Beer the Belgian way
When it comes to innovation in the beer market and attitudes to serving and drinking it, the British are light years behind their European neighbour Belgium. Adrian Tierney-Jones reports from Wallonia
A recent edition of the Morning Advertiser carried a news story about the launch of a new RTD product â " Slate 20, a mix of bourbon, lime and ginger. 'So what,?' you might think, another day, another RTD. However, what made it stand out was that it is deliberately targeted at men by being packaged in a beer bottle. Chaps who don't like the idea of holding a girly-looking Bacardi Breezer in their hands can now rest easy â " the new drink looks like they've got a bottle of Bud in their manly paws. It's not great news for those who love beer and brewing. As the industry continues to try to talk up the image of beer and attract new customers, along comes another siren call to lure people away from our national drink.
How should the industry respond? Some brewers are already producing bourbon and beer mixes, while others are filling their mash tuns with all sorts of concoctions such as ginseng and lemongrass. However, a look across the Channel might be instructive. In Belgium, the land of a myriad beer styles, consumption of beer is on the slide, as Belgians have also fallen for the RTD market. Over here, the response of many beer-lovers would be to look down their noses at those who enjoy such things. In Belgium, they do things differently and the responses of traditional brewers to forging new markets for their beers might be of interest.
New boy on the block: Pink Killer
Take the Silly Brewery, which despite its name does have a serious side. Based in Silly - a bustling village in south Belgium (or Wallonia) not far from Mons - this is a longstanding small family brewery, and owner of more than 70 bars and cafes in the area, including one right next to the brewery. Its bestseller is Double Enghien, a 7.5% abv blonde triple, but it is also known in beer circles for the excellent Saison and Scotch (the latter a rich and dark style of beer). However, Double Enghien is closely followed in the sales league by a beer Silly deliberately produced to counter the threat of RTDs. Visit the brewery and it's hard to escape the name of this new boy on the brewing block, such is the plethora of promotional material on hand: Pink Killer.
It's a beer Jim, but not as we know it. Pink Killer is the brewery's wheat beer with added grapefruit juice. The initial thoughts of beer purists will be negative, but on a hot summer's day it can be incredibly refreshing and fruity, without being overly sweet or cloying. It's not been to everyone's taste but it can be seen as one way of getting people who normally wouldn't have anything to do with beer to try it. 'For little breweries to survive they have to make good beer and lead and innovate,' says the brewery's passionate general manager, Didier Van der Haegen. 'If you do what others have done before you, then forget it.'
Silly is not alone in its approach to the RTD challenge. Other Wallonian breweries following a similar route include Du Bocq, with an apple beer that was previously only available to staff, and Lefabvre, which also produces an apple beer, Newton, as well as Barbar, which has honey in the mix. 'We are obliged to have some imagination to put new tastes on the market,' says the brewery's Philippe Lefabvre, 'and beers such as Newton have been our response to alcopops.'
There are other lessons to be learnt from Belgium. For a start, it is a very civilised place to drink beer. Visit the Excelsior bar in the centre of Mons on most nights and you will spy lads, who would normally be getting lashed up on lager in England, supping Trappist ales from grand chalice-like glasses. They are good-humoured and swap raucous comments with mates, but there is no sense of menace. Even though the beers these lads are drinking are one and a half times stronger than premium lagers, there is no feeling that something is about to kick off. Over in Britain, mention strong ales and the scare stories start.
Elsewhere in the bar, young, middle-aged and older women resist stereotyping as they settle down with wasp-waisted flutes of kriek or framboise. A waiter prowls the table with a hard-backed, four-page menu of the 50-plus beers available to drink. Alongside the ubiquitous Stella, there are Saisons, wheat beers, Trappist ales, fruit beers and exotic specialities brewed in small farmhouses in the middle of nowhere.
Someone asks the waiter about a beer from Achel, the latest addition to the Trappist beer family and receives a chapter and verse history of brewing in monasteries. A popular choice is the Triple Blonde from the Val de Sambre brewery. It is strong, 8% abv, but comes in a beautiful earthenware goblet with the name of the brewery on the side. The beer waiter recommends it with a plate of local pate and bread.
There's still a lot to be learned
The likes of the Beer Academy and the BBPA's Beautiful Beer campaign are rightly trying to talk up British beer and train licensees and their staff to dispense it with a little more theatre. Beer styles, the right glass for the right beer, and beer and food matching are on the curriculum. Meanwhile, at the point of dispense, Cask Marque looks after the temperature and quality of cask ales while various brewers have their own quality schemes. Yet after a couple of days spent in Belgium, one can't help feeling that there is still a lot to be learnt by both brewers and retailers in Britain.
The bars of Wallonia see strong beer being served late into the night, but please note, Daily Mail writers: there is no trouble. Could it be that the beautiful glassware encourages people to drink responsibly, by making them feel a bit special? Furthermore, even though beer intake is on the downward slope, various brewers are looking at ingenious ways of keeping their customers and ensnaring new ones. This results in the rise of speciality beers being drunk.
Finally, staff are trained to encourage food and beer matching and also talk about the beers they serve. It's happening here in a small way, but Belgium is light years away in such respects. We might be hard-pressed to name a famous Belgian, but if beer-loving licensees want to improve their sales of beer then the least they can do is get on the Eurostar and grab a goblet.
The Belgian approach
l Strong is not necessarily bad. The fuller flavour makes a talking point of the beer. Some breweries do 36-pint polypins and strong beers look attractive in goblets that are just made for sipping.
l Speciality beers encourage those who traditionally don't drink beer to try it.
l Licensees here can follow the example set by their Belgian counterparts by training staff about beer and food matching.
