Leading by example
Far from a haacht job
Robyn Gilmour
Saturday 19 October 2024
This article is from
Belgium
issue 110
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We tend to think of craft beer as a movement inspired by the US, but the influence of Belgian beer on the UK’s artisanal brewing scene cannot be overstated. It’s not uncommon, even in the smallest UK towns and cities, to find at least one Belgian bar or bottle shop that’s become a local institution over several decades. These venues have inspired generations of aficionados to become homebrewers, some of whom graduate to microbrewery owners, publicans, importers, and the cycle continues. So why does Belgian beer ignite such a passion in British drinkers? As UK Country Director of Brouwerij Haacht, Matthew Langley is better positioned than most to observe the similarities and differences between British and Belgian beer culture.
“You quickly realise, working for a Belgian brewery, that Belgian beer is almost shorthand for quality beer,” Matthew begins. “Belgium has a reverence for beer that isn’t broadly replicated in the UK, and which you can see most obviously in the serve. The Belgians will take care cleaning and chilling the glass before they pour the beer, make sure the tap never touches the beer, and treat the head as an integral part of the serve. They also most commonly pour a 250ml serve because if you have a 500ml serve or a pint, the beer is more likely to get warm. They’re all very common sense practices, and they speak to deep care about the quality of the beer and the experience of the serve.”
Here in the UK, our practice of using weights and measures is both culturally ingrained and antithetical to some important aspects of Belgian beer drinking culture. For one, British publicans are legally obliged to fill a glass to the line so consumers ‘get their money’s worth’, with the trade-off being that we miss out on the rich aroma trapped in a voluminous, foamy head. “Some breweries have tried to get around this by adapting the glassware to accommodate the head,” says Matthew, “but without the culture to back it up, the glass ends up getting overfilled, and then it’s the pub losing money.”
None of this is to say that Belgian beer is inherently better than all other beer, just that seeing Belgians treat quality, artisanal beer with care and respect, encouraged the rest of the world to follow suit. Haacht’s newest brand, Super 8 — which Matthew describes of comprising a range of international styles, brewed with “an idiosyncratic Belgian twist” — challenges our assumptions about Belgian beer, and asks why quality beer needs to be served a specific way, or in a certain place, to be respected.
For example, Super 8’s Belgian IPA is fermented at cold temperatures like a pilsner, and is clear, bright, and lightly hopped with Saaz and Mosaic to supplement drinkers’ expectations of a modern IPA, with the crisp, delicate, refreshing qualities of a pale Belgian beer. Similarly Super 8’s blanche, a style that goes by the name of wit, or witbier in other parts of Europe, is fermented using Haacht’s abbey yeast, which is used in the beer it makes for the nearby Tongerlo Abbey. Super 8’s Rouge enjoys a pilsner base, is hopped with German Herkules hops and blended with cranberry and cherry juice to evoke the Belgian kriek without inviting in its polarising sourness.
“First and foremost, Super 8 has given the brewers at Haacht free reign to have a bit of fun,” Matthew chuckles, but from a sales perspective, he says that Super 8’s hybrid makeup has allowed international drinkers to experience Belgian beer in a new way. It’s a range that’s got all the markers of a Belgian beer, but doesn’t necessarily have to be served or consumed a certain way. “I’m yet to introduce someone to Super 8 who didn’t like it,” says Matthew. In some ways, such a playful, modern move isn’t what one would expect from a 125-year-old, fifth-generation-run family brewery, but then again, Haacht has a track record of pushing boundaries.
Eugène De Ro, the great, great grandfather of Haacht’s current CEO, Boudewijn van der Kelen, began working at ‘Melkerij van Haecht’ in 1897, when it was still just a dairy. Soon after he started brewing on-site, his beer grew in popularity such that the business became known as Haecht Dairy and Brewery. Quite the combination. More importantly though, De Ro was the first person to brew a Czech-style pilsner in Belgium, a beer which would go on to be considered the first Belgian pilsner.
Matthew is keen to point out that having been first brewed in 1924, Haacht’s Belgian pilsner, Primus, predates InBev’s Stella Artois, which is also brewed in Leuven and was first produced in 1926. A hundred years later Primus is still brewed to the same recipe. “They've not changed it for any market, they've not changed it to cut costs,” says Matthew. “It's still just a great quality, crisp, dry pilsner.”
So, as a successful and established brewery with nothing to prove, why go to the trouble of creating a whole new brand? The question only occurs to me in the aftermath of my conversation with Matthew, though a comment he made about the wider Belgian beer market offers something in the way of an answer.
I had asked Matthew about the Belgian practice of creating brands, as opposed to marketing a beer as coming from the brewery that produced it. For example, we’re all familiar with La Chouffe and Delirium, but La Chouffe and Delirium are brands, not breweries. The label states these beers are made by Duvel Moortgat Brewery and Brouwerij Huyge, it’s not a secret, it’s just that the identity of the beer itself takes up more space than the identity of the brewery.
“The interesting thing about the Belgian beer scene is that because Belgium has always had a reverence for beer, they've never needed a craft beer scene to reset them,” says Matthew, referring to the craft movement as one which rebelled against cheap, flavourless, industrially produced beer. “In the UK, we've had craft beer for the last 15 years, and that's helped us reset and reappraise beer, but Belgium has never needed to do that. Craft beer isn't a standalone category in a Belgian supermarket, it’s just Belgian beer, it’s just quality, consistent beer. I think that’s allowed Belgian breweries to be quite playful, and liberal with their branding. If the beer is good, it will stick around, it doesn’t need to lean on the reputation of the brewery.”
Matthew isn’t the only person to say something to this effect, over the course of the many conversations I have for this issue. Others say this trend is associated with age, and the maturity of the industry. I can’t help but wonder if UK craft beer will veer in this direction, as it gets older, wiser, bigger and bolder.
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