Your Comments, Criticisms and Contributions - May 2004
Hi Stephen
After reading some of your articles online on the subject of beers, I must send you a word of thanks for the praising words you have on the Belgian beers. I'm an economics student in Leuven, so I'm right at the source. I've been told we have 1500 different kinds of beer in Belgium. Not all commercially exploited of course. I hope you get to taste all of these, and if you ever visit Leuven again, I'll be happy to show you some of the 'fakbars' (=pubs of the different faculties).
With kind regards
- Gunther Ceulemans
Thank you for your email, Gunther. Leuven is definitely on my list of cities in Belgium to revisit, as I have to date only had a very short stay.
(We received a lot of email this month in reply to our Bright Beer article, "An Open Letter to John Sleeman," regarding the sale of Unibroue to Sleeman Breweries of Guelph, Ontario, which may be read at www.worldofbeer.com/brightbeer/sleeman-unibroue.html. Here are some of the responses in support.)
Nice letter to Mr. Sleeman, Stephen!
I hope they listen. You never know, and as I posted on the BBB (the Burgundian Babble Belt - ed.), I'm much less angry with the selling shareholders than I will be with Sleeman if they screw this one up, which I fear is inevitable.
Nonetheless, well done.
- Bob Johnston
I hope your open letter will be read by Mr. Sleeman. I have appreciated all its details. It would be sad to loose such World Class beers.
Have you heard their latest official response for the loss of Seigneuriale? They say that their latest acquisition will make possible the rebirth of Seigneuriale!
To be continued
- Benoit Mercier
Montréal, Qc.
Mr Beaumont,
I live in Montreal where some people are known to be beer aficionados, but since the news broke out, your are the only one who openly said what all of us beer lovers think. And you did it in a somewhat firm and elegant manner, like many strong Belgians beers can be. And I just wanted to thank you for it.
Cheers.
- Stéphane Tremblay
(And the one dissenting opinion)
Dear Stephen,
Unibroue is no great loss, their beers are direct duplicates of the line of specialty beers produced by the Riva Group (Belge).
This is no accident as they were designed by Riva's consulting brewmaster Jean-Luc Suys. Suys is an ex-Interbrew hack who presided over the production transfer of that horrible adjunct (big-time maize!!!) brew "Abbaye" de Leffe, from a small brewery to Interbrew's massive Stella-Artois swill-factory at Leuven. He has also presided over the well noted decline of quality in the Hoegaarden range as it was expanded into a megabrand in Interbrew's bland specialty stable. Suys is the whore of Belgian brewing and has created such forgettable beers as Blanche du Mt. Blanc and the corn-adjunct beer Das from Hoegaarden.
Unibroue's beers were simply overpriced examples of Riva's existing line, coupled with a famous francophone singer, and excellent packaging, in brief: a good marketing company.
All this is not too surprising as the Riva group was a founding partner in Unibroue.
- Mike Sweeney
Le Cateau, France
P.S. I am the founder of the Brasserie des Cimes in Aix-les-Bains and of the Brasserie Artisanale du Cateau-Cambresis here in Le Cateau, on the border with Belgium.
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