Some time ago I was allowed to give a lecture to students about specialty beer within gastronomy at Hotelschool The Hague, Amsterdam location. A great opportunity to enthuse the upcoming generation of toppers in the hotel and catering world for the concept of the beer-food combination.
On the eve of this lecture I was allowed to spend the night in the hotel of the school. This 'Skotel' is a five-star hotel with 20 rooms located on the edge of the Rembrandtpark. An ideal base for a stay in Amsterdam.
Coincidentally, the 'Festival Brettanomyces' was also taking place on that day, where meetings, lectures and tastings were held at various locations in Amsterdam about everything to do with sour beers and wild yeast. An excellent opportunity, on the eve of my beer lecture, to once again delve into the matter.
New brewing process
Sour beers are the latest hype among specialty beers. That's not to say it's a new concept. Wild fermentation in beers is literally older than the road to Rome; wild fermentation was a de facto part of beer until Louis Pasteur managed to fathom the fermentation process in the second half of the 19th century. Until then, brewing was an open process, in which the wort was impregnated by wild yeasts whirling in the air. Pasteur's discovery led to a new brewing process in which selected yeasts in a closed process yielded a beer that had a constant taste every time. In this 'scientific brewing' the brettanomycesyeast was seen as an infection, a pariah that screwed up the taste of the beer.
sour beers
The closed process was embraced for more than a century, except for a few hard-headed Belgian brewers from the Zenne valley. These brewers made lambics and cut gueuzes and cherries from them. There was also a brewery in Roeselare that added a lactic acid yeast and therefore also sold sour beer: Rodenbach.
These are beers where for most of my specialty beer career I had to ask people: 'Are you sure', because otherwise you would get it back with the complaint 'this beer is no longer good, it is sour'.
So now the sour beer is back, but in a form where the scientific brewing method is applied to the yeasts that were previously considered anti-modern. There is a huge range of flavors in sour beers, from the very subtly fresh pungent, like an unsweetened radler, to overwhelmingly funky goat wool socks and horse blanket flavors that will challenge even the most seasoned beer connoisseur.
I was able to conclude my lecture the next day with the best homework assignment the talented students of the Hotel School had ever had.
I also want to pass on this assignment to you, dear reader: 'Go into the city, go out on the terrace and drink beer'. A nice brett beer is definitely my recommendation.
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Ivo is an international beer sommelier, entertainer and catering expert. Has an immeasurable passion for beer, catering and hospitality. Ivo will write a monthly column for Horeca Groningen.