If you’ve tried his pale ale, Taras Boulba, then you know that Yvan De Baets has a taste for hops. But it’s the focus on subtlety, balance, and fine details like tank geometry that make the beers of this Brussels brewery so compelling.
After 13 years living abroad, our Missouri-based managing editor spent the past year getting reacquainted with the American beer scene. Here are his beery highlights.
Informed by the Belgian tradition but rooted in their own places, here are five beers brewed and blended in the manner of lambic and gueuze.
Inspired by traditional lambic brewing, here is homebrewer Kevin Foster’s recipe for his turbid-mashed base beer. Evolving variations on this recipe are key components of his award-winning annual blends.
Kevin Foster, based in Atlanta, Georgia, won a gold medal for his gueuze-style blend at the American Homebrewers Association Nationals in 2018. Here, he talks about his year-to-year process for brewing, aging, and blending wild beers.
Here are the OGs—a few of the most refined versions of the most complex drink in the world.
Try to brew it if you want—many have tried—but few beers belong to their own place more than traditional Belgian gueuze.
Joe Stange, managing editor of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® and co-author of Good Beer Guide Belgium, explores how that country’s wilder-side beers have continued to evolve.
Let’s get rustic: Justin Wright and Justin Kruger, a.k.a. "Two Fat Justins," show how French and Belgian country ales can lighten and brighten savory main dishes, while a splash of cherry lambic adds complex juiciness to a simple berry crumble.
Mixed-culture beers run the gamut from lighter, nuanced, farmhouse-style ales to acid-forward wild ales and lambic beers. Here, five respected brewers share favorites from these broad categories that influenced them or exemplify the best of today.