Posted in Beers | 2 Comments »

As now happens with regularity, today I updated you on the brewing news from the world. As usual we’re plenty of news. This time let’s start from Belgium. On Belgian Beer Board has recently appeared a scoop on the latest Smisje release. It’s called Smiske and will be officially introduced in early May during the party organized to celebrate the first anniversary of the move of the production plant near Oudenaarde. No additional information on this issue for the moment, so we must be content with the photo of the bottle only.

Still in Belgium, but at the Cistercian Abbey of Chimay not to speak of a new Trappist beer, but of the restyling of the labels of the Belgian producer, characterized by a more modern design. For us, concerned mainly in the bottles contents, the news may seem marginal, but it’s however an interesting news for the world’s most popular Trappist beer.

In.birrerya told us that Pierre Tilquin opened some months ago in Bierghes his Lambic assembly activity. Besides the city is a short walk from Pajottenland, the holy land of this beautiful specialty beer. After a career marked by experiences at 3 Fonteinen and Cantillon he decided to embark on this adventure. We all hope he will realize excellent products!

Let’s move now in neighbouring Holland. Urthel, a firm on the up, has announced the launch of its new Saisonnière. As you might guess from its name, is a beer brewed with wheat (20%), which is inspired not only to the “white” beers of Belgium, but also to Saison and Golden Ales. You can see the beautiful glass created on purpose on the The Beer Spot website.

Mentioning the Saison we pass to America, where this will be the reference style of the result of the new collaboration between the American Stone, Dogfish Head and Victory.The Saison du BUFF will be a very peculiar beer, brewed with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.Yes I know, it sounds like some Mediterranean diet recipe.The beer will be brewed three times, once in each participating brewery.

Stone is also involved in another collaboration, this time with 21st Amendment and Firestone Walker. As Beernews as reported the name of the new creature is El Camino (Un) Real Black Ale. It will be a black ale, made with roasted malts, a strong hopping, fennel seeds, figs and pink pepper.

Talking about collaborations, Charlie Papazian has in the past revealed a German-American partnership. The two producers involved are Weihenstephan – the oldest brewery in the world – and Boston Beer Company, producer of the Samuel Adams brand. Yet little is known of this new beer but that will be sold both in the U.S. and in Germany, which means that the beer will meet the tight constraints imposed by the Purity Law. According to the protagonists, the idea is precisely that of pushing the limits of Reinheitsgebot to create something quite innovative. We’ll see…

We are still in the U.S. for the launch of a new range of Rogue beers. The line is called John John Ales and refers to the first names of the two characters involved: John Maier, Rogue head-brewer, and John Couchot, master distiller of Rogue Spirits. As you may guess they will be beers aged in barrels previously used to age different kind of spirits. However these will not be new productions, but the standard range of the brewery. The first beer of the series will in fact be called John John Dead Guy Ale.

Finally we conclude with a curiosity, even if not from the craft world. The Guinness in Ireland is in fact going to launch its new Guinness Black Lager, with the intent to capture the attention of the young consumers. As reported by the blog Definitive Ale is not the first time that the company makes an attempt of this kind: in 1979 the Guinness Light was short-lived, as was Guinness Breò. With such a discouraging past we’ll see if this will be the third resounding flop.