Program

A first peek at this years talks, tastings and workshops. Please sign up to the newsletter to stay informed about the ticket release.

Uytzet– Janos De Baets
Uytzet, a nearly forgotten beer style from 18th century Ghent. Janos De Baets spent the last year researching this bitter, amber colored beer style and is amazed by his daily new discoveries and is obviously trying to recreate it.

Eubayanus – Willem van Waesberge
The discovery of Eubayanus in the Patagonian forest by Diego Libkind led to the deliberate introduction of a wild yeast into an industrial brewery. In the talk he will look back at the practical challenges of getting the Eubayanus ‘to behave’ like a lager yeast. Although Eubayanus had given quite some genetically based capabilities to lager yeast, it is quite different and is not at all adapted to the food we are offering in a brew. I will share its genetics and adaptation to a controlled environment and our insights in how you could deal with wild, ‘badly behaving’ yeast

Tommie Sjef – Tasting Session
While Tommie and Carnivale go way back, it has been too long since we could welcome him on the fest. Now he’s back.

Making wine for my community – Wijngaard Dassemus and Adam Huss
Inspired on a talk ab out being a producer of drinks in your local community. Community as in the wider term for the land and species. Main topics to cover are terroir, piwi, sustainable/regen, global warming and perhaps post-humanism. This all with the purpose to guide producers holistically in their decisions with respect to drinks and fermentation.

Saison – Yvan De Baets
Yvan De Baets, cofounder and head brewer at the Brasserie de la Senne in Brussels, has been researching (and brewing) saison for more than two decades. He has argued that “yeast is the biggest myth about saison.” We asked him to elaborate.

Orval tasting – Arvid Bergström
A guided tasting trough several years of aged Orval, accompanied with both technical background and good storytelling.

Blending & tasting – h. ertie
The famous and infamous h.ertie perfomring a four hour lonf lambic blending session in his distict style, if you know you know.

The modern history of lambic – Frank Boon
It is 50 years since Frank Boon started the Brouwerij Boon and it is time to look back, starting with the decline of the style in the 60s, the revival of Belgian beer in the 70s, and will work his way to the present times.

A Family of Farmhouse Yeasts – Richard Preiss
Modern yeast serves as a living record that documents the flavour and functional preferences of brewers over time and reveals how yeast has evolved to accommodate brewing methods. By analyzing the genomes of yeasts, scientists can contribute to the knowledge base of brewing history. Examples include identifying the timeline of the origin of lager yeast, differentiating cultural flavour preferences on the basis of the presence/absence of phenolic off-flavour, and the discovery that farmhouse and industrial brewing yeasts evolved separately from each other over at least the last 100 years. In this session you will learn what makes farmhouse yeast different from commercial yeast, and taste examples in a split batch fermentation.

The Burton Union system – Gareth Young
The Burton Union System, a fascinating artifact in British brewing, made the news last year after Marstons Brewery decided to ditch theirs in favor of more modern brewing and fermentation techniques. They got saved and some of them ended up in Scotland at Epochal Barel fermented Ales. But what on earth are these things?

Lambic and vinegar – Brasserie Cantillon & Vinaigrerie Saint-Odile
Florian at Cantillon and Daphne at Saint Odile teaming up with a presentation/workshop making vinegar with lambics and obviously compare the produce.

Grodziskie: history, revival and release – Krzysztof Panek & Marcin Ostajewski
Light, bottle fermented, oak smoked wheat ale, which cannot be called Polish champa*ne. Short history of the style, it’s commercial demise, revival of the original brewery and release of brewing technology and ingredients to public. Good beer and bad jokes included.

Aged Lambic tasting – Dennis Vansant
They say aging beer is a gamble. According to Dennis this is not completely true. Of course some beers are better suited for aging than others, en Dennis swears from here to Sunday that Geuze and other lambic-based beers are the only styles that truly benefit from long cellaring.
He is coming over to prove it, filling no less then 10 glasses, in age going back as far as 1963, while deep diving in the history, explaining commercial choices breweries made back then as much as they do now, driven by a constantly changing market.

The Gaia Concept – Aiden Jönsson
Take a sip of beer and you will notice aromas and flavors that remind you of the world around you. Some of these play crucial roles in our physical environment by interacting with the atmosphere, oceans, and geology. We will explore some of the ways common compounds in beer reflect natural processes in our environment and climate, and how life could have evolved to use those compounds to regulate the environment to its benefit in Gaian ways

Workshop lambic blending – John Versyck
Due to great success in previous years, John Versyck from ‘t Pomphuizeke will do a workshop lambic blending. Going through the components of several years of aged lambic and resulting in a bottle to take home for the much needed refermentation.

Makgeolli Workshop – Brouwerij Gevel
During this workshop, Brouwerij Gevel will lead you through the history of Korean makgeolli and its siblings. Participants will be brewing their own batch of Makgeolli (approximately 1L) using the provided ingredients and tools. This ricey session also includes a tasting, of course.

Oxygen in the brewing process – Lauren Torres
Oxygen, both loved and hated by brewers. Lauren Torres will guide us through the benefits and hindrance of O2. From germinating to yeast growth and from oxidation to haziness. Bottom line might be; There is no fire without oxygen. Anf then there is packaging.

Tannins in cider – Roberto Eranomele
Botanical sparkling wines– Julie Hoch
Sake: Parameters for another fermentation – Duitse Jan