The story of St Bernardus is a complex one that begins with monks and cheese and an exodus from France...It's the early 1900s and the Trappists of Mont des Cats are an unimpressed bunch. The local French laws of the day tax their not so ill gotten gains and noticing that the same law has yet to be implemented in Belgium, they up sticks and move all of about 10 kms to the town of Watou, just over the border in Belgium. Now, whether this is tax avoidance or tax evasion is probably a matter of opinion but, either way, we’ll let them off as...

New Belgium popped up in this blog a few weeks ago with their Fat Tire Amber Ale, the first carbon neutral beer to be made in the USA. This brewery really does walk the walk in terms of the environment and even though they are big, and by default a decent contributor to the problems of climate change, they really are doing quite a bit to become part of the solution and less of the causeCitrus Rescue is another string in their bow as they take aim at being carbon neutral by the year 2030. This beer is brewed in...

I saw this beer and couldn’t help but think of the Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte. Do you know the chap? He painted some fabulous stuff in the 1920s and 30s and one of his most famous was a picture of a pipe, plain and simple, with the inscription - ceci n’est pas une pipe written below and which translates into 'this is not a pipe'. It’s fittingly called the Treachery of Images - look it up if you are not familiar with it.This simple juxtaposition of an image and contradictory text creates a three-way paradox; the pipe is obviously a...

There’s a saying that every dog has its day and going by the chit chat in current beer circles - at this moment in time, that dog would seem to be lager. And yet, this lager dog (sorry, sounds a bit strange I know… but stick with me on this one) isn’t exactly what I’d call a pure breed.Brut IPAs and IPLs are part of the recent trend; one a hoppy beer made in a dryer lager-like style and the other, a lager pumped full of hops to bring it closer to an IPA. So, we’ve apparently decided we like...

Today’s beer scene is one of constant innovation and change and as the number of new breweries and customers swells in size, the need to keep offering new styles, expressions and variations increases.Firestone Walker were there in the mid 90s when the current craft scene began its ascent and have been going strong for over 25 years. The original brewery was located on a family vineyard in Los Olivos, California and the beer to get them on their way was the Double Barrel Ale (which you can read more about here). It was made in a patented variation of the...