Tasting Craft Beer

The crown cork of a Stiegl (a stairway as logo) Hell, their Helles.

Stairway to Hell.

(A pretty decent Helles, though!)

The cozy beer garden in Gasthaus zum Rockenbrunn

Interior of the Gasthaus zum Rockenbrunn, with a sign saying Brauhaus Lau.

The Oberpfalz (between Nürnberg and the Czech border) is the only region that still adheres to the tradition, with very local, low volume beer production. While originally the brews were enjoyed in the brewer's home, nowadays there are Zoiglstuben as "pubs".

Seems like the beer is on draft permanently, but close enough for me.

Traditionally, Zoigl is brewed at a community brewhouse, then taken home by the brewer for fermentation and maturation. When it's ready for consumption, you put the star out, to let people know there is beer to be had.

A half liter of Scherdel Zoigl.

The front façade of the historical Gasthaus zum Rockenbrunn, with the Zoigl Zeigen, or brewer's star hanging out.

Even though we were just outside of the Oberpfalz (Germany) region, which is known for Zoigl, we still managed to get dinner at a wonderful Zoiglstube, complete with brewer's star on the facade, and an unfiltered, somewhat amber, smooth lager with a toasty edge to it.

I'm not brewing anything, just tasting!

I need your beer knowledge!
If a beer would be dubbed a "Double Grisette", what would you say sets it apart from a Saison?
#beerStyles #beer #craftbeer

Hearty pastry with mushrooms and sauteed onions - Mango Pale Ale. Beef tataki with sesame, carrot and nori - Double Grisette. Rouleau confit de canard with potato celeriac mash, hazelnut and cherry gravy - two Tripels with different yeasts. Sticky fingers with charcoal grilled veggies and potato - Imperial porter with orange. Chocolate platter with mascarpone, pink peppercorn, crumble and salt. - Espresso Martini Nitro Porter.

These were the five courses, restaurants and corresponding brewers and beers.

The event was a great success, and so were the pairings. Best edition yet, so on to next year!

The excellent team of Beer Sommeliers!

For 130 guests, the dinner was presented by the team of sommeliers, led by Arvid Bergström who also orchestrated the full event and preparations, consisting of Katja Logatcheva, Ithar da Costa, Sam Dorstijn, Patrick van Berkel and lucky me. Reactions from the audience were fantastic! (2/3)

The venue from the inside

Final preps: menu origami

The menu with full details (see later for the inside).

Yesterday, the Great Beer Dinner by the Sea was organized in the old Church in Scheveningen. Five chefs from five restaurants prepared five stellar dishes. With the help of our sommelier team, five breweries made a beer, specifically designed for the pairing.
(1/3)

Bye-bye, B.A. – An obituary for a brewpub Their bar stools worked their magic. Their interior design made them unique, and very attractive to a wide range of audiences. I was only actively part of two of their thirty years in existence, but they have been a small part of my identity for half of their life. On February 2, 2026, unexpectedly, The Brewer's Art in Baltimore decided to permanently close their doors.

Thanks, Brewer's Art. We had a blast!

I wrote a piece regarding their closure.

#BrewersArt #Baltimore #brewpub #Resurrection #craftbeer #beer #brewery

This has been a collector's item for a while! I'm glad I still have my Ozzy hat, that Beazly gave to me. It will be cherished.

The Brewer’s Art, a Mount Vernon mainstay, abruptly closes after 30 years Owner Volker Stewart informed employees by text message Monday that he was closing effective immediately due to financial problems, according to screenshots shared with The Banner.

This is just pure sadness. www.thebanner.com/culture/food...

The Beervana Blog is about to turn 20. The thing about retrospectives is you never remember anything.

So, wise hive mind, what are the watershed changes/developments in beer over the last two decades?

A bottle of Westmalle Tripel and a note saying "do not touch Westmalle".

Can't get around the occasional universal truth. This one was displayed at today's beer conference.

Fellow beer nerds*, that is...

Charlie Bamforth in action in his keynote. Slide says "Flavor is a matter of opinion", with visual examples of DMS and diacetyl.

The conference beer, a NEIPA (in glass with previous years' branding) in front of the fair.

Jeff Maisel and a still from the Maisel film displaying malts and "for best quality".

Jonas Trummer with his introductory slide: polyphenols as processing aids in the brewing process.

Dutch Craft Brewers Conference was chock-full of information again. Great keynotes by the legendary Charlie Bamforth (and a smaller session on quality, too) and Jeff Maisel. Details on polyphenols in beer by Jonas Trummer and much more. Fun to catch up with fellow beer beers, too!

I now think I get the main reason. Sponsors have stands. They sell to brewers, typically (raw material, equipment, marketing stuff etc). For them, and thus for the cash flow, it makes perfect sense to market to brewers specifically.

As always, when you don't understand a move, follow the money.

They rebranded this event from the original Dutch Craft *Beer* Conference, which I'm slightly critical of. It was also very interesting to other people than just brewers, and it seems to stay that way. Then why move from "beer" to "brewers"? Feels a lot less inclusive this way.

On today's schedule: the Dutch Craft Brewers Conference 2026. A day full of talks and workshops, including a keynote by Charles Bamforth that I'm already excited about!

Mathilde is what is born over the course of a few weeks in the warm room: Postulant re-fermented with the Orval Brett strain. A lovely funky barnyard touch on top of an already great tasting, low abv blonde.

When you ever find yourself in downtown The Hague be sure to grab this brewpub exclusive!

In the tap room they serve Orval as well. They collect the bottles, with yeast depot. The Brettanomyces yeast still present will happily wake up and start fermenting again when sugars are around.
The Orval bottles are filled with Postulant, the labels are removed and the bottles capped.

The Haagsche Broeder Postulant tap.

A tasting glass of Postulant and a larger glass and bottle of Mathilde.

Lovely beer experiment!

The The Hague Brewers of Haagsche Broeder produce a very tasty Abbey Single, or Refterbier, but definitely don't stop there. Look at the picture. Recognize the shape of that bottle?

This is a cross over between their Postulant, and a well known Trappist ale.

Ah, een bericht van mijn oud werkgever! Ik kan alleen maar een voorstander zijn van planeten rond sterren, waar Cisterziënser monniken van de strikte observantie aan de roerstok staan!

The Tripel by Achelse Kluis is just a classic, great, recognizable Tripel with all the flavor elements exactly by the book. This is why you get back to your classics every once in a while.

In the modern hoppy edition, much of the Tripel complexity is hidden by aroma hops, making it an easier drink to digest. The excessive abv of 10% kills that drinkability, though.
The "Baltic" version (first time I heard of Baltic Tripel), is excessively herby. More so in the mouth than the nose!

An Ypra Hoppy Tripel by Omer Vander Ghinste, Achel Tripel and Rühgener Insel-Brauerei Baltic Tripel. Bottles and tasting glasses.

Tripel comparison. Three very different incarnations. A classic one: Achel. A very modern interpretation: Ypra Hoppy Tripel. A "Baltic" Tripel, whatever that may mean, full of green herbs. That latter one, believe it or not, is from Germany.

A plate with a half eaten course of rillette on a puree of celeriac with hazelnuts and a cherry. Behind it are many glasses with different beers.

Preparations for a beer dinner in full swing. Here we are testing 4 different Tripels with the 4th course in the dinner. Two will be chosen and both served to all 100 guests at a dinner with live cooking in a former church.

Except when I organize it myself, I know that family Christmas dinners won't be overly surprising, beer-wise.

Monk's Stout by Brasserie Dupont in front of the upper side of the box in which the last door is just opened.

Grande Finale! Opening the last door of the box revealed Monk's Stout by the famous Brasserie Dupont. Not your typical Belgian style, but in a very Belgian jacket.
Merry Christmas! 🎄

Very nice to read! Now I'm curious to crack mine open, too!