About Belgium

Ben Vinken is a man with a mission. For years he worked for big breweries, he organises beer degustations, was chief-editor of the works of Michael Jackson (the famous beerguru who passed away last year), presents a show about beer on a belgian television channel and publicises the ‘Beerpassion‘ magazine. Now, his biggest goal in life is to convince the world that beer is at least just as special as wine.

Even in Belgium, beer was long seen as a just a way to quench your thirst or get drunk quickly. But the people are slowly changing: special beers are apreciated more and we got proud of our beer heritage. Ben Vinken wants the world to follow…

In the footpath of beer guru Michael Jackson who was fond of Belgian beer, he promotes beer as if his life depends on it. In his opinion we have to take the same care when drinking beer as we have when we drink wine. Therefore he launched the term “Beer Sommelier“, a word he even got the patent on in Dutch and English. (So let us hope he likes this article!)

“Being a beer sommelier means you are an expert in this area: you can communicate your knowledge to the customer and you have a rich vocabulary to describe tastes. Furthermore you controll the skills involved in the ritual of beer pooring and can give valuable advice.” In countries with just a few kinds of beers this may seem unbelievable but in Belgium it’s serious business. At the moment we already pour our special beers with care, but not enough yet.

What are the basics when trying to become a beer somelier? First of all you have to go for the big 75 cl bottles. This can’t be difficult as half of the more than 400 kinds of Belgian beers also come in this size. This is important if you want to place your beer in a bucket of ice preserving the right temperature. More difficult is “food pairing”: combining the right kind of beer with your food. This is not so abvious and Vinken even says you could match a beer with the apetizer and chose a wine with the main course. Last you have to use the right form of glass. There are various beerglass sets on the market that make this very easy.

At last we ask which beer Ben prefers: “That’s a tough question. I represent all beers. There’s a right beer for every moment. In the bar a Bolleke from the barrel, after sport a Hoegaarden, as apetizer an oude geuze, with fish a bottle Avec les Bons Voeux of brewery Dupont in Tourpes, with meat a Chimay Grande Réserve, with a sweet dessert an old kriek… But what do you drink after a Westmalle Tripple? It’s hard to do better than that.”