Go To:
Current Issue
Back Issues
Dining
Selected Events
Feedback
Submissions
Link To Us
With Beer
Enjoying Beer in the Kitchen and at the Table
What's Hot in the World of Beer this Month
Your Comments, Criticisms and Contributions
Want to submit a review sample to World of Beer? Here's how.
Put World of Beer on your homepage.
Subscribe to World of Beer Update
Details
Read More About Stephen Beaumont
Visiting the World's Best Beer Fest - Oct 1999(This month marks the appearance of two of the world's biggest beer events: the Great American Beer Festival in Denver on October 7-9 and the 24 Hours of Beer in Antwerp on October 16 and 17. I'll be offering my thoughts on the GABF in KTT reports later on in the month, but as I am unable to make it to Belgium for the 24 Hours this year, I decided to reprint the following story as an appreciation and preview of the world's greatest beer festival. This report originally ran in the now-defunct Southern Draft brewspaper in 1997, and in an abridged version in the January 1998 edition of World of Beer.) Remember the old Crocodile Dundee movies? They starred Paul Hogan as the displaced Aussie who, when confronted by an armed mugger on the streets of New York City, would chuckle "You call that a knife?" and whip out his foot-and-a-half long bush machete. The mugger, displaying more sense than your average Hollywood movie street crook, would turn and run like hell. On a recent trip to Antwerp, Belgium, I felt a bit like that mugger. Only the reality that confronted me was not a knife but the 10th Annual 24 Hours of Beer Festival. And I didn't turn and run, I stayed and drank. Like so many other things that we North Americans have adopted, we tend to think that we pretty much invented the beer festival over here, or if we didn't actually invent it, we at least perfected it. As evidence of this, we cite such events as the 1,716 beer strong Great American Beer Festival or the tens of thousands of people who descend annually upon Portland for the Oregon Brewers Festival or the grand, fifteen year tradition behind the KQED Beer & Food Festival [now unfortunately defunct]. But they have been doing this beer fest thing across the pond for quite a while, too, and in many instances, they have been doing it better and for longer. Take, for example, the little-recognized but much appreciated (by those who attend) Pig's Ear Beer Festival in London, at sixteen [now eighteeen] years as old as the GABF. Or the Fira de la Cervesa de Barcelona, more a huge beer garden and tapas bar than a normal brew fest, and one that lasts seventeen days, to boot! Or the 20-year-old Bokbierfestival [now 22] in Amsterdam, its longevity among major beer fests exceeded only by the Great British Beer Festival. Or the aforementioned 24 Hours of Beer. The first thing to know about the 24 Hours is that they do not happen is strict succession, which is to say that the fest is not 24 hours of straight drinking. Instead, the duration of the event is divided up over two days, with it running from 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. on the first day and 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on the second day. As the fest occurs over a weekend, one assumes that the later start on Saturday is to enable people to recover from the previous night and the earlier finish on Sunday designed to get people to work on time to start the next week. By all reports, and some personal experience, the system works. Next you need to know that the literal translation of the name of the event is not 24 Hours of Beer, but rather, 24 Hours of Belgian Specialty Beer. That's "Specialty" as in unusual or spiced or fruit-flavoured, or most often it seems, strong. Out of the 146 beers listed in the program, the overwhelming majority boasts an alcohol by volume percentage of more than six, with about half of them coming it at 7% or better. If that doesn't intimidate you, well, it should. The third and perhaps most important factoid about the 24 Hours is self-evident: it is in Belgium. To anyone who honestly appreciates everything the brewing world has to offer, this is no small detail. Belgian beers are rightly recognized as having the widest diversity of style and most eccentric characters of those of any nation in the world. A day's worth of time spent in the company of such brews is truly a most remarkable 24 hours. And, indeed, that is exactly what it was. In fact, there is not much negative I can say about this event. The selection of beers presented was, in a word, stunning. How good was it? I found myself entirely without the inclination to grab a sample of Westmalle Tripel, a beer that consistently ranks among my favourites -- that's how good it was! As for the nuts-and-bolts of the 24 Hours, those were also managed quite well. Although it was held indoors -- thanks goodness! Belgian weather can be most unforgiving in November -- there was rarely a crowd problem on the tasting floor. For those few times that there was, it could be successfully avoided by retreating in a group to a quiet corner and sending volunteers on beer runs one or two at a time. What's more, the pace of those beer runs could be quite leisurely, as the portions served were 150 ml (5 oz.) -- just about a perfect tasting size, in my books -- poured into a snifter-shaped glass that was thoroughly cleaned every time. Even the program was great! It listed each beer individually along with it's alcohol percentage, style, brewer, location and a short description. Then it cross-referenced every beer first by brewery and then again by style category. Despite it being written entirely in Dutch, a language I do not speak, I don't think that I have ever come across a more useful beer festival program. So now you're waiting for the hammer, right? You expect me to tell you that it was prohibitively expensive, or populated by too many drunks, or marred by inebriated fistfights? Well, sorry, but none of the above apply. During the not inconsiderable amount of time I spent at the 24 Hours on both days, I saw no brawls and only a few drunks, each of whom was escorted off the premises by the mild-mannered, all-volunteer security squad. Oh yes, and admission to the fest was free, with tasting tokens costing only about 75 cents (US) each. You could even return your glass at the end of the day for a full refund, if you were so inclined.
Feedback?We're very interested in your news, notes, comments and questions, so please feel free to contact SBWoB by clicking on the link below. Or you can add your comments when you sign up for the World of Beer Update, a mid-month e-mail newsletter that brings even more of the world of beer to your computer. Send Feedback To: beaumont@worldofbeer.com Bright Beer - Kitchen Table Tastings - Feature - Taste of the Month Copyright 1997 - 2006 © - Stephen Beaumont |