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[Tomas Danko]

So, there's this thing in Belgium called the Zythos Beer Festival.

It happens the first weekend in March, every year.

Imagine about 60 or so micro breweries, and 280 or so beers to sample. The cool thing here, is that the brewmasters themselves tend to stand there pouring you their beer.

Saturday and Sunday this upcoming weekend, in Sint-Niklaas (Belgium). Its about a 20 minute train ride from, say, Antwerp.

I'll be there, as always.

http://www.zbf.be

The day before ZBF, there's a pre-Zythos party in Kortrijk where five micro brewers (some of the very best in the world, period) toy around.

My itinerary:

Thursday Brugge, Friday Kortrijk/Antwerp, Saturday Antwerp/Sint-Niklaas, Sunday Antwerp/Sint-Niklaas, Monday Brussels.

Well, that's pretty much it. Less than nine hours until my flight.

Cheers,

Danko

Ps. One easy way to spot me, is to find a tall guy with 6581 written all over his hoodie.

[Nobtwiddler]

Thomas...
              Did I mention in a previous post I hate you!

[Tomas Danko]

Nobtwiddler wrote on Sat, 06 March 2010 22:27

Thomas...               Did I mention in a previous post I hate you!

Yes, I seem to recall some PM hate-mail. hehe

All in all it was ridiculously over-the-top and fantastic. Five days, five cities, two beer festivals and heaps of micro brewmasters to meet.

I managed to sample over one hundred beers.

One funny story was the Nuclear Tactical Penguin from BrewDog. It is supposed to be the world's strongest beer at 32% ABV. I came to the festival only to find out that some german had made a 39.44% beer. So BrewDog had just now made a 41.% beer and called it I Sink the Bismarck.

It was actually tasty! But my 7 cl or so lasted me like 40 minutes... No session beer, really. hehe

I also tried the penguin later on. It was the most expensive beer there. I pushed a bunch of tokens onto the table and said "All in on the penguin". It wasn't as good, actually. Way too much.


Hence, my Facebook-status over the weekend was "Fuck the penguin. I sink the Bismarck."

[KB_S1]

Sounds fun Tomas.

I had a weekend of FAR too much Deuchar's IPA.
I am very glad that there was no Punk IPA as the extra 2% would probably have killed me.

I will need to add the Zythos to my list of "wanna' do that".

It really is good when you get to meet the producer of a product you enjoy.
I met the man behind the Black Isle Brewery when attending a music festival.
Although they only had the lager available it was enjoyable and it was nice to get some insight into the brewery and the team involved.

So, what was your favourite?

[Tomas Danko]

KB_S1 wrote on Tue, 09 March 2010 16:06

Sounds fun Tomas. I had a weekend of FAR too much Deuchar's IPA. I am very glad that there was no Punk IPA as the extra 2% would probably have killed me. I will need to add the Zythos to my list of "wanna' do that". It really is good when you get to meet the producer of a product you enjoy. I met the man behind the Black Isle Brewery when attending a music festival. Although they only had the lager available it was enjoyable and it was nice to get some insight into the brewery and the team involved. So, what was your favourite?

Getting to hang and chat with 50+ brewers over their own beer is the reason for me to go to ZBF every year.


I had way too many awesome beers to pick a favourite...

Dolle Oerbier Reserva 2006 on 75cl and 2009 on 33cl.(Managed to get a couple of both home on the plane too)
Saint-Helene Jean-Chris Numero 2 75cl
Hofbrouwerijke Bosprotter four year old on 75cl
Cantillon Zwanze(rhubarb) lambic on tap
Cnudde on tap
Dolle AD2010 Experimental brew (Pinot Noir/champagne yeast, wild yeast, koriander and curacao) on tap
Alvinne Cuv

[Dan Kennedy]

I'm jealous as well.

I am a closet Belg-o-phile, Flemish or Walloon, love 'em both.

In my late 'teens, early beer years I spent six months traveling around, hitch-hiking all over, from Oostende to Antwerp, down to Bastogne and Charleroi, with extended stays near Ypres and Liege, plus the experience of Binche in full tilt.

Spent a few days in Brussels, but it, like London and Paris was just too big, I like the smaller cities and open spaces.

Someday soon I hope to be back with a couple of weeks to poke around again, I'll look you up Thomas, down some good ones!