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Beards and engagement at the Brussels Beer Project
ll breweries that want to survive in the competitive beer
Amarket are looking at ways to get themselves to stand
out from the crowd. Five young men in Brussels have hit on
something a little different. They ask their customers to
come up with ideas on what to brew but this isn’t the
amateur brewer’s approach, rather an avenue for the
creative mind.
The way the Brussels Beer Project works is simple. You
visit their website, www.mybeerproject.be, think of a name
for a beer and add a punchline or description that sums up
what the beer is about, maybe adding a piece of music to
illustrate the mood of the beer. You then choose the colours
of the label and you’ve done, all in two minutes! Your beer
is then open to people to vote on and the idea with the
most votes is then translated into a beer recipe by the
brewery team.
By using this engagement with customers, the brewery is
hoping to bring in a new crowd of younger drinkers and to
open them up to all the various flavours that a beer can
generate. They are aiming for around 20 new beers and
they are certainly being creative when they think of the
possible beer styles. One of the latest beers was Tonka
Bean Stout, a Brazilian style beer and their beer store
showed that there are very few styles beyond their
capability, with 22 different hops and 15 different malts!
30
The beer!
The five men behind the brewery are an interesting mix.
There are two brewers and the other three have a marketing
and business background including one from a market
research company. Their creativity comes through in other
ways besides the choice of beer production. They have
The brewery team
made full use of one of the brewers’ specialist yeast
knowledge. Readers may know that beer was originally
produced by soaking bread and then letting it ferment. The
Brussels Beer Project have a slightly different take on this.
They collect unsold bread from three supermarkets, dry it
and use it as the yeast in their Baby Lone Beer. In just three
months, they have got through six tonnes of bread! With
50 supermarkets in Brussels they have a feeling that they
won’t run out of yeast for a while even if the beer continues
its popularity.
As you might expect, the new brewery is sparkling and
pristine. It has a ten hectolitre brew length plant backed by
seven fermenters of varying sizes. They brew twice a week,
Five ales always being served sometimes more often so they have a lot of beer to sell.
Consequently, like many London brewers, they have set up
Adnam’s Sunday Pleisure 9th December
Principle, their own tasting room, open Thursday to Saturday. Their
From 2-9pm for our annual ‘Turning on the Christmas Lights’ target is to get 20,000 visitors through their doors the first
Switch-on
Sambrook’s is at 5pm. Mince pies, port Wandle,
crackers for all
year. Being only the second brewery in Brussels and seeing
This will also start our Christmas Ale Festival
how well Cantillon is doing with their visitors, this is no pipe
Timothy
Wednesday Taylor 12th December
Landlord
dream. Located close to the Quai du Hainaut (North West
CAMRA beer duty
campaign. Opening 10am with choice of Milds, Brussels), the brewery is easy to get to, so there is little
Bitters, Winter Ales and Christmas Ales
excuse not to check them out. Enjoy – even if, like me, you
a premium
don’t have a beard!
Monday 14th January
bitter
Christine Cryne
Two weeks of ales from Lancashire and Yorkshire
Curious Friday Brew 25th bottles: JanuaryAn IPA,
a We’ll be serving
Haggis, Neeps and Tatties all day
lager and a cider – one for £2.50, The Oxford English Dictionary defines
Every two
Wednesday for £4.50 and Thursday and is home four made for Thai £8.00
Curry night
real ale as “Cask-conditioned beer that
MIX AND MATCH!
is served traditionally, without
additional gas pressure”.
Plus a porter, stout or mild and
Open Monday-Friday from Midday-11pm