Cantillon Zwanze Day is Upon Us!

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

Zwanze Day 2013

It's time for the annual Zwanze Day. For the past several years, the Cantillon Brewery releases a special batch of beer, Zwanze, and brewer Jean Van Roy selects bars around the world to receive a keg of the current year's release. This year, the beer is the Abbaye de Cureghem, a 7.2% "abbey" ale. It was brewed in March 2012 and was fermented for 4 weeks in stainless steel tanks with a cultured yeast strain before being blended with 10% lambic and put into barrels. After maturing for 6 months, the barrels were blended and the beer was put into casks to referment and condition until now. Since cultured yeast was used at the beginning, the brewery doesn't consider this beer to be spontaneously fermented. However, there are wild yeast characteristics coming from both the added lambic and the wild yeasts floating about the brewery.

You can learn more about this year's Zwanze release and the history of the mysterious Cureghem Abbey at the Cantillon website, http://cantillon.be

Tapping of the Zwanze keg happens simultaneously around the world at 9pm Brussels time, or 3pm in New York. This year, 2 locations were chosen to host the Zwanze Day festivities and both will be pouring kegs of Zwanze, Cantillon Gueuze, and a special version of Cantillon Iris with no dry-hopping, and various bottles of Cantillon.

The locations:
Alewife Queens, 5-14 51st Avenue, Long Island City
Spuyten Duyvil, 359 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn

These events are very popular so we recommend getting there early.  Both bars will be opening at 12pm for pre-Zwanze imbibing.

Belgian Beer Dinner (Vegetarian!)

When:  Monday, 3 December, 7 pm
Where:  Jimmy's No. 43, 43 E. 7th Street
What:  $45 plus tax and gratuity for 5 courses paired with 5 beers




Join Joel Shelton and myself at a vegetarian beer dinner at Jimmy's No. 43 featuring 5 of our Belgian beers. 

Tickets are available here.

The menu (subject to change):

• Wild mushroom and Jerusalem artichoke soup
• Toast with wild mushrooms and sheep's milk camembert
• Roasted beets and tamari on wild watercress salad
• Roasted squash and farro risotto
• Banana bread pudding with Ronnybrook whipped cream  

The beers:

• Drie Fonteinen Beersel Blond
• Cantillon Lou Pépé Framboise
• Blaugies Saison d'Epeautre
• De Ranke XX Bitter
• Achel Extra 

This dinner is the culmination of the 3rd annual Battle of the Belgians weekend at Jimmy's. All weekend long, they'll be pouring Belgian beers and there will be a special ticketed tasting session on Saturday, December 1 from 12-3pm. For more information, check out the Jimmy's No. 43 website:  http://jimmysno43.com/   

Zwanze Day 2012

When:  Saturday, 1 December, 12pm onwards. Zwanze tapping at 3pm
Where:  Spuyten Duyvil, 359 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn
What:  pay-as-you-go

Once a year, Brussel's Cantillon Brewery, makers of traditional lambic and gueuze, brew a special experimental batch of beer, never to be rebrewed (aside from this year's version). This year brewer Jean Van Roy has recreated 2008's inaugural brew, a rhubarb lambic brewed with organically grown rhubarb. Because of adverse winter weather conditions and the unpredictable nature of wild yeasts, this year's batch was not ready for the traditional September release. Find out more about this year's Zwanze here.

The word zwanze comes from the Flemish dialect spoken in Brussels and describes the typical humor of the city's inhabitants, characterized by a finely-balanced mix of self-deprecation and exaggeration. Jean Van Roy enjoyed the idea of calling his experimental blends Zwanze since the name suggest a light-hearted approach to the blends which he feels have a similar jovial and slightly derisive spirit as do the people of Brussels.

Spuyten Duyvil will open at noon and will be pouring 2 other Cantillon drafts:  St. Lamvinus (with French wine grapes) and Mamouche (with elderflower). They will also have a selection of other spontaneously fermented ales in bottles. Note that the Zwanze keg will not be tapped until 3pm to coincide with the Zwanze tapping in Brussels at 9pm WET but you'll want to get there early.  

VSK at Blind Tiger

We hope you still have room in your beer belly post-Thanksgiving because it's going to be a beery week!

This Wednesday, starting at 3pm, drop by Blind Tiger Ale House for the annual VSK (Very Special Keg) event. Each year, they hoard kegs and then pull them all out at once for the adult version of "kid-in-a-candy-shop" experience.

The full list is awfully impressive and can be found here but to save time and avoid anxiety-inducing decision-making, we're going straight for glasses of Cantillon Fou'foune (apricot lambic), Dieu du Ciel! Sieben Hugel (rauchbier only available at the Montreal brewpub), and the De Struise/Stillwater collaboration Outblack (Belgian strong dark ale combined with a hoppy black ale).

Upcoming weekend events:  Zwanze Day at Spuyten Duyvil, Belgium2Brooklyn at Mugs Ale House, and Battle of the Belgians at Jimmy's No. 43. Details to follow shortly.

Saturday: International Zwanze Day

When: Saturday, 17 September, 12 pm start time, 3 pm Zwanze keg tapping
Where:  Spuyten Duyvil, 359 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn
What: pay-as-you-go

For the past several years, Jean Van Roy, the brewer at Cantillon, the authentic lambic brewery in Brussels, has been experimenting with different blends, barrels, and fruits to see what kind of beer emerges through spontaneous fermention. In 2008, he decided to call these yearly releases "Zwanze".

This year, the 2011 version will only be available on draft at the Cantillon tasting room as well as select bars around the world chosen by Jean. You can find out more about the Zwanze beers and why Jean decided not to bottle any 2011 at the Cantillon website.

At Spuyten Duvyil, there will be a selection of sour/wild/lambic beers on draft and in bottles including the list below.

On draft:
- Cantillon Zwanze 2011 "Pinot d'Aunis"- lambic blended with Pineau d'Aunis grapes from France, cold-hopped with Bramling Cross
- Cantillon Kriek - cherry lambic
- Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus - raspberry lambic
- De la Senne Taras Boulba - hoppy blonde ale brewed by Yvan de Baets who also collaborated on the 2010 Zwanze

In bottles:
- Cantillon Zwanze 2010 - witbier

We're also excited to try the New York debut of Tilquin Gueuze, from a new lambic blender in Wallonia, imported by our friends over at 12% Imports.

Beer Dinner featuring Cantillon and Jolly Pumpkin

In June, Peter Hoffman's venerable restaurant Savoy closed (read Edible Manhattan's send-off here), to be reopened in the fall with a more casual bent. Chef Ryan Tate decided that he wanted do a dinner that pairs the seasonal dishes he is known for with intriguing beers that could give any fine wine a run for its money.

Join us on Wednesday at Jimmy's No. 43 for a dinner featuring beers from Michigan's Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, brewers of oak-aged beers, and Belgium's traditional Cantillon Brewery, still making authentic lambic the traditional way, fermented with wild yeasts. There will be an informal discussion on each of the beers and the unique brewing process.

When:  Wednesday, 17 August, 7pm
Where: Jimmy's No. 43, 43 E. 7th Street
What:  $55 for 4 courses paired with 6 beers; purchase tickets at Brown Paper Tickets.

As a preview to the dinner, this Tuesday's $10 Tasting at Jimmy's will feature sour beers, including selections from Jolly Pumpkin and one Cantillon. The Tuesday Tastings start at 7:30 pm.

PS. It's Jimmy's birthday on Wednesday, too!