Peer To Beer – Brewing Consultancy
Your professional beer & brewing partner, from seed to sip.
Chocolate triggers the release of Endorphins which is known to develop euphoric feelings. It also contains Phenylethylamine, the Love Drug, lifting well-being and contentment.
It’s no surprise chocolate has always been present in romantic settings! It’s velvety, warming, comforting and playful at once! There are actually a lot of analogies between beer and chocolate from a process perspective! (Check a previous post for more on this!)
(or most of it…)
1, 2, miss a few…
Of course there’s no way I can put all breweries and all beers of Belgium on the same timeline so I tried to put the most important! Some breweries directly started with a beer they are famous for, other started way earlier so I had to play around with this a bit. Let me know which one I should really add and any date you believe is not correct! Enjoy!
When I was studying for the Advanced Cicerone exam I kept sketching beer history on a timeline. It’s a very neat way to visualize some key milestones! Now, I’m not an historian and all I know comes from books, blogs, websites and friends I met during all these years so if you see any error let me know I’ll be happy to adjust! Also if you think of other legacy info to add, be a contributor!
You can use the download button below to get a higher definition copy.
There’s a beer for every occasion!
So let’s focus a bit on how to best pair beer with fish!
White wine is in general the go to option to pair with fish. It’s acidic, dry, fruity, bright… somehow it plays the role of lemon! Of course we’re not talking about a Sauterne here but your everyday Sauvignon, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay….
Well you should approach beer pairing the same way. You’re looking for a beer that will brighten up your fish just like a lemon squeeze!
In most cases, stay away from bitterness (Just like you’d stay away from high tannic wines)!
Besides some very epic and unexpected pairings you can always do a great job bringing beers with some Lemony/Limey notes, low sweetness, low bitterness and moderate high acidity….
Let’s explore a few of them.
Here is a Beer and Food pairing menu I just did recently at home for 8 people. A diner in 6 parts. Tapas format, each time with a beer pairing.
What I love about this format is that we all progress at the same pace, we all drink the same beers and it’s very playful.
Find the menu below and some top tips for a successful session!
In this menu I have indicated the beers I have used but also the style so if you can’t find these beers you can easily chose an alternative.
Enjoy and let me know how it went below!
The top product trends under my radar
Have you ever realized that we always discuss trends in December/January, like “it’s all changing with the New Year” ?
The best moment to understand trends – if not everyday – is when you shape your strategy because the last thing you want is to make plans in a vacuum.
Don’t get this wrong, Trends are not about predicting the future. Trends are an expression of something that has been happening for some time. Of course you can use it to anticipate where this is all going.
Here are the 10 product focused trends I’ll be following closely. I’ll post regularly about this on insta @newdrinkshub
“Better for you“ is not even a trend anymore, it’s a given. It’s not premium it’s mainstream. It’s a right to play. True for Beer, RTD,…. And this year we’ll see it growing big in wine too.
Better stats, better ingredients, better for the community, better everything…
Sustainability and Hyper transparency are certainly some of the hottest opportunities. Calories could become a talking point that doesn’t only pop up as a product claim but as a datapoint driving consumers choice.
Of course non alc and low alc is part of this!
Dry Jan is here so … whether you are part of the 35% of American doing it or not, there’s going to be a lot of talks about it. And if you’re more into “Sober October” or “Tournee Minerale” in France and Belgium all I’m going to say is still valid.
Abstinence is nothing new. There’s been many historical times during which the consumption of alcohol was forbidden. Think about Prohibition in USA (1920-1933), in Canada (1918-1920), in Finland (1919-1932) or the very intense pressure from Temperance organizations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries (mostly in English speaking, protestant countries). I’m Belgian and as far as I remember, I have never known any prohibition.
Dry Jan is a different story though, in the sense it is a personal decision! A kind of lifestyle personal challenge whichever way you take it. In all disclosure I never do it. I just feel like my consumption is about right so…
Beer Masters is arriving in Belgium after a successful broadcasting in UK end of last year!
Wait… no, it’s not Brew Masters, the famous TV series from 2010 with Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head). Beer Masters is a brand new program. In short, it is to beer what Master Chef is to food: an entertaining TV show where homebrewers compete through rounds of challenges to deliver the best beer!
The teams (of 2) were selected in 5 countries. Italy, France, Netherland, UK and of course Belgium.
First, there was beer, then bread. At least that seems to be a fact from Anthropologists and Historians. Human stopped hunting and gathering to grow grains. Barley for that matter. And they actually didn’t figure out how to turn grains into a dough (and into bread) until much later. No, they brewed beer instead. Who would have tried something else?
Beer existed before bread, wine, cider, spirit and coffee.
"Beer is somehow the only drink produced from grains (if we exclude grain spirits which are then distilled from beer)."
Let’s picture the situation…
You’re in lockdown, you have reduced your essential shopping experience to the bare minimum. When you go to the beer store – which made it to the essential survival short list – you pick a couple large 12, 15 or 24 packs and you go. No more touching and reading every pack to find your experimentation of the week.
Worse than that. As you open the first can you realize the freshness is not what it used to be. Rotation has slowed down and as much as you have empathy… this is frustrating.
I’ve got your back. You want to add a bit of zing ? Some powerful citrus aroma’s ? Some fresh coriander notes ? Even better, you want to customize your beer and treat it like a mixologist ?
