Do you know who's behind your favourite craft beer? Do you know the genius, the brewmaster? Discover the brains behind the beers in our brand new series, "Brewer of the Month".
Brewer of the Month
Celebrating Beerwulf Brewers
Episode 12: Texels Brewery
Texels beers are true island beers! Not only are they brewed on Texel, arguably the most famous island in the Netherlands, but also with wheat and barley from the island itself.
The brewing process is still very traditional, using copper kettles and a lot of manual work. In fact, this year celebrates Texel's 20th anniversary of using such processes! Watch the behind the scenes video and see for yourself what brewery manager Janneke has to say.
Episode 11: Wild Beer Co
Wild Beer Co pride themselves on their pursuit of flavour. By their own admission Wild Beer Co is inspired by ingredients, driven by authenticity, aged in barrels. The brewing team operates a modern brewery and a barrel library with over 600 oak barrels. This doesn’t mean all beers are barrel-aged, the desired flavours are always the most important.
Episode 10: Stone Brewing
Hoppy, intense, arrogant, unique - that’s Stone. The brewery has come a long way since opening in 1996, but the mission hasn’t changed: Stone’s goal is still to brew outstanding, unique beer, while maintaining an unwavering commitment to sustainability, business ethics, and the art of brewing.
Episode 9: La Trappe
Abbey de Koningshoeven has been brewing the world-famous La Trappe beer since 1884. As an authentic Trappist, the brewing process is supervised by a monk and part of the profit goes to charities. La Trappe is also known as the inventor of the Quadrupel beer style.
During our tour through the brewery Brother Isaac and brewer Joost tell us all about the special abbey and their beers.
Episode 8: Brasserie du Mont-Blanc
Deep in the French Alps lies a brewery called Brasserie du Mont-Blanc. This special brewery gets all its ingredients from the environment. And so, the water that is used for brewing beer, comes from a glacier at a height of 2000m from the Mont Blanc mountain. Brewmaster Sylvain Chiron tells you all about it in our eighth episode of Brewery of the Month.
Episode 7: Affligem
Few breweries today can boast a history as rich or colourful as Affligem. A group of Belgian knights first founded the Affligem monastery in 1074, before building an abbey in the Belgian municipality northwest of Brussels. Beer quickly became an important source of income for the abbey, sparking the brewing of the Affligem beer we now know and love.
This rich brewing tradition has carried Affligem to the present day, with much of the original flavour being preserved: "We still brew according to the authentic recipe, but with very modern methods," Master Brewer Wouter tells us. Come taste the tradition for yourself.
Episode 6: Brussels Beer Project
"Welcome to Brussels, the center of the Belgian beer tradition! A fine tradition, but one that we want to shake up a bit..." These are the words of Sébastien Morvan, the man who founded Brussels Beer Project in 2013 along with Olivier De Brauwere.
"We stand for innovation, new ideas and collaboration. Beer brings people together and we want to collaborate as much as possible." The brewers from Brussels Beer Project brew a new beer every 10 days because they believe that you should be able to taste a different beer every time you visit their taproom in Brussels, Paris and Tokyo. At Brussels Beer Project no beer is the same, because they experiment with flowers, herbs, chili peppers and even discarded bread. Thanks to their Babylone beer, for example, 1000 kg of bread is recycled every month.
Episode 5: Jopen
Brouwerij Jopenkerk illustrates how beer can give a whole new look to a town. Upon its founding, the Jopen in Haarlem was commissioned to provide the city Haarlem with new brilliance through its own beer, to be brewed in the context of the 750th anniversary of Haarlem.
Two centuries-old recipes for beer were found in the city archives. Koyt provided a recipe from 1407. The other recipe, from 1501, was for Hoppenbier. With the last beer the start of Jopen was inaugurated in 1994!
In 2010, Jopen rescues the old Jacob Church in Haarlem from demolition and establishes the church as a brewery, restaurant and tasting room. In 2013, that location is declared the most beautiful bar in the Netherlands. With a large brewery in the Haarlem Waarderpolder and a second Jopenkerk in Hoofddorp, Jopen is now one of the best-known specialty beer brewers in the Netherlands.
Episode 4: Het Uiltje
Brewery Het Uiltje from Haarlem has one clear mission: “to brew f*cking good beer!” Het Uiltje is the brainchild of Robbert Uyleman, a beer lover in heart and soul. Robbert started brewing in 2012, and last year his brewery joined some of the best brewers in the world in the respected RateBeer top 100 list.
What’s the secret behind Het Uiltje? It lives by no rules - everything’s possible. The brewery goes to extremes to create interesting, wacky and tasty beers, with equally insane artwork to match. That’s why, this month, we’d like to introduce you to this rock ‘n’ roll brewer of the highest order.
Episode 3: First Chop
From Manchester warehouse raves to a devastating fire that burned the brewery to the ground, the story of First Chop isn’t one for the faint-hearted. Founder Richard Garner started brewing in 2012 as a passion project, with the aim of combining his love for creating recipes and drinking good craft beer.
Today, Richard and his team brew up to 80,000 litres of award-winning beer a month from their new location in Salford. First Chop are on a mission to educate people that gluten-free beer means one thing: great beer that can be enjoyed by everyone.
Episode 2: And Union
And Union has a clear motto: "Analogue beer for a digital world." In cooperation with a group of Bavarian master brewers, this team of a father, son and an old business partner has been selling beer for more than 10 years. Classic beer styles, brewed according to the German purity law - the "Reinheitsgebot" - interpreted in a modern way and promoted through fresh new channels such as Instagram.
Co-founder Rui Estevez is a born Portuguese and passionate surfer. He is our second brewer of the month. We visited him in Erding, in the Bavarian countryside, to learn more about what brought him to Germany and where his passion for beer comes from!
Episode 1: Kompaan
Kompaan is an innovative brewer with beers that are hugely popular among beer geeks everywhere. Their Russian Imperial Stout, Bloedbroeder, was named Best Beer in the Netherlands. An that's not all. Vrijbuiter - an asthonishing Porter - won silver.
But who is the master behind these medals? Allow us to introduce the first episode of Brewer of the Month. Come with us as we unveil the secrets behind one of the best breweries in the Netherlands...