Last week I was invited to the launch of a new beer at the Special Belge Taproom in De Pakt, Antwerp. The four guys running the bar also intend to open a brewery on the premises, which I understand will take quite a few more months,
De Ranke
In preparation for this, they have been honing their brewing skills by collaborating with one of Belgium’s best craft breweries, De Ranke. Located just over the border in Dottignies, Walonia, De Ranke beers are easily identified by their extra strong hoppy bitterness from brewing with whole hops. They are also specific about brewing natural beers at higher temperatures while using solar energy to reduce their carbon footprint. They use whole hopes instead of pellets and have specially designed fermentation tanks to increase the hop flavor during fermentation.
Franc Belge
The Special Belge team worked together with De Ranke to develop a strong amber, a style which they were not producing.
The result is a great amber beer with a particular hoppy flavour which can only mean one thing – De Ranke. Unfortunately, it was served on the cold side, but when you let it warm up a few degrees, you really are in for a pleasure as you savour the underlying ale and then the fuggle hops.
The aftertaste lingers for over an hour – depending on how much you drink. This is not surprising as they hop the Franc Belge with serious quantities of whole hops. If this is their first beer, then we can seriously look forward to when they actually start brewing at the Special Belge Taproom.
Ginger Kriek
Another reason for attending the launch was that they just started selling the 2018 Ginger Kriek. There are four different batches from this vintage and the Special Belge are selling the one which is least gingery with only a touch of sourness. Catch one while you can, the stock is limited.
