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Copenhagen Beer Celebration was the reason to visit CPH. Beer fest? Mikkeller Bar? Chance to visit Denmark? Sold. (You had me at Mikkeller Bar.)
The fest was May 11-12 in what appears to be an airplane but is actually a sports complex. This was this first year. As of now, no word on whether there will be a CBC in 2013. The announced list of breweries was insane. Tickets were limited to 1000 per day; we chose Saturday. The ticket price included dinner, sample glass, program/beerlist and two tokens.
All beers were 1-2 tokens; I might have seen a couple that were 3, but don’t remember exactly. Mikkeller smartly sold extra tokens at the bar in the days leading up to the fest. Together we went thru 45 (or maybe 60) extra tokens. That sounds like way more than it actually was. The glasses were a teensy-tinsy 10 cl. That’s .1 liters, maybe just better than a standard shot glass. We did try a lot of beers and safely made it to the hotel, but I’m still going to say 10 cl is too small.
I didn’t take many pictures. And certainly not any very good ones.
Thoughts:
I think this guy thought they said beard festival. I think this dude is asleep.
I think Russell Brand was there. I think they tried that Cigar City cedar beer and are trying not to spit it out.
Seemed very well organized for a first-year event. Didn’t notice any major gaffes. Some of the beer did run out, but that’s to be expected. Food was surprisingly good given the number served. Ten centiliters is too small. No proper glass washers. Rinse in a vat of dirty water? No thanks. Port-a-potties are disgusting. Some real toilets, please. At least for the ladies. The port-a-potties were right next to Struise (insert your own joke here).
And then there were the Americans.
Note to American breweries: No one pays to see the back-up quarterback. If you’re coming all the way to Europe for a festival, bring your A game. We want the Vanilla Bean Dark Lord, the Hunapus varietals, some festival-only brews. Not a standard line-up and some godawful beer aged on cedar (looking at you Cigar City). Meanwhile Struise brings Dirty Horse and Pannepot Wild and Mikkeller has Sponandounbleblueberry and Beer Geek Vanilla Cognac Breakfast. At least the Europeans keep it interesting.
Go again? Eh. No. Borefts is still the only festival I’d do year after year. Copenhagen is just too damn expensive. (We did find a few free things to do. A post on that later.)
Copenhagen Beer Celebration official web site here.
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From Copenhagen Beer Celebration. Shot May 12, 2012 in Copenhagen, Denmark
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The weekend of Sept 23, we were in Bodegraven, NL at Brouwerij de Molen for the Borefts Beer Festival.
De Molen (in English “the mill”) has a brewery and restaurant inside a windmill that was built in 1697. When we arrived since the sails were unfurled and the blades were turning. I should have gotten a pic. But we were starving, I forgot I brought my camera and was in a hurry to get inside and get something to eat. We had pizza, beer sausages, chocolate tart made with imperial stout (Jacob had at least 3 pieces) and later chicken saté and some other sausage. The food was excellent. We will go back sometime to eat, without kids.
Very nice festival. Tents set up outside the restaurant and at the new brewery a block away. Nice crowd. And a lot of fantastic beer: Mikkeller, Nøgne Ø, Struise, Närke, etc. and of course De Molen.
Personal highlights:
Mikkeller Rhubarb Lambic (why don’t they bottle this stuff?!)
Alliance 2007, a collaboration between Thornbridge (UK) and Brooklyn Brewing. Not expecting much from this one, but wow. Awesome. More, please.
Everything De Molen. Categorically Europeans can’t make a good stout. Belgian stout is mostly awful; here in Germany, they don’t even know what stout is. But De Molen is the exception. I’ve never actually had a bad beer from De Molen, but their stouts are truly excellent. BA Rasputin, Wild Esra on Cherries, by far the best was the Hel & Verdoemenis aged on MacAllen whiskey barrels.
And then there was Struise. Ah, Struise. The only booth with beers that cost more than one token. Absolutely unjustified considering the quality of the one-token offerings at (just about) every other booth. The biggest disappointment: Struise Messy, a 39% abv stout. While it did hide the alcohol well, it also tasted like ass. Pardon me, Band-Aids. Burt rubber and Band-Aids. I wouldn’t go so far as to say undrinkable because I did drink most of it. Mostly because it was 3 tokens (4.50€)
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From Borefts Beer Festival. Shot September 23, 2011. Bodegraven, Netherlands
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May 1 was the Tour de Geuze. Once every two years the High Council for Artisanal Lambic Beers (HORAL) members in Pajottenland open their doors to the public for free tours and tastings. (Cantillon is not a member of HORAL; Girardin doesn’t participate.) There’s food, music, entertainment and HORAL’s Mega Blend—a special gueuze blended of lambic from the HORAL members. AND it’s kid friendly with bouncy castles, face painting, clowns, etc at the different stops.
We visited 3 Fonteinen, Oud Beersel and Hanssens. Hadn’t intended on stopping at 3 Fonteinen, but thanks to a post on ratebeer, we stopped for some Armand’4 Lente. (The stuff that’s selling for $250 a bottle on eBay.) Parking was a challenge and it was crowded with bus loads of people. I imagine it’s not so bad at 10 a.m. and it *might* be possible to hit everything in one day, but don’t think I’d want to try.
We didn’t make it down to Boon, which was next on the list after Hanssens. So next time it will be Boon, De Cam, Lindemans and whatever else there’s time for.
Oud Beersel and Hanssens pics are in their own galleries (coming up). Here’s some random shots from De Heeren van Liedekercke, the beer and ice cream stop before heading home.
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From De Heeren van Liedekercke. Shot May 1, 2011. Denderleeuw, Belgium
We took a very full train from Antwerp to Sint Niklaas for the Zythos Beer Festival. We arrived at 12:04 p.m. Saturday; the festival started at noon. Figured at noon, there wouldn’t be many people. Nope. Quite a few, but not so crowded that the kids were scared. We parked it at a table near the food where it was less noisy and each took turns walking around with a kid to get beer. (Bonus of sitting with kids: no one sits next to you very long.)
Last year there was a kids corner where you could drop your kids off to play while you enjoyed the festival. This year they didn’t have it. Disappointing, but the kids were really good, especially considering we were there almost six hours. (And they didn’t have but a few tastes of beer!)
We played the Tombola several times. It’s a game where you pay 1€ to pick an envelope from a big box. If inside is a blue ticket with a number, you win a beer with the corresponding number. Jacob won a 750ml Boon Gueuze; Matt won a 750ml of something and I won a 750ml Scheldebrouwerij Dulle Griet. We probably played enough to where we could have just bought the beers for what we paid, but what’s the fun in that.
Good festival. Easily accessible by public transport, indoors, lots of volunteers, very well organized, food, kid-friendly (during the day). The beer list isn’t as exclusive as some fests, but still good things: De Dolle Verse Vis (“fresh fish”), Rodenbach Foederbier, De Dochter Embrasse Oak Aged Single Cask Peated Malt.
Will we go back? Probably not. With so many great fests in Belgium, why? Next year we’ll probably do the Alvinne Craft Beer Fest. With any luck we’ll have a babysitter nearby.
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From Zythos Beer Fest 2011. Shot March 5, 2011. Sint Niklaas, Belgium
The 12th Belgian Beer Weekend was September 3–5 in Brussels. We got there Friday. The hotel lost our reservation and we drove around forever trying to get into their parking garage with their directions that took us the wrong way down what seemed to be a one-way street. Nice.
The festival was in the Grand Place. The beer booths were set up in a circle which was fenced in (to keep people from stealing the glasses). It was waay too crowded when we got there Friday nite. Lines to get in, and, I imagine lines, to get beer. The crowd was so thick, the people inside could barely move. With the fences, they really couldn’t accommodate as many as they needed to. Not exactly stroller friendly.
So we went Saturday during the day. We still had to stand in a long line to buy crowncorks (bottle caps) to exchange for beer, but inside crowd wasn’t too bad. Plenty of room for the stroller, especially around the less popular breweries (sorry De Troch; you do make a delicious banana lambic). And there were other parents with kids there. For the record, taking the kids to a beer festival is normal in Europe. They’re much less uptight than Americans about this too.
We sampled a few beers. Jacob and Nicholas sampled a few too. They enjoyed sticking their fingers in our glasses. It was here that Nicholas coined the phrase “finger don’t.” Where exactly that came from is anyone’s guess. What it means is: I want to stick my finger in your beer, most likely the one that was just in my nose.
Sunday would have been the day to go. It opened at 11. When we walked by at noon the crowncork lines were very short and there were only a few people inside.
The best: Bush Prestige, Kasteel Cuvée Du Chateau, Scheldebrouwerij Oesterstout. The full list of breweries is here. Noticeably absent: Cantillon, De Struise.
Nice festival—Grand Place is great setting for just about anything. Will we go again? Probably not. Not when there’s a festival in Bruges and the Borefts Beer Festival at De Molen, both also in Sept.
On Sunday, after having lunch, we headed to Drie Fonteinen in Beersel (south of Brussels). They were open all weekend for the release of Straffe Winter, a new 8% abv spontaneously fermented beer. We sampled the Straffe and two krieks (the one served in the restaurant is different than what’s sold in bottles). All poured by Armand Debelder, himself. And his wife rang up our purchases.
That’s the great thing about so many breweries here. You frequently get to meet and chat with the brewer (or in the case of Drie Fonteinen, the lambic blender). The one I’m really looking forward to is to tour De Dolle. The tour is lead by the brewer’s 90-year old mother. How crazy is that.
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From Brussels Beer Weekend. Shot Sept 4-5, 2010. Brussels, Belgium
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