Everards Opens Its Doors To Belgian Brewers
Posted on 6th April 2010
Everards is delighted to team up with Belgian brewer Val Dieu, to brew a cask conditioned Abbaye style beer-Val Dieu Abbaye Blonde (5.5% ABV). Belgium has a worldwide reputation for producing high quality, traditional and diverse beers.
Nearly 100,000 pints of Abbaye Blonde will go on sale in 100s of JD Wetherspoon pubs as part of ‘the World’s Largest International Real Ale Festival’. Wetherspoons has selected 50 guest ales, including Val Dieu Abbaye Blonde, from countries such as the UK, Finland, Australia, America, and Holland to participate.
Everards has already welcomed the Belgian brewery’s owner Benoit Humblet, head brewer Virginie Harze and director of quality and business development Willem Van Herreweghen, over from Belgium to spend time perfecting the recipe with its own head brewer Graham Giblett.
Graham said: “We love having the opportunity to brew international beer and it was a pleasure to welcome everyone from Val Dieu to work together on the brewing of their beer.
The result is a pale lager type beer with a delicate bitterness that is smooth on the palate.
“The visit also gave us a chance to show the team around our facility at Castle Acres and demonstrate our process to give everyone at Val Dieu Brewery the reassurance the beer is in the safest possible hands.”
Willem thoroughly enjoyed the visit to Everards. He said: “It was an honour to brew at Everards and we had a very warm reception from both the brewery and all the pubs we visited.
“We learned a lot about the English way of brewing, cask conditioning and beer dispensing. We saw some very well kept beer cellars and it was inspiring to see the passion everybody involved in the process had for brewing real ale.”
Nick Arthur, operations director, brewing & sales, for Everards, said: “We are very proud to be associated with JD Wetherspoon’s ale festival and to have been selected to work with Willem and the team from Val Dieu. This is the third year running we have been invited to host an international brewer. All the beers produced have been very different – a very hoppy beer from Epic, New Zealand, a much more balanced beer at a sessionable abv from Galbraith’s, New Zealand and now the full bodied Abbey style beer from Val Dieu.”
Everards new seasonal ale, Flourish will also be available as part of the festival.
Nick added: “It’s been a busy time for our brewing team! They’ve thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and look forward to hosting more international brewers in the future.”
Pictured (l-r): Benoit Humblet owner of Val Dieu Brewery, Mick Trevor Brewing Team Leader at Everards and director of quality and business development Willem Van Herreweghen.
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