Drunken Crayfish

Do you know that?
Slaapmutske Christmas by Belgian brewery Slaapmutske was named the best foreign Christmas beer at the famous famous international Beer Festival held in Esbjerg, Denmark, at the beginning of November.

Slaapmutske Christmas beer was rewarded with a gold medal.

The festival is organized by Danske Ølentusiaster, which is the most important Danish organisation as far as beerculture is concerned.

The gold medal was given by the (thousands!) visitors during the 3-day festival. At the festival there were in total more than 300 beers presented, of which more than hundred foreign beers coming from USA, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, etc… The silver medal was also given to a belgian beer: Gouden Carolus Christmas, so this trully was a great succes for Belgium as The Beer Country.

Slaapmutske Christmas is a dark red beer of top-fermentation with refermentation in the bottle. This beer of 7.4 Vol% is brewed with different colour malts and aromatic hops. The mouthfeel is very malty and gives a warm softness.

Available in bottle (33cl and 75 cl) and keg (30L) starting from beginning of November until…!?….

So hurry up in order to secure a decent supply of Slaapmutske Christmas for your festive dinner!!

Belgian Family Brewers welcome two new members

Breweries De Halve Maan and Brasserie de Silly have joined the non-profit association Belgian Family Brewers, it became know earlier this month.

The association unites now 13 Belgian breweries which have been brewing beer in Belgium for at least 50 years non-stop. Together they represent 15% of Belgian brewers, with a total of more than 1,500 years of experience in traditional beer brewing.

At present, Belgian Family Brewers include such companies as Bavik, Bosteels, De Halve Maan, De Koninck, Dubuisson, Dupont, Het Anker, Roman, Silly, Sint Bernard, Van Eecke, Van Honsebrouck, and Verhaeghe.

The association?s objective is to promote historic, independent family breweries which bring genuine added value to the identity and authenticity of Belgian brewing methods. This is a worthy cause, since beer brewing is a skilled craft which has been passed down from generation to generation in Belgian families over the centuries. Authentic Belgian beers therefore deserve to be recognised in a way which distinguishes them from other beers.

Beer helpful in fighting both breast- and prostate cancer

A type of polyphenol present in hops helps prevent prostate cancer, a new German research shows.

The compound is a tannin called xanthohumol, and is responsible for the bitter taste of beer.

Xanthohumol blocks male testosterone receptors, which may be why ingesting the molecule helps prevent the development of prostate cancer.

Lead researcher Clarissa Gerhauser of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg said that her team hoped that one day they could demonstrate their finding in animal models and eventually humans, though they had only just begun their research.

Studies have also shown that xanthohumol blocks oestrogen by binding to its receptors.

The researchers said that the hormone-blocking property of the compound may lead to its use in the prevention of both breast- and prostate cancer.

For the purposes of their research, the German team extracted prostate cancer cells that relied on testosterone in order to grow.

When the control cells were given testosterone, they began to secrete prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a common marker for prostate cancer in men.

Gerhauser said that, when her team treated the cells with a cocktail of testosterone and xanthohumol, PSA secretion was inhibited.

She said that the amount of inhibition was proportional to the amount of xanthohumol dispensed to the subjects in the cocktail itself.

So far, the researchers have found similar testosterone-blocking effects using xanthohumol in castrated rats.

Gerhauser said that xanthohumol reduced the effects of the hormones in the prostate tissues of the rats studied by her team.

Gerhauser said that because xanthohumol is a plant-based natural remedy, it should be considered for prostate treatment alongside the drugs manufactured by pharmaceutical firms.

Don’t forget to drink moderately to enhance thus your memory

Low to moderate beer consumption may actually enhance memory, The Scientific American informs.

“There are human epidemiological data of others indicating that mild [to] moderate drinking may paradoxically improve cognition in people compared to abstention,” says Maggie Kalev, a research fellow in molecular medicine and pathology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and a co-author of an article in The Journal of Neuroscience describing results of a study she and other researchers performed on rats. “This is similar to a glass of wine protecting against heart disease, however the mechanism is different.”

Kalev and Matthew During, a professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and a principal investigator of gene therapy at Auckland, initially set out to study the role of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptors in the neuronal processes of normal and diseased animals. (NMDA receptors are critical to memory, because they regulate the strength of synapses (spaces) between nerve cells through which the cells communicate.) But during their research, they discovered that memory was enhanced when one of its subunits, known as NR1, was strengthened in the hippocampus (a central brain region implicated in episodic memory). They then reviewed previous experiments, which had turned up a link between alcohol consumption and NR1 activity.

“We decided to study if beneficial effects of low-dose alcohol drinking already shown by others,” Kalev says, “could be mediated through the mechanism of increasing NR1 expression. We thought it was worth pursuing, since ethanol drinking is such a common pattern of human behavior.”

The researchers created two strains of transgenic rats, one that had an abundance of NR1 subunits in their hippocampi and one in which it was suppressed. A group of normal rats and those with the suppressed NR1 action were fed a diet consisting of 0, 2.5 or 5 percent ethanol.

According to Kalev, it is hard to relate the alcohol the rats consumed to human quantities, but “based on their blood alcohol levels, the 2.5 percent ethanol diet was equivalent to a level of consumption that does not exceed [the] legal driving limit. This may be approximately one to two drinks per day for some people or two to three for others, depending upon their size, metabolism or genetic background.”

The rats stayed on these diets for eight weeks; behavioral testing to assess cognitive function began after four weeks. One test involved novel object recognition, where rats were placed in a cage with two small objects inside multiple times over a two-day period. Then, one object was swapped for a new toy and rats were scored based on how quickly they explored the unfamiliar piece. In a second paradigm, rats were trained to expect a shock when they crossed from a white compartment to a black one inside a cage; a day after training, the rats were put back in the cage to see if they remembered that the black side was dangerous.

Among the normal rats, the animals that consumed moderate amounts of alcohol fared better on both tests compared with the teetotalers. Rats on a heavy alcohol diet did not do well on object recognition (and, in fact, showed signs of neurotoxicity), but they performed better than their normal brethren on the emotional memory task.

“People often drink to ‘drown sorrows,’” Kalev says. “Our results suggest that this could actually paradoxically promote traumatic memories and lead to further drinking, contributing to the development of alcoholism.”

Overstimulating the NR1 subunits of the NMDA receptor showed effects similar to those from moderate drinking, whereas suppressing the NR1 subunits canceled out the effect of low, but steady consumption. These findings indicate that the NMDA receptor must be intact for the positive effects of alcohol to manifest, Kalev says. They speculate that the NMDA receptor is initially blocked by alcohol, causing the activity of the NR1 subunit to elevate as a compensatory response (thereby conferring heightened cognition).

Meir Stampfer, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, says that the new work provides a stronger biological basis for studies that he and others have undertaken linking improved memory to moderate alcohol intake. “[This study] provides interesting evidence for a mechanism that may be operating at the NMDA receptor,” he says.

Japan: Sapporo Breweries launches space barley beer, but in a very limited edition

Japanese beer-maker Sapporo Breweries announced this week it has launched the long-expected beer made from the seeds of barleycorn which has travelled in space.

The beer was brewed as part of the joint research with Okayama University conducted to exploit possibilities of barleycorn for beer in space, “Studies of Impact of Extreme Environmental Stresses on Barley” and uses 100% of the “seedlings of barleycorn that travelled the space.”

Sapporo Space Barley is said to be the first of its kind in the world – however, it the beer is not available to everyone. The brewer is inviting 60 people (30 pairs) to taste the beer.

Have a nice chocolate Christmas

The beautifully shining Guylian chocolate Sea Shells make a perfect gift for Christmas. Each carefully crafted creation is a blend of delicious white, milk and dark Belgian chocolate. Made from the finest cocoa beans and filled with the unique hazelnut praliné, these chocolates are a pure indulgence.

You can also choose from one of the numerous assortment boxes, each with a selection of Guylian chocolate Sea Shells, La Trufflina and Opus Belgian pralines.

There’s also the Guylian Twistwraps collection to choose from. For Christmas, the seahorse shaped chocolates with six different fillings are presented in joyful Christmas packaging. There’s even a ready to use presentation bowl. You only need to remove the cover lid and attach it at the base to start sharing these wonderful Belgian chocolates.

Do you know that?
Belgian specialty beer-maker Palm Breweries NV has made available its Limited Edition RODENBACH ?Vintage?(2007)! Hurry up if you want to benefit from this temporary and exclusive offer!

Only 30.000 bottles (750 ml) were brewed and bottled to be sold outside of Belgium.

RODENBACH ?Vintage? (2007) is the unique result of Palm Breweries? passionate brewers? creativity.

RODENBACH, the exceptional Flemish red-brown sour ale of mixed fermentation, takes on its unique character by maturing in handmade oak vats, some over 150 years old.

This exclusive, limited edition Vintage by RODENBACH (7.0% Alc./ Vol.) is the result of a two-year aging process in Vat Number 230, resulting in the company?s finest ale produced ? in a superior RODENBACH Grand Cru.

Enjoy the unparalleled sweet and sour palette with a complex aftertaste – with a complex fruitiness and a very long aftertaste, just like a Grand Cru wine.

The beer has a red copper glow, a very complex nose with fruity red currant flavour with a hint of wild honey and oak. Its taste is rich and refreshing, with complex and at the same time very smooth flavours: red current fruitiness, caramel notes with a little bit of wild honey and a touch of oak wood and vanilla. The aftertaste is very well balanced, drying up at the end and asking for another sip.

RODENBACH Vintage is available in 750 ml bottles.

Enjoy!

AB InBev?s Central European brewing assets sold to CVC Capital Partners

World?s leading brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev and CVC Capital Partners (?CVC?) announced on December, 2 that they have completed the sale of AB InBev?s Central European operations, as previously communicated on 15 October, to funds advised by CVC (?CVC Funds?) for an enterprise value of approximately USD 2.2 billion and additional rights to a future payment estimated to be as much as USD 800 million contingent on the CVC Funds? return on their initial investment.

Included in the sale are AB InBev?s operations, to be renamed StarBev, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.

As part of the agreement, StarBev will continue to brew Stella Artois, Beck?s, Löwenbräu and Spaten and distribute Hoegaarden and Leffe in the above countries under license from AB InBev.

AB InBev will also continue to brew Staropramen in Russia and Ukraine and to distribute it in several other countries including the US, Germany and the UK.

Barclays Capital and Lazard acted as financial advisors to AB InBev and Clifford Chance acted as legal advisor. Freshfields acted as legal counsel to CVC.

The most expensive Belgian beer stored by a London restaurant

A London restaurant has at its disposal a bottle of what is believed to be the world’s most expensive beer, costing L700 a bottle, The Telegraph posted on November, 11.

The 12-litre bottle of Vieille Bon Secours ale has been stored for the last 10 years and has an alcoholic volume of 8 per cent.

The beer has been described as having a complex taste with citric, caramel and toffee flavours with an undertone of liquorice and aniseed.

Only a few other bars and restaurants are believed to stock the beer, which can also be bought online and is available in blond, amber and dark.

Belgian Beer Ambassador and Master Beer Sommelier Mark Stroobandt, said: “All three varieties are complex in flavour but are well balanced so the alcohol is not intrusive.

“Each has a unique and refreshing citric tart flavours intermingled with apricot-like and malty fruitiness to caramel-toffee flavours counterbalanced with a distinct hoppy-bitterness with a spicy undertone of liquorice and aniseed.

“It’s a very special drink for very special occasions.”

Muir Picken, executive chef of the Belgo Restaurant, who currently has one bottle of the beer left in his cellar, said: “At 12 litres it is pretty heavy duty – it takes two people just to pour it.

“A large part of the cost is the bottle itself but it is a very rare niche beer.”

The ale is brewed by Belgian firm Caulier since 1995 and it originates from the country’s Walloon region.

The restaurant has sold three bottles of the extravagant beer but a single bottle has stood unopened in the cellar for over a decade.

Now Muir faces the dilemma of giving the bottle away or waiting to sell it.

He added: “We have sold three bottles in the past – but we have had one unopened in the cellar for quite some time and I’m not sure what to do with it.

“I would rather give it to our loyal customers than some city boys who sometimes walk in and say give me the most expensive beer that you have.

“I don’t know whether to sell it or give it away to some of our locals and let some beer connoisseurs try it as well.”

Beer does not make you heavier

Regular beer consumption does not contribute to the frequency of obesity. This has been shown by a survey among 10,000 Belgian families, the Beer&Health magazine informs.

In 1997 the Scientific Institute for Public Health ? Louis Pasteur did a national survey of health indicators among the Belgian population. The list of indicators researched concerned socio-economic factors, a subjective look at the person?s own health, the presence of (chronic) diseases, disabilities, AIDS, psychosocial factors, healthcare, lifestyle (smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, accidents, diet), prevention (vaccinations, prevention of heart and circulatory disease and cancer) and access to healthcare. This national health survey was complemented by a detailed questionnaire on diet by a group of researchers at the Limburg University Centre. A representative sample of 1000 people of between 50 and 70 years of age was set up for this survey. The participants completed the questionnaire with the help of their doctor. Then the study was coupled to the national health survey so that the researchers could consider the entire group when analysing the answers.

More than 10% (11.2%) of adult Belgians have a body mass index of 30 or more: they are overweight or obese. The relative risk of obesity is lower in the group that consumed at least one alcoholic drink in the previous year in comparison to the group that did not drink any alcohol at all in the same period. But that does not of course demonstrate that beer drinking reduces the risk of obesity.

Various other factors can influence this relationship. The group that drinks beer now and again has more smokers, while more non-smokers are also non-drinkers. Furthermore, the percentage of obesity is greatest in the group of ex-smokers and in the group that does little or no physical activity. Other risk factors for obesity are diet behaviour, eating white bread instead of brown, a fat-rich diet, many milk products, consuming snacks or sugared drinks, and finally a lower level of education.

Beer as a healthful ingredient in cooking

Cooks have discovered the array of tastes beer can bring to the kitchen. Not only can different styles of beer add depth to a flavor, but beer can also be used in place of some higher calorie ingredients, enhancing both health and enjoyment, About.com communicates.

Substitute a stout or a porter for some of the oils or sugars in a marinade. You’ll have all the rich flavors of the original, and nuances from the beer. And beer is an excellent tenderizer.

In baked goods, beer adds moistness, but with fewer calories.

Try a slightly sweet bock beer as a glaze during broiling or grilling, instead of an oil or syrup based glaze. The residual sugars in the beer add sweetness.

Beer can substitute wine in stews, soups, and sauces (but avoid the highly-hopped beer styles, which add too much bitterness as the sauce is reduced). In fact, the classic Belgian beef stew Carbonnade a la Flamande gets its distinctive character from beer.

Drizzle a fruit lambic over fresh fruit instead of syrup for a dessert that is light, but still a satisfying conclusion to a meal.

Dieting with pleasure

Enjoy chocolate and lose weight? Welcome to the chocolate diet!

According to ExtremeChocolate.com, there are several diets that recommend using chocolate as an aid to weight loss! If this sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is: you can’t just shovel back three candy bars a day and call it a diet (if only!). No, the chocolate diet – or diets – integrates small amounts of dark chocolate and cocoa with healthy, low-fat meals.

Why Use Chocolate?
Why on earth would anyone use chocolate to promote weight loss? Well, there are actually some very good reasons, such as:
-chocolate makes you happy, especially if you’re a woman. And when you’re happy with your diet, you’re much more likely to stick to it.
-chocolate can calm stress and brighten your mood. Since some people experience weight gain as a side effect of stress, chocolate can indirectly benefit your diet.
-chocolate contains antioxidants and other valuable nutritional benefits.

There are several types of chocolate diet on the market. The most popular (which, to no one’s surprise, goes by the name of the chocolate diet) involves using powdered chocolate drinks as healthy snacks in combination with a healthy diet and exercise.

You could also check out the pasta, popcorn, and chocolate diet. The idea is to eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, snack on popcorn and small amounts (up to 1 oz) of chocolate, and eat small portions of pasta at lunch and dinner (with, of course, low fat sauces and toppings).

If you love chocolate and also respect your health, your best bet is to exercise, eat properly, and enjoy chocolate in moderation.