Happy Zwanze Day!
Every year, Brasserie Cantillon in Brussels releases a special batch of beer, never to be rebrewed, called
Zwanze.
The word comes from the Flemish dialect spoken in Brussels and
describes the humor of the city's inhabitants, characterized by a
finely-balanced mix of self-deprecation and exaggeration. Brewer Jean
Van Roy enjoyed the idea of calling his experimental batches Zwanze
since the name suggests a light-hearted approach to the blends which he
feels have a similar jovial and slightly derisive spirit as do the
people of Brussels.
This year's Zwanze beer is Cuvée Florian, a
hoppy lambic aged on a small amount of cherries and brewed in honor of
Jean's son Florian. It will be release world-wide this
Saturday, 20
September.
Jean selects bars around the world to pour this draft-only release and
tapping takes place at 3 pm (
9 pm Brussels time), on
Saturday. Two bars have been selected in New York City:
Alewife in Long Island City, Queens (opening at 11 am) and
Spuyten Duyvil
in Williamsburg (opening at 12 pm). Both bars will be selling tickets
for a glass of Zwanze - first-come, first-served - but the event itself
is free and there will be other Cantillon drafts at both bars, including
Gueuze and Cuvée St-Gilloise, available on a pay-as-you go basis.
We
hope that you can join us in toasting Flo with a glass of Cuvée Florian
on Saturday. Below is a more detailed description of the beer from Jean Van Roy.
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Dear Zwanze enthusiasts,
Some of you have already had
the opportunity to taste Iris Grand Cru aged 3 years in a 400-litre cask. This
product was sold without having been blended with a younger beer and so there
was no possibility of secondary fermentation. As a result, Iris Grand Cru is a
non-sparkling beer and it is meant to be drunk like cereal wine. Without cold
hopping, its fragrances tend more towards the characteristic acidity of a
spontaneous fermentation product associated with a slight caramel taste.
In other news, my eldest son,
Florian, turned 18 on 3 May. To duly celebrate his transition to adulthood, and
as the worthy son of a lambic brewer, Flo received a rather original birthday
gift: an entire cask filled with “Cuvée Florian”.
Admittedly, finding the name
was easy, but it was another matter to come up with the actual beer we were
going to produce on this occasion. When I first tasted the Iris Grand Cru, I
immediately thought that adding a touch of fruitiness to the caramel accent
could be very complementary. And since my son’s favourite beer is kriek, I
based myself on a mix of these two products to create his
birthday present.
As my goal was not to create
some kind of kriek clone, I reduced the amount of fruit by 40% in this blend
with the Iris Grand Cru. After all, the core idea was to contribute fruitiness
and mellowness to the base beer, not recreate a beer that tasted like sour
cherries. Although cold-hopping with the same quantities used for “traditional”
Iris would probably have masked the blend’s very subtle fragrances, I still
wanted to add a touch of bitterness to this birthday present and decided to opt
for a small dose of superb and very delicate Bramling Cross hops. The linger on
the palate is very complex while the fruity fragrances of the hops play a
subtle role without throwing off balance the beer's range of flavours and
bouquet.
For this Zwanze 2014 I had
originally planned on using the spontaneous fermentation stout brewed at the
beginning of 2013, but despite the fact that this beer is already very good I
have the feeling that another year of maturing in a cask will give it more
delicateness and character. In light of this we needed another beer to replace
our “wild” stout so as to be able to organise our Zwanze Day, and as you will
undoubtedly have understood by now, the success of “Cuvée Florian” meant that
it did not take very long for us to make a decision.
I did ask the kid if he was OK
with me making a new version of his birthday present, and since this was not a
problem for him, it was only logical to call this Zwanze 2014 “Cuvée Florian”!
Happy birthday, son!
Jean Van Roy
Lambic Brewer and Blender
