Drunken Crayfish

“Brewers enjoy working to make beer as much as drinking beer instead of working”

Do you know that?
Truly artisanal Brasserie La Caracole is located in a small village Falmignoul, Province of Namur, Wallonia in southern Belgium, close to the French border.

Caracole beers are available in Belgium, Canada, United States, Italy, France, Holland, and Japan. The company?s portfolio consists of four stock ales: Caracole 7.5% abv, Nostradamus 9% abv, Saxo 7.5% abv, Troublette 5.5% abv. Troublette and Saxo are also available in Organic versions.

All Caracole beers are presented in 11.2 fl. oz. / 33 ml. metal crown bottles as well as in 25.4 fl. oz. / 750ml champagne bottles with cork and metal cage. All styles are bottle conditioned (second fermentation with yeast in the bottle), unfiltered and unpasteurized.

If you plan a big party, you are welcome to opt for the excellent Caracole beers in 30L kegs.

The recurring theme on each label is that of spiral snail shell from which the brewery takes its name. Apparently the snail is the emblem of Namur and the word for a snail in local Namurois dialect is “Caracole”.

Besides brewing its own products, the company produces a number of beers for the Forestinne and Beaurinoise breweries.

And, last but not least, Brasserie La Caracole is the last brewery known to warm the water in brick, wood-fired brew kettles.

Belgian Brewers announce Open Breweries Day on Sunday April 25th!

Visit one or more of the 24 participating breweries on Sunday April 25th, 2010 and taste the passion of the Belgian brewers. Free entrance, one drink included!

A wide variety of breweries can be visited, highlighting the diversity which is so typical of Belgian beers.

All breweries are open from 10am to 5pm. Some breweries are exclusively open on this day.

Reservations are not necessary, except when indicated differently on the information form of the brewery.

It will be an incredible journey between tradition and innovation, from natural resources to the product we all know and love, the Belgian beer.

World: Reduced malt input results most often in lower beer quality

At the beginning of the financial and economic crisis brewers, especially the large groups, reduced both stocks and purchase contracts sharply, an analysts? research note posted earlier this month reminds.

Brewers had to cope with lower disposable incomes of consumers, with higher beer taxes in a number of countries, with anti-smoking laws, and a continuing trend towards wine and other beverages in the richer countries.

Statistics show that beer sales dropped less than malt purchases by brewers: Japan, China, Russia and Ukraine are the extreme examples of reducing malt input in beer, for different reasons and with different replacements.

China?s malt basis of beer is about 7 kilos/hl, Russia reduced its malt input by at least 50% and brews a number of beers exclusively with raw barley and enzymes.

All over the world usage of malt substitutes has increased, most often to the detriment of beer quality.

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.

What are hops?

Hops are the female flower clusters (commonly called seed cones or strobiles), of a hop species, Humulus lupulus.

They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine.

One of the most important effects of hops in the brewing process is to add bitterness to your beer. This bitterness balances the sweetness that comes from the other major ingredient in beer – barley malt. Without the bittering effect of hops, beer would be a very sweet drink.

Hop bitterness comes from a group of compounds called alpha acids. The major alpha acids are humulone, cohumulone, and adhumulone. All of these compounds are bitter and will, when properly used, provide bitterness in beer.

In order to achieve the hop bitterness, these alpha acids must be added to the wort and boiled for a substantial period of time. The acids will enter the wort fairly quickly, but if they are not chemically altered by a process called ?isomerization?, they will not remain in the wort when it is cooled. The implication of this for a brewer, then, is that to achieve hop bitterness, the hops must be added to the boil and boiled for 45-60 minutes.

Hops also contain essential oils that will provide flavor and aroma characteristics to beer. The most important of these oils are myrcene, humulene, caryophyllene, and farnesene. Unfortunately, they are very volatile, meaning that prolonged boiling will cause them to evaporate from the wort. Thus, if you want to achieve the flavoring and aroma characteristics of hops, boil them for a short time. The standard suggestions are that a 15 minute boil will provide the flavor components and a 5 minute (or less) will provide the aroma characteristics.

Another method for achieving hop aroma in beer is called ?dry-hopping?. This refers to putting hops into the fermenter. Since the beer will not be boiled, the essential oils will not be dissipated.

Hops come to the brewer in three major physical forms:

Whole (or cone) hops – Essentially, this is the just the dried hop cones as they come off the plant;

Hop pellets – Hop pellets are produced by grinding the hops into a powder. This powder is then formed into small pellets. The oils and resins in the hop act as the binder to hold the pellets in the desired shape.

Hop plugs – Hop plugs are just compressed whole hop cones.

In choosing which form is best, there are several factors to take into account. An important issue concerns the freshness of the hops. The active ingredients in hops are fairly volatile and can be lost from easily. The major factors in hop maintaining hop freshness are to keep them cold and to keep air away from them.

Whole hops are particularly susceptible to losing their freshness since they have so much surface area exposed to air. This is one of the major advantages of pellets – by being so compact, the amount of surface exposed to air is much smaller than with whole hops. On the other hand, the grinding of the whole hops to create the pellets results in the loss of some oils. Thus, whole hops may possess more of their original character then hop pellets do.

Hop plugs are considered to be a compromise between the whole hops and hop pellets. Since they are not ground, the oils are not lost, but since they are compressed, their exposed surface area is reduced.

From a practical brewing standpoint, there are other issues. More varieties are available in pellet form. This is probably due to the economies in shipping and storage that result from the reduced size.

Techniques for removing hops from wort will also vary depending on which form is used. Whole hops or hop plugs may be removed with a screen filter system. Hop pellets, on the other hand, reduce to a very fine powder sludge which will clog most screens. Therefore other methods must be used to separate hop pellets residue from wort

Belgian beers scoop awards at World Beer Cup 2010

The recently held World Beer Cup has again confirmed the distinguished position of Belgian beer among its peers from all over the world.

Brasserie Boon scored both the gold and silver awards for its Geuze Mariage Parfait and Oude Geuze Boon in the category Belgian-Style Sour Ale (23 Entries).

Troubadour Blond by Brewery The Musketeers and Brugse Zot Blond by Brewery de Halve Maan won the gold and silver respectively in the category Belgian-Style Blonde Ale or Pale Ale (41 Entries). The bronze was awarded to AB InBev?s Leffe Blonde.

Palm Breweries? Rodenbach Vintage got the silver in the category Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer (39 Entries).

Witte Noire Imperial Amber Wheat Ale by De Proef Brouwerij was recognized as the world?s best Belgian-Style Dark Strong Ale (46 Entries).

Bockor Brewery?s Omer Traditional Blond won the gold award in the category Belgian-Style Pale Strong Ale (33 Entries).

Cheers and carry on!

Dark chocolate good for your liver

Doctors could soon be prescribing a dose of dark chocolate to help patients with liver damage, according to new research presented at a conference, The Telegraph posted on April, 15.

Dark chocolate reduces damage to the blood vessels in patients who have suffered scarring on the liver due to excessive drinking or disease, new studies have found.

It also reduces blood pressure in the liver as it contains high levels of anti-oxidants which mop of damaging particles from the body.

Dark chocolate has been hailed as a superfood because of its anti-oxidant properties which have been linked to a reduced risk of heart disease and stroke.

The latest findings were presented at the International Liver Congress 2010, the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Liver in Vienna, Austria.

Prof Mark Thursz, Vice Secretary of EASL and Professor of Hepatology at Imperial College London, said: “As well as advanced technologies and high science, it is important to explore the potential of alternative sources which can contribute to the overall wellbeing of a patient.

“This study shows a clear association between eating dark chocolate and portal hypertension (high blood pressure in the liver) and demonstrates the potential importance of improvements in the management of cirrhotic patients, to minimise the onset and impact of end stage liver disease and its associated mortality risks.”

After eating blood flow to the liver increases but in patients with cirrhosis this can be dangerous as blood pressure in the liver is already raised and any further significant rise may cause blood vessels to rupture and bleed.

In the study, 21 patients with end stage liver disease were randomised to receive a liquid meal containing white chocolate or one containing dark chocolate. Various measurements were taken before the meal and 30 minutes afterwards.

The dark chocolate meal caused a smaller rise in blood pressure in the liver than the white chocolate meal.

White chocolate does not contain any cocoa flavonoids which have the anti-oxidant properties, the conference was told.