Fermenthings
Pierre Timmermansstraat 28A, 1090 Jette - Brussel
I am really trying to do my best to
follow Poland related events in Belgium (and I don’t mean the debates in the EU
parliament), especially if they have anything to do with beer and food. Last
time La Louviere (https://beerlander.blogspot.com/2017/11/soiree-degustation-bieres-polonaises.html), this time Brussels.
When I have seen that the Fermenthings
is organizing Polish beer and food evening I have sked just 2 questions:
- 1. What
beers do you have (and I hope that they are different than La Louviere)?
- 2. Do
you have enough food this time?
Answer to the first one was not
satisfactory – they have originally prepared same beers as David (I think that
he was providing them).
Answer to the second one was scary –
we have enough food but we don’t have bigos. No bigos, no Polish evening for
me.
But, honestly, I wanted a Polish
evening to work and be successful thus I have proposed two things – improve your
beer stocks using my friends from Browarium – Sklepy Piwne (www.ebrowarium.pl). On top – we going to
provide you with bigos. I was very happy to hear that Fermenthings contacted
Browarium and got three new beers for the evening. And my wife has agreed to prepare
a bigos.
I will spare you an epic story of bigos preparation – just to say that we have got the real thing, cooked for 3
days, full of meat and mushrooms. Nice and juicy. I believe that this was the
first time we have prepared bigos in Belgium, therefore getting all the
ingredients seemed very challenging in the beginning, but nowadays Polish shops
are everywhere and we have managed.
And The Bigos (yes, I am going to call
it The Bigos with a capital “B”) found broad acceptation by local community.
We were also positively surprised to
find that the evening has started with a nice presentation made by Cedric, who
have visited Poland before and have explored the world of the Polish craft
beer. In fact, I was more than pleased to hear that the Belgian beer lover can
be impressed by Polish beer scene. Thanks, Ced, you made my day.
I wouldn’t be me if I wouldn’t comment
few things in the presentation. First, I would argue with the lack of Beer
tradition in Poland. In fact, we have a big one (that probably would be on the
level on Belgian if not the history). See my article here (https://beerlander.blogspot.com/2017/11/soiree-degustation-bieres-polonaises.html). I also disagree with the fact that
its better and more civilized to have a beer in the .33 bottles. 0.33 bottles
are useless for the everyday use. I would be happy to pay a bit more and have
0.5 bottles only.
What I fully agree is that it is good
that the size of the tasting glass for the beer festival should be smaller than
it usually is in Poland (comment on that here: https://beerlander.blogspot.com/2017/06/krakow-beerweek-03-part-1-krakow.html).
Finally, I have to say that
Fermenthings did a great job in bringing in some Polish sausages and pickled
mushrooms. And we loved smoked cottage cheese.
Below you can see the long line of the
beers for the evening – the two first from the right are the new ones. Very likely,
we were the first people in Belgium to try them. Thanks, Fermenthings for nice
evening
La
Débauche / Kingpin Mango Rising
Hoppy sour ale with Mango and Tabasco sounds
really brave to me. Polish/French collaboration brew is also interesting. Sadly,
this as a beer it was a bit disappointing. It is a nice beer, with hoppy fruity
notes, not to sour, refreshing. So far so good – but where is the tabasco? And
the tabasco has (mostly) left the building. After drinking more and more of
this beer you start to feel on the tongue that there is some spicy addition to
the beer, but it is very subtle and could come from any kind of peppery
addition. Overall – if you are looking for a nice sour beer – go for it. If you
are a fan of tabasco and spiced beers – you are wrong here.
Kingpin Muerto
This pumpkin
ale with sea buckthorn was clearly the weird beer of the evening. But
positively weird. Clear aroma of pumpkin and herbs, some bitter hops and
refreshing sea buckthorns in the taste. Must be the most original pumpkin ale I
have had this year, and amazingly probably the most enjoyable one.
Kingpin Mandarin
To be
frank, I like beers with the tea addition. If done correctly natural tea
bitterness can add very interesting notes to the hops. Most of the beers I have
tried had earl grey in it, but Kingpin dared to use green Sencha tea instead.
It worked – an outcome is strong, aromatic West coast IPA, with clear tropical
aromas, hops bitterness and medium tea in both aroma and flavor. Medium carbonation
and a soft texture. Very drinkable.
Birbant El JaguaRIS
Another RIS? I am very RISonable person and RISpect
anybody who can brew a good RIS. RISpect to Birbant for this JagulaRIS. Black,
low carbonated, strong coffee aroma, dark and roasted. Bitter coffee taste is nice
complemented with malt sweetness and hops. Very thick on the tongue, strong but
no alcohol. Really good RIS.
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