Belgian beers at regional meeting
In his weekly ‘The Barman’ column, columnist Jeff Hoyle discusses a meeting blurred by Belgian beer!
Regional CAMRA meetings aren’t for everyone. Reports, policies, action minutes, points of order, teddy bears, I can forgive anyone who wishes to give it a miss.
And yet, we made our way down to Bishop’s Stortford to attend just such an event. The attraction was more the venue than the meeting, as we were invited to The Belgian Brewer. Small breweries are broadly divided between those located in old farm buildings and those in units on industrial estates, and this one is most definitely in the latter category, being found about a mile east of the town out towards the football ground and motorway services at Birchanger.
Nik, the founder, is Belgian, from a village close to Antwerp but has lived here for many years. On a trip home for a family reunion, he was persuaded by his brother to establish a typical Belgian brewery over here and was helped to acquire the equipment and recipes to make this happen.
We were treated to a look at the brewery and an explanation of the differences between his kit and a traditional British operation. A first sight, it seemed like the familiar jumble of stainless-steel vessels, but the difference was the way they were used.
It seemed to focus on the mash process, where the sugars to be fermented are extracted from the malt. Nik uses a step process where the mash temperature is raised in steps, resulting in the extraction of a range of sugar compounds which all contribute to the flavours in the final beer.
Clearly, the selection of ingredients, length of fermentation, type of yeast and other such considerations all add to the final product, so how authentic is it?
We were treated to a selection of five of the beers produced. People with far more experience of Belgian beer styles were very impressed, and we finished with a tasting of the same beer in cask and keg form.
The difference was clear with the cask version being smoother and less prickly, a finding that may encourage Nik to supply more beer in cask, perhaps for beer festivals. Currently, most of his sales are bottles, meeting the CAMRA definition of real ale in a bottle. Check out the website.
They are not cheap, partly because of the length of the mash being up to three hours compared with the normal 40 minutes or so, and consuming much more energy. The beer is also strong – the meeting passed by in a blur as the glasses kept coming.
I think I speak for everyone when I thank Nik for being so generous with his time, beer and expertise and I doubt that there has been a more enjoyable regional meeting.
Still, I hear attempts are being made to stage the next one at another brewery. I expect attendance to increase if word gets around.
You don’t need to be at a CAMRA meeting to experience the pleasure of The Belgian Brewer. They run brewery tours and tasting sessions and have a tap room open to the public if you just want to sample the beer and perhaps one of their excellent pizzas.
It is probably best to take public transport or stay close by if you want the full experience and choose the latter option. Two observations and a tip about the town, First, there are a mass of cafes, maybe 20 on or close to the main street. You won’t go hungry. Second, there are people in Ryanair uniforms everywhere, presumably as Stanstead is so close. The tip? If you have room for more beer seek out The Castle. A cracking pub.
bar.man@btinternet.com
