Cantillon Zwanze Day 2011 at Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens | Sept 17th, 2011

Tags

cantillon, Cantillon Iris, Cantillon Zwanze 2010, Cantillon Zwanze 2011, De la Senne Taras Boulba, Honey and black peppercorn waffles with blackberry compote and Stone Cali-Belgique IPA-battered fried chicken, zwanze day 2011, zwanze day san diego, zwanze day stone brewing co., zwanze day stone brewing world bistro and gardens

For those into sour beer, Brussels Belgium based Cantillon produces some of the most sought after beers around. Not only do they make great indescribably amazing beer, but due to their limited production their beers can be pretty hard to find out here in San Diego which just adds to the demand. When bottles show up at local shops they typically sellout within hours. Kegs at bars don’t usually last long either.

Sour beers lend themselves nicely to experimentation, and Jean Van Roy, brewer at Cantillon embraces that with (among others) a beer called Zwanze. The beer changes from year to year, but the fact that each Zwanze beer is an experiment it what ties them together. In previous years the majority of Zwanze was bottled, but this year the majority of the beer is going into kegs (Van Roy explains why on the Cantillon website, hint it has to do with E-bay profiteers), all to be tapped the same day (Sept 17th) at 21 different bars around the world.

Lucky for us here in San Diego, Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens is one of only 10 locations in the United States (and only two locations in the Western US to get Zwanze, the other is Russian River Brewing Co. in Santa Rosa, CA).

With such a rare and sought after beer in such limited supply, the potential for this to be disastrous was huge. Long lines. Line cutting. Blown kegs. Disappointment all around. Thankfully Stone thought it through and is selling tickets before hand, without one you can’t get any Zwanze. For $25 plus a small service charge you get:

• De la Senne Taras Boulba (8oz)
• Cantillon Iris (4oz)
• Cantillon Zwanze 2011 (4oz)
• Cantillon Zwanze 2010 (4oz)
• Honey and black peppercorn waffles with blackberry compote and Stone Cali-Belgique IPA-battered fried chicken

Or for $20 you get all of the above except for the 2010 Zwanze.

On the surface it might seem a bit expensive, but 375ml bottles (approximately 3 4oz pours) can retail for around $15, let alone what they sell for on the secondary market. And since Cantillon won’t be letting any bottles out of their brewery, this is pretty much your one shot to get some. Stone hasn’t said how many tickets they’re selling, but this is sure to sell out. If you want to go, don’t wait to buy yours.

Oh, and if you don’t get your fill of sour beer at Zwanze day, this same day Churchill’s Pub and Grille just down the street is holding their 2nd Annual Peter Reeves Memorial Sour Fest.

Advertisement

Stone Sour Fest 2011

Tags

5th Annual Stone Sour Fest, cantillon, Cuvee des Champions, Iris, Oude Tart, Sinners Blend 2010, sour lavender, Stone Sour Fest, Tart of Darkness, The Bruery Sour Cherry Kriek, The Wanderer

Pouring Tart of Darkness

Over 100 different sour beers were available at Stone Brewing Co.’s Fifth Annual Sour Fest yesterday at Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens in Escondido. Among the 100 beers offered there was good variety of beers that were just barely sour to those that were so tart they made your mouth pucker.

Sour beers definitely aren’t for everybody, but you wouldn’t know that from how quickly Stone Sour Fest sold out this year (weeks in advance, no tickets were available at the door). Personally I love sour beers, but don’t have a lot of experience with them. Many can be pretty hard to come by and often rather expensive so there are a lot of well known and classics as well as obscure and limited release sours that I’ve never had before. Looking over the list I was excited to try plenty of new beers that I had either never heard of or just never had a chance to try before.

Cantillon, a Belgian brewery founded in 1900 is well known around the world among beer geeks for their sour beers, and they hardly ever make it to San Diego, so plenty of people were excited to sample their offerings. From what I’ve been told Cantillon Cuvee des Champions was the first beer at the fest to run out, one friend said it was gone by the time he got there at 10:10am, 10 minutes after the fest officially got under way. Another much sought after beer was The Bruery’s Sour Cherry Kriek, put on after The Wanderer ran out, word got around the through the crowd and a line quickly formed. I don’t know how long it took for the keg to kick but it didn’t take long, it was marked as empty soon after I got my sample.

A few of the standout beers I sampled are below.

• The Bruery’s Tart of Darkness. This one is around 5% ABV and has some good roastiness in addition to the sour tartness. I think it’s available in 750ml bottles as part of the Provisions series at The Bruery Provisions in Orange. I highly recommend picking some up if you get the chance.
• Cantillon Iris. One of the classics I had never had before. Quite a bit of funk in addition to the mouth puckering sourness with an extremely dry finish.
• Craftsman Sour Lavender 2010 and 2011. Both were good but I preferred the fresher 2011. I’m not a huge fan of lavender but I really enjoy this beer.
• The Lost Abbey Sinners Blend 2010. Bourbon, vanilla and a bit of caramel, this was sweeter than I expected while still being pretty acetic. One of the more heavy beers of the day.
• The Bruery’s Oude Tart. I absolutely love this beer. Dark fruit, leather, vanilla and oak, this is a beer I could sip on all day.

See below for a few pictures from the day.

San Diego Beer Events March 24th – March 30th

Tags

awesome beer drinkers, brewdog, brewdog bashah, brewdog keep the glass, brewdog tokyo, Bruton Brewery, cantillon, cantillon Classic Gueuze, Firestone Walker 14th Anniversary, Iacopo Lenci, Jean Van Roy, Mango Mongo DIPA, march madness beer tasting, mission valley craft beer festival, Paradox Imperial Stout, suds for surgeries, The Handlery Hotel & Resort, union jack ipa

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.

Thursday Mar 24th:

Pizza Port Ocean Beach is doing a Pizza Port Keep the Glass night. They’ll have a tun of Pizza Port OB beers as well as a few favorites from the other PP locations. They’ll also have some treats from Lost Abbey as well including Red Poppy.

Friday Mar 25th:

More Pizza Port fun, Downtown Johnny Brown’s is doing a Pizza Port/Port Brewing Co. night with 17 different beers on draft. They’ll also have a cask of Mango Mongo DIPA.

Live Wire might not be the first place you think of when you think craft beer, but some say they’re the original San Diego beer bar. They’re featuring a Firestone Walker showcase with four draft beers, including Firestone Walker 14th Anniversary as well as a cask of Union Jack IPA.

Saturday Mar 26th:

My friends over at West Coaster, Awesome Beer Drinkers and Best Damn Beer Shop have teamed up to host a charity beer tasting at The Beer Company downtown. They have an insane VIP bottle list lined up as well as a more standard regular session with a chance to try five beers from The Beer Company, including three never seen before.

Sunday Mar 27th:

Jean Van Roy, owner and brewer at Cantillon, producer of some of the world’s most sought after sour beers will be at Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens Sunday afternoon. They’ll have Classic Gueuze on draft and six other Cantillon beers available in bottles. All Cantillon beers will only be available at the outside bar in 4oz pours only.

The Handlery Hotel & Resort is hosting the Second Annual Mission Valley Craft Beer Festival, Suds for Surgeries to benefit Fresh Start Surgical Gifts. They’ll have unlimited tasters as well as food and live music, all for a good cause.

Monday Mar 28th:

Another European brewer will be in town, this time it’s Iacopo Lenci from Italy’s Bruton Brewery. He’ll be at Hamilton’s Tavern with five of his beers.

Tuesday Mar 29th:

I haven’t heard of anything special going on. If you know of something please email events@sandiegobeerblog.comto get it added.

Wednesday Mar 30th:

There’s a lot going on for a Wednesday night, but BrewDog night at URGE Gastropub looks the most promising. They’ll have two different kegs of BrewDog’s Paradox Imperial Stout aged in different Scotch Whiskey barrels and have it on cask as well. They’ll have kegs of the 18.2% ABV Tokyo as well as the  BrewDog/Stone Brewing Co. collaboration Bashah. They’ll even send you home with your own BrewDog glass.