Everards unveils Belgian style beer

Leicestershire brewery Everards has teamed up with Belgian brewer Val Dieu to produce a cask conditioned Abbaye style beer-Val Dieu Abbaye Blonde.

Almost 100,000 pints of the beer will go on sale in hundreds of JD Wetherspoon pubs as part of the pub chains' 'World's Largest International Real Ale Festival'.

Abbaye Blonde - 5.5 per cent ABV - is described as a "pale lager type beer" with a "delicate bitterness" that is "smooth on the palate".

Everards and its head brewer Graham Giblett has had a delegation from the Belgian company to its Leicestershire base helping it perfect the recipe.

He reassured them their beer was "in the safest possible hands".

Giblett said: "We love having the opportunity to brew international beer and it was a pleasure to welcome everyone from Val Dieu to work together on the brewing of their beer.

The Belgian group included the brewery's owner Benoit Humblet, head brewer Virginie Harze and director of quality and business development Willem Van Herreweghen.

Herreweghen said: "We learned a lot about the English way of brewing, cask conditioning and beer dispensing. We saw some very well kept beer cellars and it was inspiring to see the passion everybody involved in the process had for brewing real ale."

This is the third year running that Everards has been asked to host an international beer at the festival. Its new seasonal ale, Flourish, will also be available as part of the festival.

For the festival Wetherspoons has selected 50 guest ales such as Abbaye Blonde, from countries including the UK, Finland, Australia, America and Holland.