Drunken Crayfish

Do you know that?
Potteloereke beer offered by Sint Canarus brewery is a bottle-refermented Belgian dark ale. This dark-mahogany brew has an 8% alcohol volume.

Potteloereke beer has a pleasant aroma with notes of ripe fruit and roasted malt. We are sure you will be charmed by its plum/ raisin/ scorched sugar/ burnt toast flavour!

Homebrewery Sint Canarus is the biggest brewery between Deinze and Gent and one of the smallest breweries in the world. Besides Potteloereke, it offers also such beers as Sint Canarus Tripel, Willy Kriegelbier and Maagd van Gottem.

Belgium: AB InBev reaches deal to end breweries blockade

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest beer maker, and unions have reached a deal to end a two-week blockade of Belgian breweries that was drying up supplies of local brands, Reuters reported on January, 21.

Belgian workers have sealed off the entrances to the company’s large plants in Leuven and Liege and for a week the smaller Hoegaarden factory in protest at AB InBev’s plan to shed 299 of its 2,700 Belgian workers.

Two mediation attempts failed to break the deadlock. Unions have demanded that AB InBev withdraw the plan before entering any discussions. A third attempt on January, 21 finally bore fruit.

“The plan has been withdrawn,” said Kris Croonenborghs of the ABVV union. “I believe the blockades will end by tomorrow.”

The company’s Belgian unit, InBev Belgium, said it had accepted the recommendations of mediators and that dialogue could now start.

The mediators suggested that InBev draw up a plan together with unions and that the company hold a Europe-wide works council.

AB InBev, which also makes Budweiser and Beck’s, has said it could cut some 10 percent of its 8,000 strong workforce in western Europe due to falling beer markets.

Beer as a benefit for both body and soul

Beer has almost no fat and zero cholesterol. It can be less fattening than wine and RTDs, and contains less sugar and more dietary fibre, thanks to its barley content.

Malt is rich in vitamins and minerals, especially B6 and B12, and 500ml of beer meet about 30% of an average person’s daily need for vitamins. The presence of hops can provide beneficial sedative effects and their bitterness can aid digestion.

Moderate beer drinkers are less prone to stress and heart disease than may teetotalers and heavy drinkers.

Alcohol, consumed in moderate amounts, reduces fat deposits in blood vessel walls and also lowers cholesterol levels your blood, which can counteract cardiac diseases and stabilize your blood pressure.

And let’s not forget that beer is about 95% water. Its high water content, and relatively low alcohol content compared to wine and spirits, makes it good, thirst-quenching drink.

Beer’s ideal ionic composition also helps prevent gall and kidney stones. With all that water, it’s also a diuretic which can help keep the urinary tract open and prevent infection.

Beer also has traces of zinc, copper and iron which can help with prostate gland problems. And the hops in beer have been linked to helping prevent blood clots.

So,for the good of your body and your soul, enjoy a couple of Belgian beers whenever you feel like.

Men like women opting for beer survey

Men get more impressed with girls who opt for beer instead of a glass of wine or other more girlie drinks, a new UK survey has found.

But only one in 10 women would order a beer when out on a date, the study commissioned by beer company BitterSweet Partnership found.

According to the men questioned for the survey, a beer glass makes the women appear more sexy, confident, fun and independent. In fact, it is a ?turn-on? if a girl requested a beer on a first date, the survey participants said.

However, women would ditch beer for other options because they think drinking beer makes them appear masculine and unattractive. Just six per cent of women would pick a beer as their drink of choice on a first date, the survey discovered.

The researchers quizzed 2,000 men from across the UK about their thoughts and opinions on women’s drinking habits.

Managing director Kirsty Derry of BitterSweet Partnership said: “We’re looking forward to the day when beer becomes an aspirational choice for women. The industry has for too long ignored women our job is to redress this balance.

BitterSweet Partnership is here, first and foremost to listen to women, to dispel the many myths associated with beer, to develop products designed with the female palate in mind, and to change the buying and drinking experiences for them.”

A brief dip into the brewing history

Despite the sophisticated machinery that is used in brewing beer today, it’s still essentially the same procedures that have been used for hundreds of years.

However, beer making has become very sophisticated because of the advances in knowledge that has resulted from advances in science. Prior to, and even during the 1800′s, there were many who knew how beer could be made, but none knew of the science behind each step. It was not until the 19th century that it was realized that enzymes released during germination of cereal grains would not only break down the barley starch and protein into simple sugars and amino acids, but would also do the same for other carbohydrates, such as potato, corn and wheat. This realization cheapened the cost of making beer since germinated barley is a greater investment than the utilization of potato, corn and wheat.

Besides, it would not be until the 19th century that it would be known that yeasts were the organisms that actually were responsible for the fermentation process.

Although the process of fermentation had been used for thousands of years, it was thought to be a magical rather than a material process. As a result, many rituals and superstitions developed to direct and control fermentation.

By the 17th century, it was known that yeast was present during fermentation, but its role was controversial. There were two opposing views on this subject. One view was that yeast was required for the fermentation process, while the other argued that the process was purely chemical. It was not until Louis Pasteur’s work, in the 1850′s and 1860′s, that this argument was resolved.

Pasteur studied a number of organisms and their fermentative processes. He was able to show that the different fermentation products produced were invariably accompanied by specific microorganisms. This discovery, however, had further significance. Just as the different microorganisms caused different fermentation products from sugar, so did different diseases arise as a result of different microorganisms, and that these microorganisms did not arise spontaneously, as once believed, but that each microorganism was derived from pre-existing cells of the same type. This also led to the concept that by destroying the microorganisms in food products and beverages or by preventing their appearance in sterile products, spoilage could be prevented. This concept led to the heat treatment of food products and beverages that we now know as pasteurization.

In the beginning of beer making, beer was an alcoholic beverage with the flavor of malt and grain. It was flat, slightly sweet and would spoil quickly. It would not be until the 8th century, that brewers in central Europe found that the addition of hops flowers preserved the beer and gave it the slightly bitter taste that made it more palatable. However, hops was not the only bitter additive used. Various cultures used other bitters; tannins from oak and ash trees were used in Scandinavia; cinnamon in southern Europe and in America sweet fennel, licorice or sassafras was used. Nevertheless, by the end of the 15th century, it was hops that became the standard bitter and preservative added to beer.

With the genetic manipulation of yeasts, numerous varietal strains have been bred. This, along with modifications in the brewing process, has led to different types of beers we enjoy today, for instance:

Lagers, made with yeast that settle on the bottom (Saccharomyces carlsbergensis) of the container used. Thus, all the yeast and other material settle on the bottom which results in a clear beer;

Pilsner, a lager beer originally brewed in the Czech city of Pilsen. Water used for this style of beer tends to be harder, with a higher calcium and magnesium content than water used for lager. The color of pilsner is also lighter than that of lager beer;

Ales, made with yeast that floats (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to the top of the brewing vats resulting in a cloudier beer. They tend to have a higher alcohol content than lagers;

Stouts, very dark, almost black ale. The dark color and roasted flavor is derived from the roasted barley, and/or roasted malt. Beer historians consider it to be the descendant of the Porter ale;

Porter, a very dark ale of which the darker color and special flavor come from toasting the malt before brewing. This usually results in a stronger taste and higher alcohol content. Considered by beer historians to have evolved into the Stout ale.

Cheers!

Beer and chocolate make a great pair

Beer goes with elegant Belgian chocolates just perfectly, Sir Marc Stroobandt from Stella Artois is quoted as saying by ABC.

And what better expert could you find to talk about two of Belgium’s favorite exports, chocolate and beer, than the Belgian-born Master Beer Sommelier?

or beer and chocolate the goal is to create either complementing flavors (reinforce each other’s flavors, intensifying and deepening the tasting experience) or contrasting flavors (balance each other’s flavor, so both stand out but neither dominates), Sir Marc explains. Beer and chocolate pairings build on this concept, but focus on the idea that people assume only wine can be served with chocolate and desserts. That’s similar to the misperception about cheese pairings; beer is great with cheese, too, he adds.

Brew masters would argue that beer and chocolate is actually a better pairing than wine and chocolate, because of the broad range of beer styles and flavors, Sir Marc explains. Also, beer’s carbonation helps cut through the richness of chocolates and cleanses the palate, getting you ready for the next bite. From there, the possibilities are endless for what Brew masters and Chocolatiers can come up with.