Something’s brewing in the beer business.

One large beer producer has started hiring women to taste test its products, even though men account for nearly 73% of the world’s beer sales.

“The Wall Street Journal” reports that the London – based SABMiller, has found women can detect the subtle flavor levels of beer better than men.

Now, about 30% of their 1,000 advanced-level tasters are females who get paid for tasting beer. That’s four times more than just ten years ago.

Most brewers have been reluctant to hire women tasters, claiming there’s no difference between the sexes and beer tasting and reaffirming that males are their main customers.

But those companies may need to consider research that shows women have a better sense of smell, an important factor in determining distinct flavors of beers.

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Hops festival in
Val de Sambre – Fête du Houblon

Great hops festivity with best-gatherer contest: a unique event in Wallonia!

All amazing animations throughout the weekend: music, guided tours of the brewery, hot-air balloons with first flights opportunity, handicraft exhibitions and demonstrations, street animations.

Tourist and education garden with hop field.

Opening periods: from Friday 10 September 2010 to Sunday 12 September 2010.

Extra information: Free entrance!

Learn more about the Hops Festival on:

http://www.bierenaturelle.be

Tel.: +32 (0) 71 55 86 66 / +32 (0) 479 88 78 35
E-mail: angelus.br@swing.be

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World’s oldest known brewery is excavated in Syria

Archaeologists from the University of Chicago have found the remains of a 5,500-year-old Syrian city that is at least as old as the cities of Mesopotamia, 400 miles south.

The city featured massive defensive walls, a commercial-scale bakery and the world’s oldest known brewery.

Many buildings contained large domed ovens, each one large enough to bake bread for tens or hundreds of people. Other ovens were used for cooking beat, and some were apparently used to char grain for a brewery.

Large vats near these ovens contained the remains of barley.

“They were almost certainly a beer-drinking people,” said Professor McGuire Gibson of the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute.

The new city was found within a massive mound about five miles from the Iraqi border, called Tell Hamoukar.

Although the first permanent settlements in the Middle East may have developed around 9000 B.C., these were villages without urban amenities like city walls, communal food production, breweries and bureaucracy.

The lower levels of the newly-found city show a large settlement dating to 4000 B.C., with habitation spreading to cover 500 acres. The city center was 30-acres, enclosed within a defensive wall.

The city may have been conquered by the Mesopotamians around 3400 B.C., according to pottery evidence. It seems to have ceased to exist a few hundred years later.

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Chocolate is better than fluoride for teeth?

New research suggests an extract of cocoa powder that occurs naturally in chocolates, teas, and other products might be an effective natural alternative to fluoride in toothpaste, according to Tulane University doctoral candidate Arman Sadeghpour.

Sadeghpour said his research revealed that the cocoa extract was even more effective than fluoride in fighting cavities, according to a news release from the university.

The extract, a white crystalline powder whose chemical makeup is similar to caffeine, helps harden teeth enamel, making users less susceptible to tooth decay, the study suggested.

The extract has been proven effective in the animal model, but it will probably be another two to four years before the product is approved for human use and available for sale, Sadeghpour said.

But he has already created a prototype of peppermint flavored toothpaste with the cavity-fighting cocoa extract added, and his doctoral thesis research compared the extract side by side to fluoride on the enamel surface of human teeth.

Sadeghpour’s research group included scientists from Tulane, the University of New Orleans, and Louisiana State University’s School of Dentistry.

A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it’s better to be thoroughly sure.

Czech proverb

Do you know that?

After the successful launch of Oude Gueuze, Belgium’s Timmermans brewery offers a new limited edition: Timmermans Oude Kriek beer.

Timmermans Oude Kriek is a delicious fruit beer brewed according to centuries-old traditions of the Belgian beer experts.

This is a carefully balanced ensemble of young and aged lambics (75% of kriek and 25% of lambic). The mix is kept during 6 to 36 months to attain its specific roundedness in oak barrels. Sweet ripe cherries are then added to embellish this wonderful beer.

As a result, you can enjoy a sparkling and frothy beer of which the taste and aroma are simply irresistible!

Cheers!

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Researchers looking for new yeast species

In June Lund University from Sweden informed that the EU is investing EUR 3.4 million in a comprehensive research program on yeast. The aim is to develop new products in the food industry, both in terms of new flavors and health-promoting probiotic products. Molecular biologist Jure Piskur from Lund Univ. in Sweden is coordinating the entire research programme.

Yeast is an important ingredient in the production of beer. In the past many different species of yeast were used in food production, in a process known as spontaneous fermentation, but nowadays only a small number of species are used.

In the beer industry, there is now a growing interest in making use of the variety of yeast species. Different yeast species can give a different character to beer.

‘For example, there is a great interest in producing light beer with more flavour, and we hope that new species of yeast can contribute to this’, says Prof. Jure Piskur from the Department of Biology at Lund Univ. in Sweden.

Yeast can also be useful in the creation of probiotic food products that have health benefits. There is high demand in this area from Europe’s increasingly health-conscious consumers.

Jure Piskur will coordinate the activities of the new consortium, Cornucopia, which has received EUR 3.4 million from the EU. A total of 11 partners are involved in the consortium  both universities and companies. In addition to Lund Univ., researchers from Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands are also participating.

Business sector partners include a large Danish brewer. The project will begin in January 2011 and continue for four years. Besides new facts about which yeasts may be of value to the brewing industry, the consortium will also run a research school that will produce a number of new researchers with expertise in the field.

Yeasts can be found everywhere in nature; on humans, animals, fruit anywhere they have access to sugar. In total there are around 1 000 identified species in the world, but at least 10 000 new species are expected to be identified within the near future. Tens of species of yeast live on grapes alone.

As a molecular biologist, Jure Piskur has spent a long time studying yeast’s many millions of years of history. This group of organisms is very old and has therefore managed to develop a very large genetic variation between different species. It is this genetic wealth that gives such exciting potential for the food industry to explore.

?The difference in genetic make-up between different yeast species is actually larger than the difference between fish and humans’, says Jure Piskur.

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Have a beer instead of going for plastic surgery

There is a whole new reason to nip out for a pint, CroatianTimes.com reported in June.

Producers of Bulgarian Bohza beer claim it has been brewed specifically to make boobs grow bigger.

The beer was originally developed as a health drink to help new mums having trouble breast feeding.

Now women are flocking to brewers Yavor-M in Ruse after drinkers started to record some eye-popping results.

Spokesman Kristian Gyoshev explained: “We make no special claims but we get hundreds of testimonials from women who say their boobs have gone up one or two cup sizes.

“It’s natural, healthy, fun to drink and cheaper than any surgery.”

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Beer good for everything

DuiLife.com is offering us tips on beer use in certain summertime tasks.

Partially full beer bottles are usually a part of barbecue clean-up routine. To avoid being wasteful, you may dump them in the garden. Now, that might sound like an odd place to dump beer – and you may be wondering what’s so resourceful about pouring it in the dirt anyway. But the garden is actually the perfect spot for leftover beer.

A good, old-fashioned brew has some other cool uses, too.Taking into account that beer has been around for at least 4000-9000 years or more, there was a long time when other herbs, such as gale, yarrow, and rosemary, among many others.

Enrich Soil
Yeast is beneficial to plants, so pour a few tablespoons of flat beer into your garden to cultivate the soil. The yeast-filled soil will help plants grow healthier and make your garden flourish.

Trap Bees
If bees are a problem in your yard, you can battle them with beer. Punch a series of 3/8-inch holes in the top of an old jar. Fill the jar with beer, screw the top in place and put it in the yard where you’ve seen bees. They’ll be attracted to the beer and will be able to get into the jar – but not out!

Banish Slugs
If slugs have infiltrated your garden and are munching away at your greenery, bury an empty tuna fish can next to your plants so that just the lip is sticking out. Fill the can with beer and check it in the morning; you should have caught some of those slimy suckers! All you have to do is empty the can each day. This little trick also works with earwigs.

Polish Wood Furniture
Got some leftover beer that’s gone flat? Pour a little on a microfiber rag and rub it into your wood furniture to add a little shine and deepen the color.

Tenderize a T-Bone
Firing up the grill? If you find yourself with a tough cut of meat for a barbecue, marinate it for an hour or so in some beer. The beer will infuse the meat with flavor and tenderize it while it sits, so it will cook up nice and juicy.

If you spill a little beer on yourself, sponge it with equal parts of white vinegar and dish soap, and then flush it out with cool water.

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Ancient Chinese beer recreated in Canada

A beer that was brewed in China 9,000 years back from a blend of rice, honey and hawthorn berries has successfully been recreated in Canada, ThaiIndian News reported at the beginning of June.

The beer, called Chateau Jiahu, has its roots in a village in Hunan province in northern China.

A molecular archaeologist Patrick McGovern from the University of Pennsylvania found chemical traces of the 9,000-year-old beer on some pottery in a dig in the Neolithic village of Jiahu.

McGovern and people at Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, Delaware decided to take the ancient beer’s ingredients and make a modern-day version of it, which was nowhere any easy task.

?All that Patrick McGovern could tell us is what the evidence was or a laundry list of organic substances,’ thestar.com quoted Sam Calagione, founder and president of the brewery, as saying.

?From there we have to create a recipe. We have to come up with the percentage or ratios and volumes of weight of honey, rice and fruit. We have to figure out how strong an alcohol it might have been.

?Whether it was filtered or cloudy, carbonated or flat, we have a lot of creative latitude to bring a modern interpretation of this ancient beverage back to life,’ Calagione stated.

The company has managed to replicate the beer, with Chateau Jiahu winning a gold medal at the Great American Beer Fest in 2009.

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What makes Belgian chocolate the best?

Belgian chocolate has the reputation for being possibly the world’s best chocolate. But what makes Belgian Chocolate the best? Most chocolate connoisseurs consider authentic Belgian chocolate the standard bearer for all that is truly gourmet. Who hasn’t heard of delicious handmade Belgian truffles, cookies, pralines or liqueur cups? The history of Belgian chocolate is replete with praise from chocolate connoisseurs.

Connoisseurs consider Belgian chocolate truly gourmet because it’s made the old fashioned way; it’s handmade and made of the finest ingredients. Chocolate artisans in quaint little family shops make chocolate with equipment handed down from generations past. These chocolate shops dot the Belgian landscape and are frequented by tourists looking for that delectable chocolate tasting treat. Any real tour of Belgium should include a least a few chocolate shops stops.

Another reason that Belgian chocolate is considered so good is a process Jean Neuhaus invented in 1912 that created a special version of chocolate called couverteur. It is a cold shell for what he called pralines. These Belgian chocolate pralines, unlike pralines made elsewhere, are filled with nougats or creams such as fruit, hazelnut, coffee, or more chocolate. These delectable treats were an instant success and pushed his Belgian chocolate to an exalted status.

Neuhaus’s discovery was the genesis of a number of famous Belgian chocolate praline companies that exist today. These company names include NirvanaChocolates.com, Godiva, Leonidas, and, of course, Neuhaus ? all famous for their gourmet chocolate pralines. Even the high quality Swiss chocolate gets much of its recipe ingredients from French and Belgian chocolatiers.

Another advantage Belgian chocolate has over other chocolate is how it’s made. In the usual chocolate making process, the cocoa beans are ground and mixed with sugar and cocoa butter. Then the chocolate is smoothed out through a process called tempering, which involves heating. Most companies then let the chocolate cool and harden before they receive it in solid form. They have to reheat it again to make it usable.

But Belgian chocolate companies do it differently. They usually receive their couverteur in heated tanker trucks soon after the tempering process is complete so it doesn’t cool and harden. It’s this cooling process that robs the chocolate of much of its aroma. By not letting it cool and not having to reheat it later, the chocolate retains its great taste.

Many say Belgian chocolate praline is far superior to the taste of ordinary chocolate bars. It may be more expensive, but its taste and aroma are worth it to those who enjoy the finer things in life. Belgian chocolate has a very good reputation and has the quality to match.