Tasting Beers – Special Event

March 24, 2019March 24, 2019 by Jeremy Sulzbacher

How to Taste Beers

Ginger Beer — **A Blissful Bavik Super Pils**

On March 12th I ran a beer-tasting event for the Jewish community in Antwerp. My good friends at the Special Belge Taproom hosted the evening and supplied a broad variety of beers on tap.

One of the challenges of arranging a beer tasting is to line up a suitable variety of beers which are good representatives of the different styles. As this was an introduction to beer tasting, the selection had to be more main-stream. While I would have loved to present some sours and lambics, this was not the appropriate forum.

The wonderful pictures are courtesy of a beer loving photographer, Moshe Yonatan.

The Selection on Tap

For a beer tasting where you are explaining to people how to enjoy and savour beers, you have to ensure that the beers are from the best available. When they hear the word beer, a lot of people think of the cheap lagers they see in the supermarkets. They are often unaware of the wide variety of styles and the skill that goes into brewing a beautiful pint. Here was our selection:

Bavik Super Pils 5.2% – Belgium’s only unpasteurized Pilsner beer on tap from de Brabandere
Lupulus Hibernatus 9% – a strong dark beer with an extra flavour
Lachouffe Houblon 9% – a classic American style IPA
Franc Belge 5.2% – a strongly hopped Belgian Amber, a joint venture with De Ranke and Spécial Belge
De Nest SchuppenBoer 8% – A full bodied strong Belgian blonde
Hof ten Dormal Gin Barrel Aged Blonde 12% – A special blonde to finish off the evening.

Content

As it is difficult to taste 6 beers one after the other without any breaks, we arranged some content for discussion.

Although each beer had an introduction, we looked at some other issues:

Judaism and alcohol and its association with life events
How beer with hops in the Babylonian Talmud predate hops in Europe by about 500 years
Beer in Jewish law and custom
Beer’s major contributions to civilisation

The Next Tasting

Quite a few people missed the beer tasting because they had prior commitments, and we hope to arrange more beer tastings in the future.

Tipple on the Catwalk

April 9, 2018 by info@gingertipple.com

Panningen 2018

About one month ago, Ginger Tipple’s distributor in Herentals asked me if I would like to do an event with a customer in Panningen on Sunday April 8th, I answered positively. It was not on Passover, and my sons would be here to help, so it sounded like a great idea.

Step 1 – Where is Panningen?

Panningen is a small town of 7,500 people in south-eastern Holland. It is also the location of Wijnhuis Panningen, a beautiful wine, spirits and beer store which also stocks Ginger Tipple. Each year Panningen hosts a classic car and fashion event in the town center.

One upmarket clothing store which was exhibiting in the hourly fashion show is called Ginger, run by Elly van Bilzen, who has ginger hair.

For the first anniversary of her store what could be more appropriate than to offer Ginger Tipple to Ginger’s customers?

Expectations

We expected to be in a small shopping mall, but were happily surprised to be outside the shop on the main shopping area right next to the fashion show. There were ballet performances from the local girls’ dance school and a local fitness studio staged an impressive exhibition of weight training and boxing.

It was most probably the first time citizens of Panningen saw orthodox Jews with their skullcaps on their heads, but it did not seem to affect the flow of people to our stand.

The people there were very friendly and open to talking to strangers.

We were really lucky with the weather, a pleasant and sunny 25 Celsius; had it rained, a common occurrence in this part of the world, the whole fashion show would have been a disaster. One of the local wine bars had a notice which read “A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine.”

Feedback

This was the first event where we were presenting both the regular 8.5% ABV Ginger Tipple and the 4.5% version, Ginger Tipple 4. Also, the stronger Tipples were older, two years as opposed to two months. The Tipple 4 was considered more refreshing while the regular Ginger Tipple came over as more of a “drinker’s” drink.

Thanks to Caspar and Lindsy at the Wijnhuis for their help in initiating and organizing the event. Hopefully we’ll be back next year.

Leiden Leeds the Kriek

January 24, 2018 by info@gingertipple.com

Glutenvrijemarkt

One of Ginger Tipple’s regular clients, Glutenvrijemarkt.com in Leiden, Holland, recently ordered the last few boxes of the Ginger Kriek 2017 vintage. This online store is the major player in the gluten free market in the Netherlands and sells gluten free beers including Ginger Tipple.

The Ginger Kriek

We make this particular beverage with regular Ginger Tipple, without hops, into which we add fresh morello cherries known as noordkrieken. These sour cherries are only available for about two weeks each July and we have to be quick.

We wash each cherry and check it for mold and holes, which could mean worms or other undesirable extras.

The whole cherries with their pits then sit in the Ginger Tipple vat for six to seven weeks while the yeast ferments their sugars and their flavours, aromas and colours impart into the brew.

The 2nd Fermentation

Before we bottle the Ginger Kriek we add some organic honey and then leave the Ginger Kriek to second ferment for two months. During this period the flavours meld and the remaining sugars ferment out to give it a natural carbonation.

The Pour

When you pour the cold Ginger Kriek into a tulip shaped glassed, you will be impressed by the synthesis of the ginger and cherries wafting past your nostrils. These aromas can only emanate from fresh natural gingers and fruits.

Most kriek beers are either sour lambics or sweet ones. Ginger Kriek is in between, very mildly sweet and a tiny bit sour.

I know I am biased when I talk about it, but it is really very good.

Buy Now

If you want to grab one of the few bottles, click on this link at Glutenvrijemarket.

Remember to drink it by the end of June 2018.

And thanks to my friends at Studio Rauw for designing the label.

One last note, it is also Kosher for Passover.