The festival itself was certainly a good one. If the sheer amount of beers to be tried (in the meaning of : new to me) was not that large (15 IIRC, one proving not available), this lend the opportunity to retry some others, certainly if they hadn't been tried for the longest time, and/or might have changed in the mean time.

I'd be hard pressed to name real peaks. There were several good tries - I'm thinking of the Alvinne Extra Restyled, the Millevertus Mère Supérieure, 't Hofbrouwerijke Blondelle, etc. If one beer really woke me up, it was certainly the unexpectedly rewarding Slaapmutske Dry-hopped Lager. A maybe unassuming try, in a category often looked upon, but with such a fine result, that again is proven that:

1. a breweryhirer ought never to get condemned, just because he lets his beer brewed elsewhere: quality is not a question of origin (at least, not necessarily so)
2. if the commissioner has the right idea's, De Proefbrouwerij is capable of the best.

Yet I retain especially one very positive thing. There were less new beers to try (for my), but the general, overall quality of the new ones was a step above that of former years. And that is very, very important. Because it gets depressing, going to the festival, looking forward to try twenty-thirty brand new beers, and then being confronted over and over again, with the fact that two thirds of these are either so dull, either so bad, that one ends up wondering whether it was worth the trouble of coming.

As a final remark, let me repeat that I'm absolutely convinced the hall has reached its ends for convenience. Any more growth of visitors, any try to up the number of brewers, and the festival will fall victim to its own success. Looking around for a new venture has become, IMO, a must.

In the margin of the festival, I tried several other beers, at breweries, pubs and on trips, or at home, and amongst them were more hits. The ones that spring to mind first are the two "new" Struise beers, as well as one from Thiriez in France. Pannepot Grande Reserva O.A. was maybe not thé fulfilment but it might be that I expected too much, expecting it to be a kind of culmination of a grand series. OTOH, the Black Albert is easily, hands down, the best stout ever produced in this country. The Thiriez one is called Vieille Brune (Oud Bruin, Old Brown) and it is basically La Malonne, aged in oak for some months. Not very strong, but really delectable. Oh, and I had a superb kriekenlambic at Cantillon. Well-known, but better than ever.

I realised some time ago that, if this blog is referring to my cellar, that cellar has not been spoken of much. Well, the trip to Northern France in particular, took care of a serious boost to its contents. Then there were the inevitable swaps at the festival, and all that has kept me pretty happy since! If anybody amongst you follows my doings on Ratebeer, he can bear witness!

So it is with sorrow that I have to conclude on a very sad note, concerning the Joris' cellar. Oh not, the fact that all that new reserve has been depleted quite heavily already. No, 't is the execrable Belgian weather of the last few weeks. Weeks of rain, drizzle and downpour has resulted in a flooding of said cellar. There are 5 G*DD$$N*D cms of ice-cold water sloshing around in the depths now, rotting crates and corks - I'd ought to start bailing, but what's the point? Another deluge is announced for the coming weekend, and the fundamental flaw in my subterranean building is that it is too low under the surface, so…

Joris, 25th March 2008

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