Tasting Craft Beer
@tastingcraftbeer.bsky.social
Marcel Haas: Certified enjoyer of beer (Diplom Biersommelier) in the Netherlands. Adventures in the land of beer tasting, teaching and geeking! Untappd: @harcel #craftbeer #beer #brewery #brewing
I have now finished all 5 Beer Quality courses by Charlie Bamforth (UC Davis) and with that, the Beer Quality Specialization. Lots of interesting stuff. Not always easy!
Three more days, until "O'Zapft is!". Time to get in the mood with a Festbier. Obviously, I need to start with Giesinger. If there's one brewery who fully deserves to serve on the Wiesn, it's them. And they fight for it. Maybe next year!
This Quad is exactly two years beyond its Best Before Date. It was delicious and the oxidized flavors worked well. Bitterness is largely gone, but the sweetness is also not enormous, so that works. Look at that head! I guess this is what a foam stabilizer does for you?
For Dutchies: een petitie om de verandering in de accijns regeling voor bier ter sprake te brengen. Met name het kleinbrouwerstarief schrappen zou voor kleine brouwers én de variatie in het bierlandschap zeer nadelig zijn! bieriszoveelmeer.petities.nl
Meet the new German national champion of beer sommeliers, Iris Eickert!
Project Maisel, in which final-year apprentice brewers at Maisel make their own creation, resulted in a "European Style IPA" this year: Europia. Only European hop varieties (6 of them). It's lovely. A unique IPA, "greener", more herbal, with mint and still some citrus, and nicely full bodied!
On a summer like we've had, the last thing you'd want is warm beer. On which note, new blog post: thebeernut.blogspot.com/2026/08/heat...
The Beer Quality course by the Pope of Foam, Charlie Bamforth, is pretty insightful. The exam questions are very hard if you don't actually read the "optional" reading material (read: expensive books), as they bring up stuff that isn't discussed in the video lectures. Still: I passed the Foam exam!
This beer is from "Brouwerij Leiden", suggesting a small local brand. They specify the address, in Maarssen, which is half a country away from Leiden. I immediately thought they probably brew for many different cities under many different names.
During our Abbey stay, we obviously tasted Orval's product (both beer and cheese). I'll comment on Orval Vert later, this will just be about their one Iconic Beer. It is famous for its bottle and glass, its Brett character, its very persistent head and its strong evolution with age. A thread!
This is a Stein. Or rather a Steinkrug. It's made of Stein. A Stein(ie) isn't made of glass.
Zago seems the Italian version of the Dutch Stadshaven, using fruit in every brew. There's also a recognizable flavor that I always associated with weird fermentation or even a persistent hygiëne issue in the Stadshaven beer, but now I think it's a result of the fruit (and thus still fermentation?)!
About 100m away from my campsite, and on day 5 I finally get to visit Lyon Birreria and Birrificio, aka San Leone, aka Seiterre.
I haven't been very active here. Next week, my holiday will start, so perhaps I get the chance to dive a bit into northern Italy's craft beer. It's a family holiday, though, so don't expect too much.
The Leiden brewery Pronck now has its own tasting room. I guess that makes them a brewpub? Pronck Brouwerijcafé. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to show, but I'm sure they will appear online soon enough. The atmosphere is really great!
Grolsch acquires Gulpener! The brand of the green swing-top bottles buys the greenest large scale brewery in the Netherlands. I sure hope Gulpener can keep doing what they were doing... Press release in Dutch (media outlets to follow, I guess..): mcusercontent.com/00c47dfc3d40...
mcusercontent.com
Thirsty for knowledge! Excited to receive my copy of the newest book by star author Randy Mosher: Your Tasting Brain!
Is this really what we want to promote at a beer (tasting!) festival?
This coming Wednesday. Please celebrate medals! Please ignore the overall prize that means nothing!
Tasting Craft Beer@tastingcraftbeer.bsky.social · 5mo agoI'd celebrate the DBC, with much more enthusiasm, if they'd let go of this meaningless, media-obsessed, non-sense prize. Much of their credibility goes down the drain with this indefensibly uncalibrated overall crown.
Soon, results of the Dutch Beer Challenge will come out. The competition has great value and very professional jurors. Medals mean something, as recognized by EBCU listing. Alongside, the "Mitra Award" for "best beer of the Netherlands" will get most media attention. This means nothing. At all.
TIL that if there's no batch indication on an Orval glass (and it's a full size glass) that is from before 2012. This bottle was a lot younger. At about 10 months, close to optimal age for me.
Der Tag des deutschen Bieres. Happy birthday, Reinheitsgebot!
Some great informative listening. Learn from iconic brewers about the Italian Pilsner! A great episode by @beervana.bsky.social
All About Beer@allaboutbeer.bsky.social · 5mo ago🎙️ Just published a new episode of All About Beer: One Iconic Beer: Tipopils. Have a listen:
Fun tasting today with a German theme. Food, Spätzle und Bratwurst, was equally great.
We had a number of Patreon subscribers overnight which takes us up to 621 total paid Patreon supporters. Amazing! Our goal is to reach 1000 supporters by the end of 2026. Help us get there! www.patreon.com/pelliclemag?...
Get more from Pellicle on Patreon
Creating an award-winning drinks magazine and podcast
patreon.com
When you're at a local farmer's market and a micro brewery is selling, you obviously buy the full available lineup.
