"New: try a coffee beer"

Discussion in 'Belgium' started by Dennoman, Oct 28, 2012.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Dennoman

    Dennoman Initiate (0) Aug 20, 2011 Belgium

    http://www.standaard.be/artikel/det...=biz&utm_content=article&utm_campaign=seeding

    This article, which appeared in the Thursday online edition of one of Belgium's most well-read newspapers, is a great example on what I call the steep decline in Belgian beer culture. Though I know that Belgium still houses some of the best beers in the world and I won't deny that fact, you'll be hard pressed to go beyond traditional geuzes, lambics and trappist ales and see some beer innovation find its way into mainstream media.

    For those of you who don't speak Dutch, the article basically tells of two brothers - one a brewer and one a coffee roaster - that have collaborated to bring us "Belgium's first coffee beer". This as in: the first beer brewed with actual coffee rather than just using roasted malts for the coffee aroma. That's your first fictional statement right there, as most of us have probably tasted Struise's Mocha Bomb, which for me still holds up as arguably the best coffee stout in the world.

    Adding to the lie of this being a first for Belgium, it also states that only America has a tradition in coffee beers, with roughly "a dozen" supposedly released in the US. This is mind-bogglingly inaccurate, as there are obviously hundreds upon thousands of coffee-infused beers available in both the States and all over Europe, primarily the Netherlands and Scandinavia.

    Reader replies on the article clearly consist of people that have never touched a beer beyond Stella and Jupiler, including such poetic words as "ew" and "yeah, I'll just pour a shot of espresso in my beer". One reader came a bit closer to the truth, but was still hilariously far off by writing "what about Guinness then?!"

    This seems to be the general problem with Belgians and our approach to beer. We have been indoctrinated from a very young age that our country has the best beer in the world, and most people that don't go beyond the call of duty simply agree without question. They only drink Stella and Jupiler or maybe the occasional Leffe (!!!) and refuse to believe there's anything out there in foreign territory, or even refuse to try some innovative beer styles from their own country. Because yeah, Heaven forbid that your beer would actually have some flavor to it.

    After tasting some of the gems our beer culture has to offer, I have significantly mellowed down in my rants regarding the decline of Belgian beer culture, but I do wish people would look beyond what they were taught as children. I've officially given up on letting people try exciting new stuff, just so they can enjoy their umpteenth blond triple by their regional small brewery. I do hope that some day there will be room for more innovation in Belgium (and yes, Struise and Dolle have been doing a good job, so it has been steadily improving), but until that day I wish that journalists would grow some work ethic and do at least the tiniest bit of research before making bold claims in newspaper headlines.

    tl;dr: This article is shit.
     
  2. JorisP

    JorisP Initiate (0) Dec 6, 2002 Belgium

    Yours isn't anyway. And in all truth: it's what I've been writing since the beginning of OBP, the forerunner of Zythos (though I admit that you're expressing it more concise, congrats). Until the last 2 years, I've been laughed at...
    Cheers!
     
  3. Morningstorm

    Morningstorm Initiate (0) Jun 29, 2011 Netherlands

    I was laughing so hard when I read the article. The statement of "around 10 coffee beers are released in the US" is what got me, simply mindboggling. If the reporter just did 5 minute google search, he would come across so many beers that used the same method, including beers from Holland and Scandinavia.
     
  4. tendermorsel

    tendermorsel Initiate (0) Oct 22, 2006 Massachusetts

    That article does suck don't get me wrong but ignorance about craft beer is not happening only in Belgium. There are plenty of dumbed down articles here in the states that cater to the Bud/Coors/Miller drinkers here stateside. The complete lack of research and innacuracy is bothersome though.
     
  5. Dennoman

    Dennoman Initiate (0) Aug 20, 2011 Belgium

    I have to say I'm rather honored, that coming from you JP :grinning: I can see from your ratings that our tastes tend to differ, but our philosophy towards foreign beer is very similar. There's a lot of blind chauvinism here, which is a shame.
     
  6. SStein

    SStein Initiate (0) Dec 26, 2012 Colorado

    As an American currently living in Belgium it amazes me to see so many Belgiums pick up Juliper ro Stella blindly. I am used to people just buying status quo beers in America, but I think I had some romaticized view that it would be different here. I have tried to make it a point to try as many different styles from as many different breweries as possible during the time I will spend here in Belgium.
     
  7. CwrwAmByth

    CwrwAmByth Initiate (0) Jan 24, 2011 England

    I'd give my left arm for a bottle of Mocha Bomb, I <3 Struise
     
  8. Brabander

    Brabander Initiate (0) Oct 10, 2009 Netherlands

    Send me your arm!

    Thijs
     
    CStrife187 and beerpirates like this.
  9. CwrwAmByth

    CwrwAmByth Initiate (0) Jan 24, 2011 England

    I'd need your address mate, and something to lop it off with! Think i've got a chopping maul in the shed...
     
    Brabander likes this.
  10. RendoMike

    RendoMike Initiate (0) Sep 6, 2011 England

    Great post Dennoman! Didn't read the article, but I think I got it. See the same type of thing everywhere. I'm dumbfounded when I'm in a pub with multiple cask ales and most people are asking for a Coors Light or Stella.

    With regards to journalists, with the advance of the internet, they are a dime a dozen. Every day, it takes little effort to find multiple articles on one thing or another written by writers who know nothing about the subject with the willing sheep reading away without question. Beer-related, you can find a ton of these when it comes to the release of Westvleteren in the states recently.
     
  11. RendoMike

    RendoMike Initiate (0) Sep 6, 2011 England

    Not meaning to thread hijack, but is Mocha Bomb still easily obtainable?
     
  12. CwrwAmByth

    CwrwAmByth Initiate (0) Jan 24, 2011 England

    That's very true about the uninformed beer writers. We had it in the UK on BBC1 no less, (the main tv channel). A seemingly feminist "beer historian" claiming beer was invented in England in the middle ages by groups of women brewers. Though I have also noticed prominent beer writers not exactly getting stuff wrong, but twisting facts to suit the point they're making. It's almost as if there are no professional historians who write about beer and no beer lovers who know how examine history to a professional standard, meaning the only thing available is amateurish "histories".
     
  13. Dennoman

    Dennoman Initiate (0) Aug 20, 2011 Belgium

    Nope. Sold out many moons ago and I'm clinging to my last bottles like shit to velcro, hope it'll make it back to shelves.
     
  14. andrejes

    andrejes Devotee (397) Jun 10, 2011 Netherlands

    You must also have a big reserve Struise Beers in the cellar!!! OH Yes!!!!
    I'am lucky to have a few left!!!
     
  15. CwrwAmByth

    CwrwAmByth Initiate (0) Jan 24, 2011 England

    Where do you live again...?
     
  16. Dennoman

    Dennoman Initiate (0) Aug 20, 2011 Belgium

    Down in "beg me like the dog you are and I might hand some to Colin when we meet in March, providing he doesn't drink it before it gets to you". Very nice this time of year.
     
  17. CwrwAmByth

    CwrwAmByth Initiate (0) Jan 24, 2011 England

    Does it has street level access? I'm not that great with climbing
     
  18. MattSweatshirt

    MattSweatshirt Initiate (0) Jun 29, 2011 Texas

    Mocha Bomb is the shit.

    I felt the same man. When I was in Antwerp last year the German dudes I was staying with at a hostel were telling me how Jupiler was a really great beer.
     
  19. Dennoman

    Dennoman Initiate (0) Aug 20, 2011 Belgium

    You'll have to climb the rainpipe, but give me an FYI when you're coming, so I can put the chip oil on the stove in advance.
     
  20. Dennoman

    Dennoman Initiate (0) Aug 20, 2011 Belgium

    Belgian people are mostly indoctrinated like mindless drones with the dogma that our beer is the best in the world. And yet, most of them grow old and die without every drinking any of the really good shit. Read another article in a magazine we get in the post about Christmas beers. It was a fucking joke. I'll do a different thread for that, it's hilarious to the point of being actually quite sad.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.