Manker Beer Meets – Inför SBWF 2012 – Kees Bubberman / Brouwerij Emelisse

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Manker Beer Meets – Inför SBWF 2012 – Kees Bubberman / Brouwerij Emelisse

Posted on 20 September 2012. Tags: Brouwerij Emelisse, Kees Bubberman, Manker Beer Meets, MankerBeer, Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival

MankerBeer storsatsar inför årets Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival. Inte bara kommer vi försöka att finna nya sätt att rapportera från själva mässan utan vi kommer också att satsa på mer “inför”-material. En del i detta kommer att vara intervjuer med olika bryggare och utställare på mässan så att ni får en chans att lära känna dem lite bättre. Vi tycker att det är minst lika roligt, och viktigt, att känna till personerna bakom ölen som att prova dem. Om inte annat så kan det ge svar på varför vissa öl smaker som de gör, varifrån inspirationen kommer och vad som är på gång eller har skett.

Ett bryggeri som senaste året verkligen har lyckats slå sig in i många svenska hem med framförallt sina trevliga fatlagrade stouts från White Label-serien är holländska Brouwerij Emelisse. Redan i fjol var man med på SBWF och stod då i Brills monter och pratade glatt och gärna om sig och sina öl. Då var man rätt nya på marknaden och i den USA-hype som vart som störst så var chansen att man lätt kunde se förbi dem. I år verkar det bli annorlunda och fler verkar ha provat deras öl, vilket är kul då de är bland de mer spännande holländska bryggerierna – ett land där det sakteligen börjar hända saker igen. Vi tog ett snack med bryggaren Kees Bubberman och frågade inte bara om bryggeriet och ölen utan också vad han tycker om uttalet som John Brus från De Molen gjorde om statusen på öl i länder som Holland och Belgien..

MB: Swedes have only been able to find beers from Emelisse for the last 1-2 years, could you shortly describe the brewery and its beers?

KB: Brewery Emelisse exited for 12 years, the idea in the beginning behind the brewery was to do something for the tourists who were coming to Zeeland. The first years we let our beers brew at brewery the Halve Maan in Hulst and later we moved to the Scheldebrewery. After a few years the stockholders of the brewery had a wish to brew the beers themselves, and went looking for a secondhand brew house. They fund one in the south of the Netherlands, the old brew house from brewery de Heeren van Beeck. It was 10 hl German style brew house and the placed it in the middle of new build restaurant, so it was a nice brewpub. The first brews were brewed by the brewer of the Scheldebrewery , who worked part time at the Emelisse brewery. I started brewing spring 2007 and after 1 year I started brewing different kind of beers, more hoppy beers, Stouts and more extreme beers. So the brewery moved from a Belgium style brewery, to an America style brewery.We have 3 standard beers, The Oerpils, Wheat beer and a Belgium Style Dubbel. Our Blond isn’t Blond, actually it is an IPA brewed as single hop with Nelson Sauvon . We have 4 IPA’s, The Red IPA, Black IPA, DIPA and the TIPA. We brew 2 stouts, the Espresso Stout and the Imperial Russian Stout. The last one we barrel age op whiskey barrels and brew with Sorachi Ace as a Single Hop. We brew a Rauchbier and the some seasonal beers.

MB: Apart from Emelisse, La Trappe and De Molen there are not that many widely famous Dutch breweries, how is the beer scene in the Netherlands?

KB: Things are changing in Holland; 15 years ago there were only a few micro breweries. Now there are more than 150 breweries and I think that 1/3 is not brewing themselves, but brew somewhere else. Most of those breweries are brewing Belgium style beers, but with the success of brewery the Molen, the beer landscape is moving. More and more breweries are brewing US styled beers, IPA’s heavy stout, extreme beers and breweries that are starting with barrel aging. There is not a big beer scene in Holland, I think it only in Amsterdam, we I live there is no beer scene at all. And I think that most of the Dutch beer drinkers are drinking pilsners, like Heineken en Amstel or even worse Jupiler. And they think that Jupiler is very special ?!

MB: Earlier this summer two of the White Label Imperial Russian Stous, Ardbeg BA and Glen Elgin BA, where released at Systembolaget in Sweden and quickly sold out. Among the White Label beers, which are your favorites and why?

KB: My favorite Whitelabel is the Imp Russian Stout Coal Ila, It’s full, complex, peated but not as peated as the Ardbeg and very nice balanced. Another Whitelabel I like is the Imp Stout Sorachi Ace. The Sorachi Ace goes well with black beers. And I’m a hophead, so any beer with loads of hop and I’m happy.

MB: Earlier this year John Brus from De Molen proclaimed that Belgium is past their best before date and in need of a modernization, would you agree?

Yes, I do agree with John. Most of the big Belgium beers are SOOOO boring. There are no hops, no taste, it’s al to commercial. And still the Belgium brewers are thinking that they are the best brewers of the world. But I thing that are waking up, If you look how many hoppy beers there were on the last Zythos festival. But still Belguim beers are very populair in the world, and you have to see Belgium beers as a style. And not everybody is in to hoppy, stout or extreme beers, so maybe it’s good.

MB: Emelisse has both a brewery and a restaurant, is beer more of the natural beverage with food in the Netherlands than it is in say Sweden where wine has been more common?

KB: In Holland is it more common to drink wine with your food, if you ask people what they are thinking about beer drinkers. They think that beer consumers are drinking a lot, full glasses, drunken people etc, etc, etc. And they think that wine is special, interesting, expensive. And when they are going out for a diner, they drink wine. In our restaurant, we serve more beer than wine.

MB: Finally, what do you look the most forward to with SBWF?

KB: To meet interesting people, to taste new beers, to talk with other brewers and have fun and see something of Stockholm.

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Grundare och skribent på MankerBeer.com. Från ett fokus på allt vad USA har att erbjuda och med en kärlek till gedigen amerikansk mat, bra bourbon och framförallt all landets fantastiska öl har Manker nu börjat förstå storheten i belgisk öl.