Drunken Crayfish

Do you know that?
Duvel is a strong golden pale ale ? the best product of Duvel Moortgat Brewery, a Flemish family-owned brewery founded in 1871.

Initially, to commemorate the end of the First World War, the Moortgats named their main beer Victory Ale. But during the 1920s, an avid drinker described the beer in Brabantian as “nen echten duvel” (a real devil) – perhaps in reference to its formidable alcohol content (8.5% ABV) – and the name of the beer was changed to Duvel. Considered by many the definitive version of the Belgian Strong Golden Ale style, Duvel is brewed with Pilsner malt and white sugar, and hopped with Saaz and Styrian Goldings, the yeast still stems from the original culture of Scottish yeast bought by Albert Moortgat during a prospection-tour in the U.K. just after W.W. 1.

Duvel has a fruity dry aroma, owed to the finest hops, that reminds experts of Poire William concerning its bouquet and pallet. Its dry but still alcohol-sweet flavour makes the beer an excellent thirst-quencher, with a pronounced hop aroma. Thanks to the balance between a fine aroma and subtle bitterness, this beer occupies a unique position in the rich Belgian Beer tradition. Duvel is the perfect companion for appetizers, digestives and every other occasion.

Belgium: A café-owner poured beer 48 hours on end

The owner of a pub in Antwerp served his clients beer for 48 hours running thus celebrating the pub?s 15th anniversary.

This made a new record of uninterrupted customer support registered by Guinness World Records. Previous achievement in the sphere of non-stop service lasted 24 hours.

During the process, the barmen are allowed five-minute breaks every hour. Getting down to work, the Antwerpian promised to have snacks on healthy food only and not to drink coffee or tonics.

World: Cook with beer and amaze everybody

Beer in cooking is deeply rooted in Western Europe. It is a rich, complex ingredient that complements food, whether it’s cooked in the recipe, served as a beverage to accompany it, or both. Due to the fact that alcohol has a much lower boiling temperature than water, it evaporates quickly while cooking your recipe and thereby only leaves the characteristic taste of the beer.

Some ways to use beer in cooking are as follows:

-Marinades for beef ? both tenderizes and adds flavour.
-Used as a substitute for water in different soups and stocks ? adds much more flavour to your recipes.
-Used in batters for fried foods.
-Added to gravies to spice up the taste.
-Used as a cooking base/liquid for steaming foods (sausages, shellfish, clams, etc.)

Chefs all over the world say that some foods, like beef, call for the deep undertones ? almost like coffee or chocolate ? of a porter, while fish usually does better with light, citrusy flavors, like those found in a wheat beer or a Belgian ale.

The National Beer Wholesalers Association in Virginia suggests grilling ribs with their Hawaiian Lager. The marinade of lager, pineapple or orange marmalade, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, garlic, chili paste and soy sauce produces an intense flavor.

Just remember when cooking with beer, keep your beer?s primary taste in mind. Malty beers add a sweet/nutty taste while hop lagers can add a bitter/herbal flavour. Beer increases in bitterness as it reduces, so use a sweeter/malty beer when cooking for long periods of time.

UK: 2012 London Olympics may be washed down by beer £5 a pint

The average price of a pub pint of beer could reach £5 by the 2012 London Olympic Games, Commercial and Business News cited the warning of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) on August 5.

According to research by the organisation, a pint of real ale has increased 12 pence and a pint of lager has risen 14 pence in the past four months alone.

CAMRA blames for the price surge the 10% increase in beer tax in March?s budget. Britain currently has the highest rate of beer tax in the EU, with the taxman receiving 80p in duty and tax for every pint sold in a pub.

A new survey has also revealed that 62% of pub goers blame the Government for high pub beer prices.

Pub beer price inflation could exceed 10% during 2008, and unless planned beer tax hikes are shelved many pubs will close and the price of a pint could hit £4 in London and the South East and over £5 for the 2012 London Olympics, CAMRA experts assert.

CAMRA Chief Executive, Mike Benner, said: ?This year?s devastating increase in beer tax has forced publicans to increase prices and pub-goers are right to lay the blame at the door of the Government. High beer taxes threaten to prevent many low and moderate earners enjoying a regular pint at their local pub.

?We desperately urge the Chancellor to think again before he goes down in history as the Chancellor who closed thousands of community pubs; damaged community life and prevented many millions of pub-goers from enjoying a regular trip to the pub.?

The average price of a pint of real ale is currently £2.59 whilst lager costs £2.82.

South Korea: Growing beer import due to demand for diversity

South Korea’s beer imports grew over the past three years as consumers increased demand for more diverse beer products from Europe and Japan, Asia Pulse cited a report on August 4.

The report by the Korea Customs Service stated that the nation imported a total of 20,556 tons of beer worth US$19.06 million during the first half of this year. Three years earlier, the imports amounted to 10,476 tons worth $7.57 million.

The sharp increase was attributed to a surge in imports of beer from European countries and Japan.

The report showed that South Korea bought a total of 4,322 tons of beer from the Netherlands during the first half, compared with 222 tons in the same period of 2005. Imports from Belgium and Germany amounted to 1,679 tons and 1,310 tons, respectively.

Imports of Japanese beer have also grown at a fast pace. South Korea’s beer imports from its eastern neighbour totalled 3,113 tons during the first half, compared with a mere 702 tons three years earlier, the report showed.

World: Chocolate consumption not at its highest

Global cocoa and chocolate consumption shows signs of waning due to the economic downturn, high prices and health worries, but a little luxury from premium products and dark chocolate seems to be “recession proof”, Reuters communicated on July 31.

The latest cocoa grindings data, a measure of demand for the key chocolate ingredient, has been disappointing in the U.S. and Europe. Second-quarter U.S. grindings fell 15.89 percent from a year ago, and Europe’s grind was up 1.7 percent.

The subdued grindings have coincided with a slowdown in global economic growth and a surge in U.S. cocoa futures by 40 percent so far this year, spurred by a heightened investment fund appetite for the commodity, and tight physical supplies.

The situation on the cocoa market raises different opinions, actually. For instance, Frans Remmers, senior cocoa products trader at Dutch trade house Theo Broma, said, “It’s difficult to estimate whether chocolate consumption really is down or whether it is just stagnating a bit, and I think the latter is the case.”

“Drops in usage come from manufacturers fiddling with bar sizes and (industrial) recipes reducing the amount of chocolate used, which in turn causes consumption to drop,” Judy Ganes-Chase of J Ganes Consulting in New York argues.

“Consumption of chocolate products seems to be slowing down in volume in the U.S.,” London-based Pipitone added.

Do you know that? Pauwel Kwak, or simply Kwak, is an amber, 8% abv Belgian beer, brewed by the family-owned Brewery Bosteels in Buggenhout, Belgium.

According to tourist guides, there are over 1000 types of Belgian beer. Quite a few of these Belgian beers have their own unique glass. The most distinctive of glasses is the Kwak vessel. This 25 centimetre glass tube with a flared top and a round, bulbous bottom is held by a wooden clamp. In fact, this glass would tip over if you tried to set it down on a table!

According to the Kwak website: ?In Napoleon?s time, Pauwel Kwak was a brewer and the owner of the De Hoorn inn (near Brussels). Mail coaches stopped there every day, but at that time coachmen were not allowed to leave their coach and horses,? ?As a result, the inventive innkeeper had a special Kwak glass blown that could be hung on the coach. In this way, the coachman had his Kwak beer safely at hand.?

Ordering Kwak for the first time is a great experience. It comes to your table complete with a monogrammed wooden stand. The long neck and round base makes a nice rich, frothy head. You can recognize a Kwak glass from across a crowded bar.

Once you get over the novelty of the glass, Kwak is a very fine Belgian beer. The color is a deep amber, with a creamy colored head. Kwak has a mellow, fruity and malty aroma with very little hops smell. There are some hints of fruit in the taste and aroma such as creamy bannana and liquorice.

Belgium: How the Trappist Beer was born

The Trappist order originated in the Cistercian monastery of La Trappe, France. Belgian monasteries started to brew beer in the 19th century.

In 1997, eight Trappist abbeys – six from Belgium (Orval, Chimay, Westvleteren, Rochefort, Westmalle and Achel), one from The Netherlands (Koningshoeven) and one from Germany (Mariawald) – founded the International Trappist Association (ITA) to prevent non-Trappist commercial companies from abusing the Trappist name.

According to the ITA criteria, a Trappist beer is recognized as such only if it is brewed within the walls of a Trappist abbey, by or under control of Trappist monks; the brewery, the choices of brewing, and the commercial orientations must obviously depend on the monastic community; and the economic purpose of the brewery must be directed toward assistance and not toward financial profit. There are currently six breweries in Belgium that are allowed to have their products wear the Authentic Trappist Product logo:

Bières de Chimay
Brasserie d’Orval
Brasserie de Rochefort
Brouwerij Westmalle
Brouwerij Westvleteren
Brouwerij de Achelse Kluis

Belgium?s Trappist beers are all ales, that is, top fermented, distributed in bottles, and mainly bottle conditioned. Trappist breweries use various systems of nomenclature of the different beers produced, which relate mainly to the relative strength of the beer in the range (e.g., “single”, “double”, “triple”. Colours or numbers can be used to indicate the different types, dating back to the days when bottles were unlabelled and had to be identified by the capsule or bottle-top alone. The number system gives an indication of strength, but is not an exact alcohol by volume.

Russia: Lowest beer production growth since 1995 for the first quarter of 2008

According to Rosstat data, beer production growth rate has made just 2.3 % over the first quarter of 2008, Kommersant informed on July 22. This is the minimum growth since the post-crisis period. Analysts forecast that the market?s year results will show 5 % at best. Previously, the smallest growth was registered in 2005, when government cracked down on beer advertising.

Production and consumption of beer in Russia have come closely to European volumes and in future the growth rate will only be falling, experts explain.

Rosstat?s last week publishing states that 58.3 mln hl of beer were brewed in Russia in the first half of this year. Production in June grew just by 0.3% compared to that of June 2007, and expansion of production in comparison with the first half-year of 2007 constituted only 2.3 %. The declared growth rate is the lowest over last several years. For instance, in 2006 beer production grew by 5.8 % over the first half, and by 9.8 % over the whole year, and in 2007 these showings amounted to 29.8 and 16 per cent respectively.

India: Beer consumption in the first quarter reported the slowest growth over three years

The domestic beer volume expanded 3-5% to roughly 46-mn cases in the first three months, falling way below the 15-20% growth witnessed in recent times, according to data from the brewers, India Economic Times communicated July 19.

The beer depletion recorded robust double-digit increase for the last 12 successive quarters riding on economic buoyancy, lifestyle changes and fall in beer prices helped by trade and excise reforms across several states.

The momentum suffered a jolt in the just-concluded quarter, which covers the peak consumption summer months. It may be early days to blame economic slowdown, but there are direct linkages between beer consumption and economic buoyancy, industry observers said.

World: Beer is not just pleasure, but a healthy product as well

What are the benefits of drinking beer? Whether you prefer ales, lagers, stout, bitter or wheat beers, studies show that one drink a day for women or up to two drinks a day for men will reduce your chances of strokes, heart and vascular disease, scientific analyses prove.

A researcher at the Texas Southwestern Medical Center (May 1999) reported that those who consume moderate amounts of beer (one to two a day at the most) have a 30-40% lower rate of coronary heart disease compared to those who don?t drink. Beer contains a similar amount of “polyphenols” (antioxidants) as red wine and 4-5 times as many polyphenols as white wine.

Beer also contains vitamin B6, which prevents the build-up of amino acid called homocysteine that has been linked to heart disease. People with high levels of homocysteine are usually more prone to an early onset of heart and vascular disease. A study performed at the TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute in Utrecht indicates that those who drink beer had no increase in their homocysteine level but those who drank wine or liquor had an increase of up to 10%. Also noted was the fact that those who drank beer experienced a 30% increase in vitamin B6 in their blood plasma, thereby proving that beer (in moderation) is actually healthier to drink than wine and other liquor.

South Korea and Belgium: Guylian purchased by Lotte Confectionery 100 %

Lotte Confectionery, South Korean biggest snack maker, announced in June 2008 that it would acquire the Belgian chocolate maker Guylian for $164 mln (around ?105 million), Reuters reported.

The purchase of a 100 per cent stake in Guylian is Lotte?s debut in the European premium chocolate market.

In a statement Guylian said: ?Following completion of the agreement, Guylian will benefit from Lotte?s unequalled distribution in the fast-growing Asian confectionery markets and its know-how in sales, marketing and development of new products. In addition the Guylian brand will benefit from additional resources to strengthen further its distribution network and the network of Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafés.

?The acquisition of Guylian will diversify Lotte?s existing confectionery business on a product, channel and geographic basis and will be Lotte?s gateway into the European markets together with the recently announced investment in Russia (the opening of a department store and airport duty free operation).

?Lotte will also benefit from Guylian?s strong brand name in the premium-boxed chocolate segment and its successful position in duty free worldwide.?

It was announced that after completion of the agreement Guylian will continue under the existing management team with the same management philosophy and strategy. Lotte and the former family shareholders have agreed to continue to invest in Guylian?s state-of-the-art plant in Sint-Niklaas, management and employees, research and development and the Guylian brand name.

Lotte Confectionery President Sang-Hoo Kim commented: ?We are very enthusiastic about our future partnership with Guylian. Our acquisition of Guylian makes our entry into the European premium chocolate market and is an important milestone in Lotte?s development as a truly global Group.?

The agreement is subject to certain conditions, but both parties anticipate a smooth closing of the transaction. Lazard acted as sole financial advisor to the shareholders of Chocolaterie Guylian NV and Lotte was advised by Mizuho.

GUYLIAN is one of the world?s leading brands of premium Belgian boxed chocolates, selling its chocolate creations into more than 100 countries. Guylian is best known for its original Belgian chocolate seashells ? in dark, milk and white chocolate with hazelnut praliné filling. Today the company offers a broad range of boxed chocolates, individually wrapped premium everyday chocolates and luxury chocolate bars for sharing and self indulgence.

LOTTE CONFECTIONERY is a member of Lotte Group, the fifth largest diversified business group in South Korea (and the owner of the country’s leading travel retailer, Lotte Duty Free).

Originally established as a confectionery company in Japan, Lotte has currently 44 subsidiaries with total group assets of ?31 billion and net revenue of ?23 billion in 2007. Lotte has extensive experience operating prominent franchises including Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (26 stores), Natuur (180 ice cream specialty stores), TGI Friday’s (47 stores), Lotteria (744 fast food chains) and Angel-in-us (91 coffee shops).

Lotte also operates the most extensive retail network in South Korea: 25 department stores, 56 hypermarkets, 79 supermarkets, 1,750 convenience stores, seven duty free shops, 17 fashion outlets and six fashion/household goods stores.