SINT CANARUS
re-assembled its in a new plant near the brewer’s home and has started brewing some excellent ales, albeit on the sweet side. They sell and sometimes brew on Sundays.
Huisbrouwerij Sint Canarus
Polderweg 2
9800 Gottem-Deinze
T 051 63 69 31
www.canarus.be
Piet Meirhaeghe was brewing at Liefmans’ Dentergem brewery when he first set up his hobby brewery at Gottem, near Deinze in East Flanders. The original kit was makeshift and he has always brewed his best seller, Sint Canarus Tripel at Proef (above). Production ceased for a time in 2004 while a larger brewhouse was installed. 2005 saw the arrival of 200-litre brew runs and 800-litre brews will be possible eventually. Essentially this is a boutique brewery, well set to produce commissioned beers, with good quality right from the word go. One to watch, especially on Sundays.
Annual output: < 250 hl.
Regular beers:
Sint Canarus Tripel (7.5%: ****)
Lighter in alcohol and darker in colour than most but clever and characterful.
Potteloereke (8%: ****)
An impressively big but deliciously soft brown ale.
Of course the big news is the forthcoming closure of Hoegaarden, which appears to be the most accomplished own goal of the season.
It took a while to sink in at Guide HQ but the real damage here was not the loss of the sacred home of dull, grey, perfumed flour-water that mattered. It was the loss of InBev’s only Belgian plant capable of making sediment beers.
So we have now have the dubious pleasure of greeting Leffe 9o, a burnt-sugar, ruddy amber strong ale, which will have to replace the relatively pleasant, bottle-conditioned Leffe Triple. Julius has already gone. Hoegaarden Grand Cru, Forbidden Fruit and Hoegaerdse DAS (or Ginder Ale with yeast if you prefer) will presumably have to follow.
Currently InBev are having to trunk the bottled "Jupiler Blanche" version of Hoegaarden back to the Hoegaarden brewery for bottling. Presumably they will have to produce a "new and improved" version shortly to cover up it conversion to a pasteurized beer. Maybe that is why it has become so shockingly thin.
Elsewhere the most interesting new beer on my latest trip was Girardin Faro in 37.5cl bottles. Forgive me if I say I do not know whether or not I like it - I am still making my mind up. But it does signal an interesting change inside this highly secretive old brewery.
Girardin were clearly stung by rumours that they had dumbed down their black label gueuze and were diluting the white label with other beers. If they were, this does not seem to be happening any more.
What this lighly respected brewery still has to decide though is whether they want to join Drie Fonteinen, de Cam, Cantillon and Hanssens in the vanguard of traditional lambic makers who seek to concentrate entirely on making products that are unfashionable in Belgium but are highly prized abroad.
Finally, the pedants among you will want to know that Scottish Courage (Alken-Maes) has officially renamed the De Keersmaeker lambic brewery at Kobbegem after its brands, Mort Subite, while the Brasserie Lautène is now Lautenne.
