Three cheers to the return of the much-missed Helders Bier Festival

Three cheers to the return of the much-missed Helders Bier Festival

The Helders Bier Festival’s return in 2022 is a much-anticipated event, a highlight on the Dutch-beer calendar. For two days in September, Den Helder plays host to a well-curated gathering of local, national and international breweries at Theater de Kampanje in the Willemsoord Quarter — 

Warsaw Beer Festival returns with originality and freshness

Warsaw Beer Festival returns with originality and freshness

Something special returns. Few beer festivals leave a more striking impression on visitors than the Warsaw Beer Festival. It excels with ease in every area. For seasoned beer travellers the unique experience is hard to beat — anywhere. Many other so-called ‘events’ pale in comparison. 

Jobs for the boys — a drinks industry anachronism

Jobs for the boys — a drinks industry anachronism

‘Jobs for the boys‘ seemingly remains a literal anachronism in industries where endemic favouritism is shown towards friends and supporters. In certain cliques, diversity has no place. Reminded by recent claims of sexism in the beer industry, I recall female colleagues – suitably skilled – 

Swinkels Circularity Index is determination to make a difference

Swinkels Circularity Index is determination to make a difference

There is a tendency to overlook what really matters in the food and drinks industry. Social media vilifies organisations for business manoeuvrings that leave consumers with a bad taste (no pun intended), and yet, peel away the layers and it is surprising which organisations are 

Jamie Oliver’s B Corp model for hospitality

Jamie Oliver’s B Corp model for hospitality

Businesses operating in the food, drink and hospitality industry often consider themselves excused from having corporate social responsibility, for whatever reason. Hence there is rarely an ethical values-based mission statement driving growth and progression. The commercial world is changing rapidly, and it is an oversight 

OneCircle responds to uncertainty with vision

OneCircle responds to uncertainty with vision

While robust organisations persevere through turbulent conditions, pioneers foresee coming storms and respond with innovative action to flourish and prosper. A far-sighted vision triumphs when facing actual or potential adversity. Today’s progressive drink producers are thus loyal to OneCircle, founder of the revolutionary KeyKeg and 

Grade A Cider Trustmark: independence, quality and traceability guaranteed

Grade A Cider Trustmark: independence, quality and traceability guaranteed

Strict wine laws exist to protect producers and consumers, to regulate the industry and combat fraudulent fruit juice or noxious substance adulteration. People enjoying wine expect to taste an artisan’s skill with fresh pressed grapes. Shoppers choose between fresh fruit-juice or concentrate, and the alcoholic 

Economic hopes continue to follow coronavirus social guidance

Economic hopes continue to follow coronavirus social guidance

Broad government mandates focus on stimulating a wider economy, yet countless business models, including Hospitality, depend on balancing subtle nuances — economic, social, environmental and ethical, for instance. Given that science continues to expose new coronavirus (COVID-19) variables, national response is necessarily limited to a 

Dijk Cider: drink local, drink natural, drink sustainable

Dijk Cider: drink local, drink natural, drink sustainable

Despite lacking craft beer’s trendiness, Dutch artisanal cider’s mass appeal continues to attract fans to the all-natural ingredients and traditional production methods. Cidermaking’s history pre-dates brewing, and today’s drinkers recognise why ancient cultures found it refreshing. No one expected a renewed, determined focus on regional 

Forgotten Apples remember Fearful Dogs

Forgotten Apples remember Fearful Dogs

Johan Holleman acquired his first apple tree in 2009, a gift from a neighbour whose dogs refused to share the garden with it. It produced so many apples that by 2014 he did not know what to do. Eating them or baking pies could not 

Struggling business and creative freelancers share success

Struggling business and creative freelancers share success

Countless entrepreneurs earn a living in the arts, yet businesses overlook creative professionals and choose cronyism if a hanger-on offers to work gratis. As post-COVID-19 bartering (to exchange goods or services for other goods or services instead of money) plays a greater 21st century economic 

Quenching European beer ladies’ thirst for a Pink Boots Society

Quenching European beer ladies’ thirst for a Pink Boots Society

Two-thirds of us at Kaeru Beer are female. So organisations representing ladies working in beer interest us. We applaud any inclusive venture that educates, promotes and raises awareness about what we do. Whether brewer, writer, hospitality expert, or any other industry role—we need a voice. 

Crises innovate a virtual beer industry

Crises innovate a virtual beer industry

A Virtual Brewgaloo supplementing a physical event later in the year is a wonderful idea. Everybody needs cultural focus and social togetherness at this critical time. It’s a great opportunity. Introducing North Carolina and NC Beer to a much wider audience, national and global: North 

2020 Vision: aesthetics, community and sociocultural value sell beer

2020 Vision: aesthetics, community and sociocultural value sell beer

Engaging packaging doesn’t imply flavoursome, superior beer.  A superb beer doesn’t need aesthetic appeal.  But misjudge design and beer sits on shelves longer than necessary.  Slapdash creativity confuses selecting-hands that avoid embellished chaos. Beer as a mere foodstuff or means to an (inebriated) end is 

Discovering a Craft Beer revolution in 34-minutes with Annie Gouk’s The North In Numbers

Discovering a Craft Beer revolution in 34-minutes with Annie Gouk’s The North In Numbers

Craft Beer narrators focusing on the hip, trendy and popular overlook business. The what, where and who ignoring the why and how statistics. So, Annie Gouk’s The North In Numbers Craft Beer Revolution Podcast is a refreshing listen. Taking northern England as an example she 

US West Coast drinkers speak Japan Craft Beer’s New Language

US West Coast drinkers speak Japan Craft Beer’s New Language

The Japanese government stimulates international demand and boosts the country’s exports. Its overseas promotions and branding platform is JETRO (external trade organization). And the Japan Food Product Overseas Promotion Center (JFOODO) handles its Craft Beer. JFOODO represents 17 Japanese craft brewers distributing across the US. 

Beer festivals learn to sustain steady growth

Beer festivals learn to sustain steady growth

A credible beer festival’s strength is learning. A doomed beer festival will continue with its failings, regardless. A convincing beer festival will learn and succeed with sustained steady growth. And inevitable lessons to learn follow a beer festival’s first couple of years. As its popularity 

Fragility loses the right to brew without obligation

Fragility loses the right to brew without obligation

Commerce, at its simplest, is the right to trade without obligation. Having obligation to trade without the right is less powerful, less lucrative. Two extreme opposites form a model that demonstrates antifragility. For example, breweries have the right to brew whatever they choose without obligation. 

Pathfinders and trailblazers reveal new route to taste

Pathfinders and trailblazers reveal new route to taste

Skill, talent and legwork seem less important than ever before. Do cronyism and social media’s universal popularity supersede expertise and flair? What are today’s desirable traits for a life in beer? And who are our innovative, ground-breaking peers refusing to travel a well-trodden path? Who 

Too many unrelated beer industry groups cannot oversee unified success

Too many unrelated beer industry groups cannot oversee unified success

Sustainable growth and longevity in oversaturated markets. Supporting industry rights and consumer protection that advocate responsible behaviour. And, most important: success challenging homogeny and unscrupulous monopolisation. Common concerns raised within the beer and cider industry. Heard loudest in markets lacking governance and independent self-regulation. Usually 

Industry on the edge: Hunting Craft Beer to extinction

Industry on the edge: Hunting Craft Beer to extinction

The craft beer industry’s fragile state is a hot topic. Beer Apps driving certain consumer demands are undermining industry confidence. From the supply chain to retailer, from brewers to wholesalers, it affects everybody. Drinkers’ continual search for ‘new’ beer has created a false market. This 

Miroc Beer’s Marugame taproom reinforces Shikoku craft beer benchmark

Miroc Beer’s Marugame taproom reinforces Shikoku craft beer benchmark

Industry- and process-focused commentators entrust beer critique to taste experts. But everybody values well-rounded beer. Discovering a skilful malt and hops balance is joyous. And so, Marugame’s Miroc Beer ranks among the area’s high-profile craft beer breweries. It deserves its position. The Miroc Beer taproom’s 

2020: Sake’s year

2020: Sake’s year

Another year and a new focus on brewing, yeast and natural fermentation. The cider- and beer-lovers’ interest in special yeast production, usage and spontaneous fermentation sees sake as a logical progression. There are many similarities in process and method. And with draft Keg Sake available 

New Year’s spicy sake tradition conquering Japanese evil spirits

New Year’s spicy sake tradition conquering Japanese evil spirits

New Year’s Eve in Japan is a muted affair. Away from downtown’s neon spectacle there is little appeal at midnight for the west’s effusive, tactile rapture. Popping champagne and igniting fireworks is rare outside popular tourist hubs. And yet, the Japanese staid stereotype is a 

Airport beer monopolies leave travellers thirsty

Airport beer monopolies leave travellers thirsty

Do national airports act as a model for monopolisation? Does a lack of variety exemplify a beer landscape that will inevitably result from continued heavy-handed domination by big beer tyranny? Only a few years ago thirsty travellers searching for appealing beers were rewarded with choice. 

Beer Geeks brew social awareness at Jopen

Beer Geeks brew social awareness at Jopen

Beer’s image has undergone a dramatic revamp over recent decades.  The loutish, laddish perception is no longer applicable.  Beer has a social conscience.  The preferred beverage for modern, socially conscious consumers. Beer remains at the heart of much social interaction.  Its relationship with drinkers, however, 

日本酒という新たな魅惑の扉

日本酒という新たな魅惑の扉

今の世の中人々はどこに居ようとも, 自分のお気に入りの異文化を自分の住む身近な環境でお披露目する事が可能となった.  例えば, 日本の ‘寿司’ が現代において国際的料理と言える事がこの事を物語っている. 日本酒 — Sake — も今や世界規模で国際的なプレミアム価値のある飲み物として名声を拡大し続けている.  これは間違いない事実だ.  長い歴史を持ち, 東アジア特有の並行複発酵という手法で造られるこの飲み物は日本という文化や味を象徴するに実に代表的と言える. Sake Passion はベルギー南東部, ルクセンブルグにほぼ近い Fouches で, 日本酒輸入並びに販売代理店を行っている.  キュレーターの如く選び抜いた高品質の日本酒を扱うのは Vincent と Florence の ‘日本酒大使’ の2人.  彼らの旅は 2010年 に始まった.  Vincent はベルギー人として数少ない日本酒の達人の資格を持つ1人でもある. 二人は年に1度日本へ足を運び, 一つ一つ酒蔵を訪れ彼らの目と舌でこれだ!と感じた酒を選び抜く.  これらの中から更に選ばれた酒が今回 BXL にてお目見えとなるのだが, 今回は特に料理とのペアリングに焦点を定めた酒達が披露される. クラフトビールのフェスティバルという場でリアルな日本酒を味わう事が出来る機会は, 海外ではなかなかない. 日本酒は実に奥深く, 味わえば味わうほど益々虜となるだろう. 2人が選び抜いた日本酒達を是非ともこの機会に知って欲しい, そして舌の肥えたクラフトビールファン達が日本酒という新たな魅惑の扉を開いてくれるよう, 

KeyKeg International Beer Festival’s exclusive fresh quality prestige

KeyKeg International Beer Festival’s exclusive fresh quality prestige

Den Helder’s Theater de Kampanje hosts OneCircle’s red-carpet moment for a 3rd year, KeyKeg and UniKeg’s fresh top-quality beer winning drinkers’ approval.

Kaeru Beer’s appearance at 11. Warszawski Festiwal Piwa | 11th Warsaw Beer Festival

Kaeru Beer’s appearance at 11. Warszawski Festiwal Piwa | 11th Warsaw Beer Festival

BEER AROUND THE WORLD Kaeru Beer will be appearing on the Main Stage at 11. Warszawski Festiwal Piwa | 11th Warsaw Beer Festival — Thursday, 24 October 2019 from 20:00-21:00 — talking with Michał Janiak (Małe Piwo FM) about beer culture and processes around the 

Warszawski Festiwal Piwa reveals secret to remarkable beer festivals

Warszawski Festiwal Piwa reveals secret to remarkable beer festivals

Warszawski Festiwal Piwa reveals secret to remarkable beer festivals.

Poland’s craft beer scene captivates Warszawski Festiwal Piwa visitors

(Originally published 10th October 2018) Twice a year around 20,000 people gather at Warsaw Legia‘s Municipal Stadium VIP zone. Warszawski Festiwal Piwa: Polish craft beer and breweries’ 3-day celebration. What are Warszawski Festiwal Piwa’s highlights? Warszawski Festiwal Piwa (WFP) stands tall among Poland and central 

High-flying global breweries characterise What’s Brewing in Stavanger

High-flying global breweries characterise What’s Brewing in Stavanger

Visitors to Southwest Norway’s Stavanger adore the harbourside vista across Byfjorden fjord. The appeal complementing the city centre’s original, protected Norwegian architecture. Norway’s third largest city knows how to celebrate culture and heritage. Yet it’s What’s Brewing enticing the beer world to Stavanger. What’s Brewing 

Innovative KeyKeg charms a pioneering Great British Beer Festival

Innovative KeyKeg charms a pioneering Great British Beer Festival

A remarkable Great British Beer Festival sees OneCircle successfully fascinate thousands of visitors with its revolutionary KeyKeg and UniKeg sustainable keg.

Dreamy charm and beer entertaining Utrecht at Mother’s Finest Festival

Dreamy charm and beer entertaining Utrecht at Mother’s Finest Festival

The heavens smiled on Utrecht for a second year. Glorious weather shining on Janskerkhof. Sun wrapping Mother’s Finest Festival in an early autumnal blanket of radiance. And visitors basked in its warmth on day one of three at the city’s annual gathering of beer, food 

Skilfully caught in Crooked Spider’s tasty, flavoursome web

(Originally published 29 March 2018) A brewer’s Process & Food Technology background delivers indispensable insight. The eponymous arachnid’s insight recommended it avoid tumbling into nascent breweries’ test brews. Brewer Niels Beekhuizen offers assurance: no trace of spider remained in the brew. The poor arthropod trudged 

Den Helder greets KeyKeg International Beer Festival’s circular economy

Den Helder’s KeyKeg International Beer Festival seduces locals and beer enthusiasts each autumn. The innovative KeyKeg and UniKeg sustainable kegs on display fascinate visitors and represent OneCircle’s circular economy commitment. The event showcases the trailblazing producer’s vitality, energy and environmental motivation. The hardworking team representing 

Revolutionary KeyKeg International Beer Festival daring to be unique

(Originally published 12 Sep 2018) When new products change established norms, it’s innovation. Unexpected innovation is revolutionary, whereas improving something familiar is an evolutionary step. Futuristic concepts rarely revolutionise because they remain theoretical ideas, albeit original and unique. Innovation thinks in a new way. Innovation 

Enjoy Utrecht’s proud family kinship at Mother’s Finest Beer Festival

Enjoy Utrecht’s proud family kinship at Mother’s Finest Beer Festival

Would mother disapprove? Three days enjoying 25 national and international breweries’ craft beer, hearty food, and music and local DJs? What’s the problem? No, mother enthusiastically approves. She’s progressively modern. What is Mother’s Finest Beer Festival? Mother’s Finest Beer Festival presents Utrecht with an annual 

KeyKeg’s emergent beer festival memorably reinvents established models

(Originally published 3 Oct 2018) Den Helder evokes different ideas in different people. It’s a port city to the Dutch, the Royal Netherlands Navy’s operational centre. Most tourists visit Den Helder en route to Texel, the nearby wildlife and leisure pursuit island. Although many delay 

Magnificent seven to dominate at triumphant celebratory Van Moll Fest

Magnificent seven to dominate at triumphant celebratory Van Moll Fest

Either wait twenty years to celebrate Van Moll Fest’s Silver Anniversary or congratulate Van Moll now on its festival’s Wooden Anniversary. Five years of success. Let’s extrapolate the success of Van Moll Fest 2039 from its triumphs and reputation gained over the past four years. 

Do you desire Walhalla’s divine nectar of gods at BXLBeerFest?

Do you desire Walhalla’s divine nectar of gods at BXLBeerFest?

A heavenly brewery from the Netherlands makes its debut Belgian festival appearance at the end of August. Walhalla Craft Beer is among Amsterdam’s foremost independent craft beer breweries. The Valkyries have selected well. The angelic taste of celestial beer is not only reserved for afterlife 

Prominent breweries lure Utrecht’s beer-drinkers to Mother’s Finest

(Originally published on 18 August 2018) Rare international visitors on Europe’s summer beer circuit participate at Mother’s Finest Festival alongside respected Netherlands’ breweries.  Besides a few notable absences, the Dutch beer list comprehensively forms a who’s who of the country’s top beer producers. This painstakingly 

Berlin Beer Week’s innovative closing party was a festival of festivals

Berlin Beer Week’s innovative closing party was a festival of festivals

It feels exclusive. The closing party at Berlin Beer Week has the vibe of a private party. It’s a pool party and a beach party. It is fantastic. Festival2 has gathered many respected beer festivals from across Europe in a unique urban setting for a 

Reasons not to miss awesome BXLBeerFest

Reasons not to miss awesome BXLBeerFest

BXLBeerFest is an annual 2-day craft beer festival held in the city of Brussels at the end of August. It focuses only on independent breweries and it showcases the best of the city’s beer culture. It also welcomes some top international breweries. BXLBeerFest also demonstrates 

Barcelona’s 20/20 vision is the Cerveses Almogàver Taproom

Barcelona’s 20/20 vision is the Cerveses Almogàver Taproom

Barcelona’s latest brewery taproom is taking shape in the Sant Martí district of the city centre. The Cerveses Almogàver Taproom will open in early 2020. Its location a few stops from Sagrada Família on the L2 Metro will attract locals and beer tourists alike. They 

How a top sour beer event successfully introduces tradition to modern classics

How a top sour beer event successfully introduces tradition to modern classics

How does an event find itself a major contender for the title of world’s best sour beer festival? It must welcome a carefully selected mixture of the old and the new. Participating breweries from across Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA will be the best 

The Bräugier Craftbier Brewpub enhances the Berlin Craft Beer scene

The Bräugier Craftbier Brewpub enhances the Berlin Craft Beer scene

About The Bräugier Craftbier Brewpub A few steps from Prenzlauer Allee in Berlin’s vibrant Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood is the Bräugier Craftbier Brewpub. With 12-taps, this recent addition to the Berlin Craft Beer scene is making a big impression. The brauhaus tucked behind the taproom produces 

Worshipping the Holy Spiritus of brewing, distilling and events

Worshipping the Holy Spiritus of brewing, distilling and events

100% pure ciders, meads, distilled beverages and liqueurs, all traditionally brewed in a church.  It’s not a common thing to hear.  And yet, the Holy Spiritus in Sint Jansteen, Zeeland, is a brewery, distillery and events location that is open to individuals and trade. The 

Is Beer Festival saturation a reality?

Is Beer Festival saturation a reality?

Deciding which beer event to attend on any given weekend is becoming much more of a challenge nowadays.  Each week sees a large number of high-profile events, both nationally and internationally, competing for visitor numbers.  And it should never be a competition. It is seemingly 

The Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of beer packaging determines its environmental impact

The Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of beer packaging determines its environmental impact

A common remark we hear from a variety of beer professionals is that steel kegs are much better for the environment and are the epitome of a ‘circular economy’, purely because they can be cleaned and reused. Often the remark is made either by an 

Fine beer-drinking weather is a conflict of interest

Fine beer-drinking weather is a conflict of interest

Without the rain and the wet weather conditions we love to hate, we’d be living in a somewhat dryer world. A perpetual, ever-lengthening summer of sweltering days and warm, humid nights may be the ideal pattern of weather for the seemingly solar-powered sun-worshippers who are 

Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo!  The annual clatter of hooves on cobbled streets

Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo! The annual clatter of hooves on cobbled streets

The hills are alive.  We know that.  Rodgers and Hammerstein told us.  There’s a lonely goatherd high on a hill who is heard by the men drinking beer with the foam afloat.  Whilst the sound of music may be resonating through the hills, it is 

Poblenou: the Beer World’s Fair, with added beach and sun

Poblenou: the Beer World’s Fair, with added beach and sun

30,000 craft beer-lovers cannot be wrong!  And having consumed a voracious 13,000 litres of beer over 3-days in 2018, thirsty anticipation is high for the 2019 event.  Held on 5th, 6th and 7th July in Barcelona’s Poblenou Park, next to Bogatell Beach, the eight edition 

A beer and cider festival that defines summer

A beer and cider festival that defines summer

Some things define a summer.  Strawberries and cream.  Long, balmy evenings sipping something delightful as the sun finally dips its head beyond the horizon.  Seagulls snatching ice cream from unsuspecting children at the beach. Relishing a drink or two that contains ice cubes and a 

Getting to know: Dennison’s Craft Drinks Sas

Getting to know: Dennison’s Craft Drinks Sas

Travel a few minutes north from the northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia and you’ll find English Taste and Italian Passion at Dennison’s.  A small brewery and drinks production facility with big flavours and an even greater amount of artisanal desire to produce classic Craft 

2019年6月7~8日, UKはブリストルへ!

2019年6月7~8日, UKはブリストルへ!

2019年6月7~8日, UKはブリストルへ! Celebrating Beer, Creativity, and Bristol! この週末にはイギリスのブリストルにてクラフトビアフェスティバルが開催されます. Bristol Craft Beer Festival 2019 Back on Bristol’s Harbourside! Bristol と言えば, 港街, 学生で有名な街, そしてつい先日日本でも話題になったあの Banksy の街!ですね. 過去に一度訪れたことがありますが, 今回はクラフトビアフェスティバルで再び訪問することとなりました. 40+ Breweries! 今回はお手伝いもさせて頂くので, グビグビと飲み続けるわけにはいきませんが, Lineup はまたまた素晴らしいことになっております. 現在 UK には本当に素晴らしいクラフトビア醸造所が沢山ありますが, 本参加者達はその中でもかなりの実力派と言えます. そして UK だけではありあません!欧州各国, そしてさらには海を渡ってアメリカ, カナダからも兵達が参戦です. The best of Bristol’s 

How to welcome people to an event for forward-thinkers and progressive-drinkers

How to welcome people to an event for forward-thinkers and progressive-drinkers

The UK’s premier travelling beer festival arrives in one of the UK’s premier cities on 7th and 8th June. Bristol is a forward-thinking, cutting-edge and happening city with an equally progressive population that relishes great beer and ground-breaking events.  Following its recent success in Edinburgh, 

Europe welcomes Australian sour: Farm Ale & Cider and Wild Ales

Europe welcomes Australian sour: Farm Ale & Cider and Wild Ales

It is 10,500 miles from Tasmania to Italy.  And yet, for the love of farmhouse ales, cider, mixed and wild fermentation, Tasmania’s Two Metre Tall is pleased to be making the mammoth and monumental journey to participate in Reggio Emilia’s Arrogant Sour Festival.  With 500 miles 

Expect Sour Beer passion and values to be high at the Arrogant Sour Festival

Expect Sour Beer passion and values to be high at the Arrogant Sour Festival

Sour Beer is wrongly perceived to be a young upstart, a rebel, and an unwelcome diversion for the purists who favour something traditional and unchallenging.  Sour Beers are in fact some of the oldest and most traditionally recognised beer styles — the very birth of 

Berlin excels at the Handgemacht-Brauereifest

Berlin excels at the Handgemacht-Brauereifest

Berlin excels in beer. Berlin excels in breweries. Berlin excels in beer festivals. And the 2019 spring edition of Handgemacht-Brauereifest will once again excel in Berlin. Taking its cue from the weekly Street Food market in Berlin’s KulturBrauerei — the industrial landmark in Berlin’s Prenzlauer 

North Brabant celebrates the unforgettable apple

North Brabant celebrates the unforgettable apple

Biezenmortel’s De Vergeten Appel has an extensive appeal. Firstly, there are the cider fanatics who not only relish Dutch artisanal cider for its quality, but also cherish traditional production methods used from time immemorial — the cider-making process remains unchanged over many hundreds of years. 

A festival of festivals in the city of beer

A festival of festivals in the city of beer

For decades Munich has been the de facto destination for beer tourists who visit Germany in search of many of the world’s best beer styles, most notably the variety of Bavarian lagers.  However, Berlin is rapidly becoming the destination for beer-lovers who seek craft brews 

Getting to know:  Tibidabo Brewing

Getting to know: Tibidabo Brewing

L’Hospitalet de Llobregat — known locally as simply L’Hospitalet — is the Catalan municipality immediately southwest of Barcelona that plays host to the annual Barcelona Beer Festival, attracting many thousands of visitors each year who are keen to try some of the finest local, national 

Aren’t Food Halls great?

Aren’t Food Halls great?

Aren’t Food Halls great?  Especially if there’s a Craft Beer element.  All the best cities of the world have them.  Take an abandoned industrial space with some heritage and upcycle it into a food market. Each business in the Food Hall either prepares its own 

Warszawski Festiwal Piwa’s diamond edition — a gem of a beer festival

Warszawski Festiwal Piwa’s diamond edition — a gem of a beer festival

The great and the good of the Polish beer world descend upon the Legia Warsaw Municipal Stadium between 4th–6th April, 2019 for the tenth edition of the Warszawski Festiwal Piwa. Over 50 of the best new and established Craft Beer brewers will take-over three floors 

Barcelona’s undiscovered Craft Beer Bar

Barcelona’s undiscovered Craft Beer Bar

It’s possibly the best undiscovered Craft Beer Bar in Barcelona.  Its name is INA Espacio de Café y Piadina.  And whilst its profile may not be as high as other nearby destinations for discerning beer-lovers, its selection of bottled Craft Beer is certainly impressive. It’s 

Barcelona Beer Festival 2019 — Catalonian Artisanal Beer at its best

The eighth edition of a leading event on the European Beer Festival scene, Barcelona Beer Festival 2019 goes from strength to strength.  Not only in the quality of beer, food, music, cultural and gastronomic lectures, but also in the representation of beer-industry professionals and their 

今年もやって参ります, バルセロナで開催される Barcelona Beer Festival 2019!

今年もやって参ります, バルセロナで開催される Barcelona Beer Festival 2019!

本年度は3月15日 (金) から17日 (日) 迄, 3日間に渡り欧州内に限らず世界中からのクラフトビアが集結する, 正に祭典と呼ぶに相応しい1年に1度のビアカーニバル. 毎年ビアビジネスに携わる人たちの為のブースも設けられ, ホップ / モルト / イーストといったビア造りに不可欠な材料は勿論の事, Keg からビアタンク, ♪ 大きなものから小さなものまで ♪ ビアを造り上げるに必要不可欠な全ての醸造機器諸々, さらにはロゴシールやビアマットを扱う会社まで! といった風に痒い所まで手が届く! と, まさにビア業界で働いていなくともこの業界を知りたい人にももってこい!, つまりは色々と網羅されているビアフェスなのです. 目玉と言うべきは, 既に色々な噂を聞きつけかけつけた Beer Geek 達にとっては勿論の事, 新たなるビアワールドの門を叩き, クラフトビアの世界に酔いしれるべく参戦する newcomer 達がワクワクせずにはいられない (要するに誰もが待ち構えている) 「Meet The Brewer!」 = つまりは世界中から招待された素晴らしき Brewery の Brewer 達との密会, 一枠2時間という限られた時間でのビア提供であります! そしてこのわずかな時間内で, 

A beer festival is all the world

A beer festival is all the world

“I’d like to ask your help,” urged a mischievous John Lennon in 1963 at the Queen’s annual Royal Variety Performance.  “Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands?  And the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewellery.” And so, the leveller 

Visually appealing design sells Craft Beer to the unacquainted

Visually appealing design sells Craft Beer to the unacquainted

In today’s crowded market an ever-increasing number of start-up Craft Beer breweries compete for finite consumer expenditure.  Shelf-space is finite, too.  How a Craft Beer sells itself visually in a supermarket or bottle-shop is vital to success. A Craft Beer that demonstrates it understands branding 

A cold, snowy Road to Cicerone Bootcamp, 2018

A cold, snowy Road to Cicerone Bootcamp, 2018

It’s said the first step is always the most difficult.  In our case it was a 4,000-mile first step to Chicago in the spring of 2018.  Difficult because our departure from Amsterdam coincided with the year’s first tulips — a colourful Netherlands was in full 

Paying It Forward

Paying It Forward

Because Kaeru Beer believes in the influence wielded by Social Media and its latent marketing muscle, we have decided to start occasionally paying the compliment forward by randomly selecting an organisation or group from our Social Media followers. We shall spend 5 minutes briefly investigating 

Getting to know: Old Dairy Brewery

Getting to know: Old Dairy Brewery

A clue to its history and roots lies in its name. It’s not too challenging: Old Dairy Brewery was founded in 2009 at a former facility for milking dairy cows in Kent, an English county known to beer-lovers across the globe for its world-class hops. 

Welcoming the Pacific Northwest to east Amsterdam

Local beer is available too, but it is the welcome renaissance in Craft Beer from across the Atlantic that brings many tourists and locals alike to Grand Café Lokaal, a lively bar and restaurant in east Amsterdam that showcases the offerings of several well-respected breweries 

On a beer Mission to San Diego’s East Village

As unassuming as it is, the former Wonder Bread Building in San Diego’s East Village, a home run across the parking lot from Petco Park, home of the Padres, provides little exterior clue about the epic happenings within.  Unbeknownst to the casual passers-by, the shabby-yet-appealing 

Beer-lovers and film-buffs, caught between the tigers

The carpet is red. Of course it is. Movie Premieres focus attention to the big screen, but the premier events are happening in the bars, cafés and restaurants of Rotterdam during the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). Movies and Craft Beer go hand in hand, 

The forgotten apple. Remembered. Memorised.

It’s refreshing.  It’s delightfully refreshing.  It’s perfect on its own or as an accompaniment to great food.  Its literally ‘home-grown’ in the Netherlands. Dutch Cider is experiencing something of a renaissance, a resurgence of interest in the most natural (and historic) of nature’s bounty; and 

食べて飲んで笑うは極上時間

食べて飲んで笑うは極上時間

  飲食は, 至福のひと時. これぞ, 万国共通であれ!   Brewery KAEN / Diamond Brewing ここは, 熊本では非常に珍しいクラフトビールのタップルーム兼レストラン. 熊本も, クラフトビールはまだまだ浸透しているとは言い難いエリアです. サントリー工場ありますしね…でも, 一度工場見学行ってみたい😳 元々は, ガッツリお肉を提供するレストランだったようですが, 新しく, ここで作られたクラフトビールも提供するようになったとか. レストランに併設されたガラス張りの空間に, 海外製の新しいピッカピカタンクが見えます. 今年の2月からだったかな, 出来立てホヤホヤの brewery です. こちらのビールを飲むことが出来る場所も, このレストランと, あと一軒くらいだったかなー. これから, どう展開していくのか, かなり楽しみ. というのも, こちら. 新しい brewery なのですが, 既にいろんなタイプのビール作られています. 作り手さんは, 御二人. 御二方ともお話しさせていただきましたが, ヘッドの方が, かなり好奇心旺盛とみた!笑笑. Sour 

Meet your new best friend: the uKeg

Meet your new best friend: the uKeg

Kaeru Beer was introduced to the innovative GrowlerWerks uKeg yesterday.  And we’re impressed.  It originates from Portland, Oregon — of course it does! — but is available in Europe through Belgium’s Brouwland. Our love of innovation and disruption is no secret.  Our love of innovative 

Oproer : 「揺るぎなき確立したtasteを造り上げる能力を持った醸造所」、いよいよ日本上陸!

3周年を迎えたばかりの彼らだが, 元々は Ruig Bier と Rooie Dop の合体で Oproer は誕生した. 彼らの対ビジネスへの姿勢は, シンプルである — 「ケアをすること」.  でもこれがそこいらじゅうでそうそう目にするかと言われると, そうでもない.  品質やキャラクターを大事にするのは当然の事, さらに人との繋がりは勿論の事, 環境や自然への想いをとても大切に, そして明白に掲げている.  彼らの持つ信念「革新的且つ論理的」, 例えばサンディエゴの Modern Times Beer とも共通するものがあるが, 彼らの環境への想いは揺るぎない.  例えば, 以前はアメリカへのビール輸出を行っていたのを, 環境影響を考え今はオレゴン州はポートランドにてアメリカ市場向けにビールの醸造を行うといった大胆な決意がその一つだ. そんなOproerのバー兼レストランは, Utrecht Zuilen駅にほぼ隣接していると言っても過言ではない.  徒歩数分で, 1949年建造そして2013年, 地方記念建築に指定された元オランダ鉄道会社のバス修理場という, 一瞬聞いただけではなんとも想像つけ難い不思議な建物である.  さらにこのエリアは, “Blue District”と名付けられた実に環境に優しい住宅地を形成するとされており, まさに彼らにとっては理想的な立地なのである. この建物に入ってみると, 実に建物のスペースをうまく活用しているかが窺える.  一人で静かに本を読みながらチビチビとビールを嗜むのは勿論のこと,  小さな子供を連れた家族連れ・パーティ客, 

Social uproar: the consciousness of Oproer

‘Oproer’ is a 16th century Dutch word, the etymological source of the English word ‘uproar’.  And there are few words that more aptly describe an approach to business that places a greater importance on having a social conscience than operating purely for commercial gain. The 

Is Craft Beer becoming a spent force?

Is Craft Beer becoming a spent force?

Today’s hot-topic, albeit far from a new discussion, comes from The Burnt Out Beer Guy, in which he discusses the “consumer culture where beer doesn’t necessarily need to be great anymore. It just needs to be new.” It’s a topic for which Kaeru Beer has 

The Flink Gegist Festival flourishes at Delft’s grandest fraternity

Originally published: Sunday 13 Jan 2019 Beer lovers in the Netherlands have every reason to attend Delft’s Flink Gegist Festival, the winter edition of which is held this year for the first time in the city’s most famous student fraternity, the Virgiel, a labyrinthine edifice 

Culture Contact: Social, Hospitality and Hostelry

Culture Contact: Social, Hospitality and Hostelry

It is a world of social and cultural delights for the taking.  For drinkers, diners and socialites there is a magnificent abundance of marvellous options: bars, cafés, restaurants, brewpubs, brasseries, taprooms, bistros. See Also: Paying It Forward Bierlokaal de Uiver Theatre-goers, out-of-towners visiting the City’s 

Celebrate Craft Beer’s Ruby Anniversary with the Tar Heel State’s Finest

Celebrate Craft Beer’s Ruby Anniversary with the Tar Heel State’s Finest

Which event celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2019? Which monumental occasion kickstarted a Craft Beer revolution? Before this milestone the world of beer was very different. Imagine it. A handful of breweries . A small number of beer styles. A tiny fraction of the choice 

So, what exactly is Glühbier?

What is more heart-warming than a tipple of Glühwein at a traditional Christmas Market? We all overindulge in delicious red wine, heated and mixed with fruits, sugars and spices.  There is nothing better on a cold winter’s day.  Or so it seems. We’re familiar with 

オランダのビール業界が大騒ぎします

オランダのビール業界が大騒ぎします! Oproer Brouwerij のバーレィワインとインペリアル・オートミールスタウトを頂きました。 このバーレィワインは凄くノミクチがよい! バーレィワインに多い独特のアルコール感が余り感じられず(だからスイスイイケます)、思わず本当にこれはバーレィワインか?と思ってしまうぐらいです。 先日彼らのビアカフェ兼レストランへお邪魔させて頂きましたが、全オーガニックのローカル食材を使ったヴィーガンフードを提供していて、とっても魅力的でクリエイティブな料理が味わえますよ!

Why doing more than selling beer makes a good beer store great

What is the beer-lover equivalent of discovering a pot of gold?  Where is the Holy Grail for beer connoisseurs inspired by a vast assortment of great brews under one roof?  Even Indiana Jones found the Ark of the Covenant. Whatever myth you prefer, imagine finding 

Un-untappd

Who still uses Untappd?  It seems as though I speak to at least one person per day who has abandoned it, whether it’s a taproom owner who’s fed-up of beer-tickers only visiting to drink whatever’s ‘new’ — the smallest serving, of course; a free sample 

And I’m hungry like the Canis, #BCBF2018

Duran Duran told us they were Hungry Like The Wolf.  A situation familiar to any beer drinker whose “mouth is alive with juices like wine“.  Antwerp’s most famous beer-dog, Billie, the eponymous French Bulldog after which both the Craft Beer Fest and Bier Kafétaria is 

Roll up, roll up for the greatest show on earth: selected musings from the Beer Circus 2018

AF Brew Within a minute or two of the doors opening at Borefts Beer Circus 2018, the queue for Saint Petersburg, Russia’s AF Brew stretched out of the door, through the crowds, down the street and into the next city — or so it felt. 

Warszawski Festiwal Piwa — a benchmark in success

It is extremely difficult not to compare WFP9 — the ninth edition of the Warszawski Festiwal Piwa — with other beer festivals.  The focus of WFP9 is beer and its many wonderful, varied flavours, and that what made the event so popular: WFP9 offers everything 

ポーランドで本格的なお握り!

Warszawski Festiwal Piwa にて、なんとお握り屋さんに遭遇です! Pani Onigiriはワルシャワにあるお握り屋さん、ヴェトナム産コシヒカリを使用した限りなく日本のお握りに近いお米の炊き方、塩加減にびっくり! コンビニで販売しているような綺麗なラッピングに、ちゃんとそれぞれの味を示すシールを付けて、ヴェジタリアンとノンヴェジタリアンのお握りを販売されています。 私は2日連続で、「サケ」「枝豆」を、後「梅干し」「ウォールナッツ味噌」「豆腐」を購入! どれもとっても美味しく頂きました。ポーランドでこんな本格的な🍙に出会えるとは感涙。 枝豆が売り切れていた時も、即座に目の前で綺麗に作って下さいました。 お店の方々もポーランドの方たちでしたが、とってもフレンドリーで🍙愛を感じましたよ! これからも頑張ってくださいね!        

Poland and Central Europe’s Craft Beer revolution

Visit any international beer festival across western Europe and there is likely to be a handful of breweries from Central Europe, the Baltic states and Russia.  Even just a couple of years ago, the likelihood of encountering a brewery from Poland, Hungary, Slovenia or beyond 

The Gentleman’s Journal names the 6 hottest craft breweries in Europe

Congratulations to our friends at Laugar Brewery, Galway Bay Brewery and CR/AK for being named among the “6 hottest craft breweries in Europe right now” in The Gentleman’s Journal (recommended by HonestBrew), alongside Poland’s Browar Stu Mostow and France’s Popihn and Azimut Brasserie. The Basque 

Getting to know: First Flight Island Restaurant & Brewery

Why did the chicken cross the road?  To get to the Southernmost Brewery of course. In fact wherever you are in Key West there are feral chickens (and iguanas) crossing roads to get to all sorts of things. First Flight is tucked away down a 

BXLBeerFest returns to Brussels for a second time this weekend

Belgium.  A country synonymous with unique beer and beer-styles.  One of the few countries placed at the pinnacle of beer culture by drinkers throughout the world; few can deny Belgium is a byword for authenticity and quality.  It is unsurprising, therefore, that Belgian beer festivals 

Craft and Real Ale, and never the twain shall meet

Is it purely coincidence that the London Craft Beer Festival is held a couple of days before the city hosts CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival?  Sceptics may see LCBF as a direct challenge to both CAMRA’s claim that their GBBF is the ‘Ultimate Beer Festival’ 

Rebalancing power in favour of independent business

The march of capitalism is incessant.  Many countries that tried to halt and reverse its progress were devastated by a crippled economy as the large-scale social-experimentations in achieving parity and fairness dramatically failed.  Throughout the socioeconomic growth and collapse in these lands, however, the top-level 

Tiny Rebel and CAMRA at impasse over KeyKeg

It is disappointing to read James Beeson’s article in The Morning Advertiser concerning how CAMRA has handled Tiny Rebel’s decision to use only KeyKeg on its brewery bar at this year’s Great British Beer Festival.  CAMRA’s questioning of KeyKeg’s reliability seems unfounded because we have 

Craft Beer in Japan

A common question we’re asked at Kaeru Beer is, “What is the Craft Beer scene in Japan?”  Answering that it is a buoyant scene, growing year-on-year, is no substitute for actually seeing it yourself. Lightcurve Films recently made a short film that joins brewmaster Rob 

Flink Gegist: A well-fermented beer festival

Flink Gegist is not merely the go-to place for a great selection of beer in the Dutch city of Delft—yes, the home of Delftware—but it is also the bottle shop after which the eponymous biannual craft beer festival is named.  Flink Gegist translates to something 

Latest popular hotel amenity: a brewery

It seems the latest boom area for craft beer is luxury hotels attracting guests with in-house breweries on-site.  But it’s certainly nothing new.  Long before the jet-age or advent of the internal combustion engine—when the most luxurious form of travel was literally several horse-power with 

Getting to know: Ignition Brewery — brewing with a social awareness

South London’s Ignition Brewery is a craft beer brewery with a difference.  Whilst its Pale Ales and Porter are high-quality products — popular in the area’s pubs, bars, cafés and restaurants — it is Ignition Brewery’s social innovation and practical contribution to the local community 

A special year: Noord-Hollands Bierfestival

The building of Alkmaar’s Grote or Sint-Laurenskerk church was completed in 1518, making 2018 its quincentenary, its quincentennial birthday — it’s 500-years old.  Beer was already celebrating a history of about 4,500 years when the church was built, so holding the Dutch Beer Consumer PINT’s 

CO2 shortage’s impact on beer

Beer and cider drinkers who love something fizzy may soon find themselves without a beverage due to the reported shortage of CO2, a result of European ammonia factory closures and bio-ethanol factory maintenance activities.  The food industry is also affected because it has many applications 

Utrecht revels in great beer and cider

Considering it was Bier en cider festival Utrecht’s first year, it is difficult to believe the event is not already an annual mainstay of the Utrecht beer- and cider-year.  Many beer-events try very hard.  Many beer-events fail very spectacularly.  Bier en cider festival Utrecht succeeds 

Beavertown places its head in the tiger’s mouth

So Beavertown has sold a minority stake to Heineken — a £40m minority stake! “You cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth!”  Whether that is a genuine quote or movieland artistic licence, I cannot tell.  But by cosying up to 

A big drop in alcohol does not mean a big drop in taste

Ipswich in the UK is the home of Big Drop Brewing Co., which focuses on modern craft beer of no more than 0.5% ABV.   “To drink.  Not to be drunk” it says on the label, although we’ve not drunk a beer virtually free of alcohol 

Beer is knocked out of the World Cup earlier than expected

Is anybody surprised by the reports coming out of Russia that beer-supplies are running low?  Even without experience in capacity planning or event organisation and management, it is not difficult to foresee that a World Cup tournament will attract hundreds and thousands of beer-drinking football 

What future for young brewers facing a monopoly?

There is a common feeling shared by all young, independent brewers across the world operating in territories dominated by Big Beer industrialisation.  They feel stifled by monopolisation, and consider it the ruination of their industry. Whilst having a monopoly over a market is a highly-desirable 

Getting to know: Brouwerij 5Hoog

No, it’s not a high-five greeting.  Nor is it Shoog in leetspeak (aka 1337speak).  It’s a reference to the brewery’s lofty beginning as a group of fanatical beer-loving friends on the fifth floor, a level from which Thom, Sven, Patrick and Nick have rarely had 

A tale of Apes and KeyKegs

The 1940s design team behind Italian scooter manufacture Piaggio’s Ape had great foresight in conceiving something that is not merely adopted as a modern-day craft beer icon, but has the precise dimensions to carry a handful of KeyKegs in refrigerated comfort.  Visit a beer festival 

AI accuses Kirin of fund misuse in Myanmar

Amnesty International reported yesterday that the USD$30,000 donated to Myanmar’s authorities by a subsidiary of Kirin Holdings Company may be used to support ethnic cleansing of the country’s Rohingya population.  Amnesty International has urged the Japanese authorities to launch an investigation. Kirin controls 80% of 

Convenient, strong beer meets healthy living in Japan

The legal age for drinking beer in Japan is 20, although the result of each successive generation being less populous than the previous one is that fewer people are reaching legal drinking age each year.  Paradoxically, Japan is one of the few developed nations that 

The Great British Non-Alcohol Beer Festival

Changes are indeed afoot at CAMRA, yet this is perhaps not the momentous shift in policy and wider beer or cider inclusion that many CAMRA members recently voted for (and some voted against).  Welcoming non-alcohol beer to its Great British Beer Festival is a great 

Ultimate Pub Guide

Ultimate Pub Guide

As one of the three key writers and contributors to the now-defunct, yet highly-regarded, Ultimate Pub Guide, I spent a large part of my misspent youth travelling the world, trawling bars, pubs, beer-cafés and whatever other establishment offered the thirsty drinker somewhere to imbibe the 

International anticipation is high for the Noord-Hollands Bierfestival

Anticipation is high for this Saturday’s Noord-Hollands Bierfestival organised by PINT, the Dutch Beer Consumer Association.  The large province of North Holland (in the coastal northwest) is perhaps one of the country’s most visited provinces because it contains the towns and cities of Amsterdam, Alkmaar, 

No Craft Beer fixture for the World Cup

Russia is a country that seemingly enjoys the mystery that surrounds it.  It enjoys the appearance of impenetrability.  World politics is a game in which participation is more important than a victory.  Stage-managed democracy is its public image. In less than 48-hours the eyes of 

The continual cycle of idiocy

One week it’s a brewery imprudently handing over responsibility for its words and marketing to a willing amateur in exchange for free beer, and then crazily back-peddling to apologise for the oversight when the far-from-professional output causes a global uproar that sends the brewery’s sales 

100 Watts of power at Stadsbrouwerij Eindhoven

It’s Kaeru Beer’s first visit to Eindhoven, so fitting perhaps that our first port of call is the Stadsbrouwerij Eindhoven – the city brewery – and its Taproom, Café 100 Watt, a few minutes’ walk outside of the city centre.  Port of call being an 

Cider and Perry lovers head to Rotterdam’s Cider Festival

If anybody was still unconvinced about the amount of interest in artisanal cider, all doubts were answered by visiting the Fenix Food Factory in Rotterdam at the beginning of June.  A widespread fascination in cider (which also includes perry) generates a lot of awareness about 

Cider and ice? Says who?

Since when has cider-on-the-rocks been the de facto serving method?  What started as a monstrous marketing gimmick now seems completely out of hand.  The nadir of this ludicrous situation is a poorly-trained server who believes every cider (sometimes even bottled beer, too) aspires to be 

Tomorrow’s drinkers are the giant-killers

Most genuine beer- and cider-loving consumers will favour the small, local, independent, artisanal craft beer and cider over the homogeneous, industrial product, and despite the well-meaning attempts by many organisations to set parameters that define beer and cider as either artisanal or industrial, most consumers 

Getting to know: Schoppe Bräu

The historic art nouveau Colonnades on Schönhauser Allee in Berlin’s chic Prenzlauer Berg district was built around 1911 and rejuvenated 98-years later to become an industrial monument and heritage area.  The Colonnades was built as an impressive, grand entrance to Bavarian Master Brewer Joseph Pfeffer’s 

Contract brewing: a great complement to brick-and-mortar breweries

Here’s something of a hot potato.  A storm is brewing (no pun intended) in the world of Craft Beer.  In Canada, at least, there are debates happening over the pros and cons of contract brewing, otherwise known as gypsy brewing or, in this case, ‘virtual 

Getting to know: CiderLab

(This is my translation from Dutch of Mark van der Veek’s own words, to which I have added plenty of artistic licence!) Until he discovered cider, Mark struggled to find a refreshing alternative to beer that was not high in alcohol.  As a non-beer drinker, 

Getting to know: Schneeeule Brauerei GmbH

Anti-mimesis is a philosophical idea that Life imitates Art.  Bubo Scandiacus (the snowy owl, schneeeule, or sneeuwuil) is one example of a vulnerable species (life) that, once extinct, cannot be imitated.  The original Berliner Weisse is a beer style (art) that was just about extinct 

Where is the best place for a cheap pint of beer?

Each year Deutsche Bank releases its “Mapping the world’s prices” report, which details global prices.  One item used to indicate the cost of living in 50 major cities throughout the world is the cost of a pint of beer. The challenge is finding a beer 

Step inside, Walk this way, You and me babe, Hey hey! Pour some hops, malt, yeast and water on me!

Long-gone are the days when a rock band’s merchandise portfolio consisted of T-shirt, badges, patches, caps and, for the very affluent, a signature guitar, bass, drum kit as endorsed by our favourite musical heroes.  Signature wine, beer, whiskey and hard liquor are now the trappings 

Congratulations of the fourth anniversary, Kaapse Brouwers

Rotterdam is where the Netherlands meets the world.  Schiphol airport may be the country’s most visible international gateway, but for over 130-years or more passengers and goods have been arriving and departing on ships from Rotterdam, still one of the largest and busiest ports in 

Getting to know: Rock City Brewing

  Rock City.  It’s a nomenclature claimed by cities and regions across the world for their natural landforms, geological formations, or love of loud guitars.  The Dutch city of Amersfoort earns its nickname of ‘Keistad’ — literally translated as ‘Boulder City’ — from the 20,000 

Water as contraband at beer festivals

It is unethical for a beer festival to treat water as contraband.  It is a severe lack of social responsibility to prohibit potable (safe to drink) water.  It is reckless behaviour to encourage the consumption of alcohol whilst simultaneously being negligent about visitors’ health by 

Getting to know: Modern Times

Bob Dylan told us The Times They Are a-Changin’.  But that was 1964.  The modern times are a-changin’, too.  In these modern times we’re a-changin’ how we not only look at beer, but also how we expect today’s brewery to be much more than simply 

Checking out what’s happening at De Biertuin Prinsengracht in Amsterdam

There’s a lot of beers — both draught and bottle — possibly 100-130 or so, mostly Dutch and Belgium, with a fridgeful of Yeastie Boys UK thrown into the mix for some antipodean fun.  And there’s BrewDog, of course,  but that’s tediously everywhere nowadays. There 

The ramblings of a visitor to the 8th PINT Utrechtse Bierbrouwers Festival

Located on a strip of land between the Amsterdam-Utrecht railway and the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal, the venue for the 8th Utrechtse Bierbrouwers Festival (UBBF) initially appears to be inconveniently located in a somewhat sleepy backwater far from the city centre.  Arriving by public transport could be 

American Craft Beer Week

American Craft Beer Week is once again upon us and in full swing till Sunday, 20th May.  This year is the 13th such event since the Brewers Association decided to shift the month-long American Beer Month into a compact, targeted week of events with a 

Getting to know: House of Pint

A book should never be judged by its cover, according to the idiom that tells us how unwise it is to form opinions and make assessments without firstly taking a look inside.  The merits of a brewery, therefore, should not be based on its size, 

Getting to know: Stapzwan

The literal translation of the motto adopted by Utrecht’s Stapzwan brewery is “discovering, connecting and enjoying”, and since brewers Vincent Stap and Jeroen van der Zwan are childhood friends who have spent over 10-years travelling together on their beer journey, it’s safe to assume the 

How to enjoy beer on a sunny day

On these sunny, warm days when a beer patio / beer garden is the most attractive place to sit and have a delicious cool beer, how many of us actually notice the effect of the sunlight on our beers? Few, for certain. Despite the resultant 

Getting to know: Brouwerij Pronck

Brouwerij Pronck is fiercely proud to be a brewery in the historic Dutch city of Leiden, a city known the world over for its university. Leiden has been the home of Brouwerij Pronck since it was founded there in 2014, and the brewery shows its 

Getting to know: Proper Brewing Co.

Proper Brewing Co. has ethical credentials and values its role in the local community. It places an emphasis on local produce not only for the exceptional quality and taste, but also as part of its social responsibility in supporting the regional economy. Placing cash directly 

A coolship: science-fact, not science-fiction

  To the uninitiated, the word ‘coolship’ — an anglicisation of the Dutch ‘koelschip’ — may be seen in one’s mind’s eye as a seagoing vessel transporting ice, a leisurely vehicle for transporting Happy Days’ Arthur Fonzarelli, or something generically CGI and sci-fi from the 

Are you interested in Alvinne’s limited edition beers?

  If you’re a fan of Brouwerij Alvinne’s innovative sour beers, as Kaeru Beer is, you may be interested in Alvinne’s Fellowship of Exceptional Ales, which is an idea to reward hardcore, loyal fans with some delicious limited beers — so limited, in fact, that 

An exception list of ciders and perries for Reading

It’s hard to deny.  The Real Cider and Real Perry list for this weekend’s cider and perry extravaganza in Reading is exceptional. Pop by to try some delicious beverages produced from the very best things nature has to offer. https://readingbeerfestival.org.uk/ PERRY Berkshire Tutts Clump Farmhouse 

Getting to know: Excosa Brouwerij

Excosa Brouwerij is popular. When the brewery makes a public appearance, passionate brewers Nico Landheer and Jan van Trooyen take central position amid the commotion. Their bar at a beer festival is abuzz, and it can be something of a challenge to negotiate the thronging 

(Briefly) Getting to know: Haymarket Brewing

Kaeru Beer would like to thank Frank Shepard from Haymarket Brewing — a long-established brewery and brewpub located in Chicago and Bridgman, MI — for the beers and chat a few weeks ago at Beermiscuous. Haymarket Brewing focuses primarily on European styles, particularly Belgian, but 

Getting to know: San Diego Brewing Co.

In many cases, age, maturity and longevity is simply an excuse grasped by younger people to justify what they would like to see as a widening gap between their own youth and what is, in fact, nothing more than an aging youthfulness. And never the 

BeerCellarList: the go-to app for beer collectors

The practice of storing our favourite beers to consume at a later date, once we hope the flavour has matured, is nothing new.  People have been ‘cellaring’ beers at home for about as long as beer has existed.  Most beer lovers will have a cool 

Getting to know Epic Brewing Company

It is a mountain.  Let’s call it Mount Epic.  Despite its seemingly minute appearance from the street, the footprint of Epic Brewing Company’s Salt Lake City facility, a short stroll south from Downtown, is huge.  Epic Brewing Company appears to have taken its cue from 

CAMRA revitalisation: two steps forward, one step back

  Kaeru Beer have been members of the UK’s Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for many, many years, and we recently voted in support of a series of measures designed to update CAMRA’s Articles of Association, a series of measures that will update the organisation 

CANarchy in the USA

  There’s strength in numbers.  It’s proven.  One brewery working with another creates a stronger bond.  Many breweries collaborate with another brewery on beers, brewing and events, for example.  Some breweries are acquired, and others merge to create a larger parent brewery.  For whatever reason 

Getting to know: Latchkey Brewing Company

  The paying public literally got its first taste of Latchkey Brewing Company’s beers at the new brewery and tasting room in San Diego’s Middletown neighbourhood last week, and Kaeru Beer was there to find out what was happening from co-founder Gerald Dollente. Beer-tourists from 

Post-hardcore beers from Deftones

How did Belching Beaver Brewery become the official brewer for everybody’s favourite post-hardcore band, Deftones?  Kaeru Beer visited the brewery’s North Park Tasting Room to find out. Being avid fans of the Grammy Award winning metal titans, Belching Beaver Brewery heard rumours that the band 

How to build a Foeder

  Outside Benelux, Foeders are a rarity.  Most people don’t even know what they are. They could be described as extra-large barrels used in the production of sour beers, for example.  What is important, however, are the properties of a Foeder. Their size is important 

The art of south-London’s bees

It is a rare occurrence to taste something that is wholly unique.  It is even rarer to taste something that’s wholly unique and tastes delicious.  Finding the latter to be astonishingly drinkable and something of an undiscovered marvel is almost unheard of. Today is that 

Don’t sleep a round, drink a round. Be Beermiscuous.

Don’t be promiscuous with beer, be Beermiscuous.  Don’t make any commitment without taking your beer on a test-drive first; don’t plunge into any relationship with a beer until you’ve cozied-up with a 4 oz pour for a brief liaison.  Don’t sleep a round, drink a 

A happy and hoppy NATIONAL BEER DAY…

  …if you’re in the USA, that is! April 7th, 1933.  Whilst not exactly celebrating the ratification of the 21st Amendment, and thus ending Prohibition — that was December 5th, 1933 — this day marked a final nail in the coffin for the ban on 

Getting to know: Briljant Brouwhuis

Haarlem is a historic beer city, and yet, irrespective of any historical context, perhaps the four main things beer-lovers who don’t live there know about the city are perhaps Rob Alphenaar, the Jopenkerk, Jopen, and the Uiltje Brewery — and they’re usually quoted in this 

Our Road to Cicerone – the Bootcamp

What do the following have in common: 24 internationals wishing to learn about beer, a handful of beer experts, a couple of beer legends, 5-days in a classroom in Chicago, and plenty of beer and beer/food pairings?  It is, of course, the Road to Cicerone 

Disruptive Weather Plan Thwarted in Sin City

The weather’s plan to disrupt this weekend’s Great Vegas Festival of Beer is thwarted. The weather deities are unfavourably watching proceedings in Sin City and have decided to unleash gale-force winds in order to disrupt this weekend’s Great Vegas Festival of Beer.  However, the organisers 

Getting to know: BE+ER

It’s very easy to have a love/hate relationship with BE+ER, but for a very positive reason in both cases.  It’s very easy to fall in love with the beers, which themselves are meticulously brewed with a deep love and passion; it’s also very easy to 

Getting to know: Bird Brewery

Self-confessed twitchers Ralph van Bemmel and Rik van den Berg swooped onto the Dutch beer scene a couple of years ago, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and with an exuberant enthusiasm and gusto that has allowed the goldcrest (Ralph) and the bearded reedling (Rik) to firmly established Bird 

Italian Grape Ale

  One of the nicest beers we have never tasted is perhaps an Italian Grape Ale, officially recognised as a beer style by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) a few years ago.  And much like the early days of many other well-known beer styles 

The Ultimate Beer Festival?

  Throughout its 131 years, London’s Olympia exhibition centre has seen many sporting, music and corporate events, and many legends (and dogs) have entertained the masses beneath the massive roof of glass and steel. Olympia has hosted the majority of CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festivals 

Hola 99%

The ‘Hola 99%’ campaign’s presence at the recent Barcelona Beer Festival appears to have been a success, since the message was loud and clear, heard and understood by all attendees, whether they speak Catalan, Spanish or not. Kaeru Beer visited GECAN (Gremi D’Elaboradors De Cervesa 

Drowning in a flood of porter

It’s the stuff dreams are made of.  It’s made of the stuff of dreams.  Porter, that is: a sea of porter. Thanks to the guys at Birrificio Bosco Grosso for introducing me to a beer-fact I was blissfully (and ignorantly) unaware of, a beer fact 

Is the future marijuana, cannabis and hemp beer?

Marijuana, cannabis and hemp ‘beers’ are seemingly on the increase, but in many cases they’re not even beers.  Whilst they start life as traditional beers, the alcohol is replaced by an extract at the end of the brewing process.  The psychophysiological effects, however, are alleged 

How does Founders Brewing Co. find itself in Europe

  If you suspected Founders Brewing Co. appeared at European beer festivals simply because they enjoyed a jolly European jaunt, you’d only be partly correct. What you’re drinking is certainly from Grand Rapids, MI, but what’s happening behind the taps is a very Spanish affair.  

The legend of Travis the trout and the widowed countess

With the current propensity towards myth and legend, it is unsurprising that heroes and villains, monsters and demons are prevalent in the worlds of cinema, televisions and animation, despite existing in literature for hundreds of years. I eagerly await the appearance of a storyline involving 

Milan. One city. Four days. Two Beer Festivals .

Milan.  One city.  Four days.  Two Beer Festivals that differ from each other in quite distinct ways. With a city-centre location, a short stroll from Milan Central Station, the Lombardia Beer Fest offers free entry, whereas the IBF (Italia Beer Festival) is held in the 

Excitement abounds at the prospect of another Borefts Bier Festival

Kaeru Beer is once again excited by the prospect of yet another year of fun, enjoyable conversation, wonderful beers, excellent people and memories to cherish. Brouwerij de Molen’s Borefts Bier Festival is a benchmark against which other international beer festivals can always be compared, since 

The Brewers Association brings its Export Development Program (EDP) to Europe

It was great to see the Brewers Association bringing its Export Development Program (EDP) to Europe again. Astute beer lovers in Europe appreciate the quality and diversity within the US craft beer industry, yet we still hear comments from so-called beer-lovers that US craft beer 

Fuelled by craft beer and ramen

Alternative pop and indie punk is fuelled by ramen, we’re told.  Yet any ramen shop worth its noodles carries a decent enough supply of craft beer to provide a wonderful counterbalance to the soy- or miso-flavoured fast-food beloved of the late-night beer-fuelled revellers.  Ramen plays 

Marshmallow and edible-glitter beer?

  Mmm?!  Interesting!  A beer brewed with marshmallow and edible-glitter?  Pinch me, somebody, please — it’s not April Fools’ Day is it? Peeps is not something I am familiar with, but, apparently, it’s a US brand of cute animal-shaped marshmallow candy, which The Collective Brewing 

Getting to know: HappyFace Beers

  The flags are resolute in making a declaration.  Badass Brewing!  Badass the brewing may be, and the beers may be fuelled by megawatts of power, but there’s little attitude suggestive of a badass in all-round nice-guy, Rob Zwaan, brewer at HappyFace Beers.  Standing literally 

Getting to know: Neobosski

  Wicked!  Swearing!  Smokin’!  Fireball!  Bomb!  All terrifying words to describe terrific beers brewed by the terribly congenial Jeroen van Beek and Erik de Bos from Utrecht’s Neobosski Brewing Company, close friends whose relationship straddles that fine line between genius and mad (beer) scientist.  Being 

An Irish tale of a wrongful accusation

Growing up on the wrong side of the tracks I heard many rumours of people with low-incomes “fiddling” the utility services — meaning they stole gas and electricity by swapping around the input and output of the meter.  The more energy they used, the cheaper 

What is the definition of a Craft Beer Brewer?

  “Craft”.  It’s an interesting word that we regularly use as beer-lovers, but it’s an unregulated word.  Much like “Artisanal”.  I could produce a beer in my garden shed and call it an Artisanal Craft Beer — nobody would argue with that description.   A huge 

The Independent Craft Brewer Seal

  Any discerning drinker of American Craft Beer may have recently noticed the appearance of The Independent Craft Brewer Seal logo, which may be used completely free by any Craft Beer brewer who meets the criteria specified by the Brewers Association. The popularity of Craft