This Saturday is Cantillon’s Zwanze Day 2013. Every year the Zwanze beer is hand selected by the brewery’s Jean Van Roy.
2013’s release is Abbaye de Cureghem, a 7.2% “abbey” ale. What is it? Try to follow along…
The base beer was brewed in March, 2012 and fermented in stainless steel for four weeks with a cultured yeast strain. After the four weeks, the beer was blended with 10% lambic and placed into oak barrels. Six months later, all the barrels were blended and put into casks to condition.
Cantillon doesn’t consider this a sponanteously fermented beer (i.e. fermented with wild yeast) because of the cultured yeast in the beginning. However, Roy notes that there is enough wild yeast floating around the brewery and in the lambic to give the funky flavors people look for in Cantillon’s brews.
A tiny handful of American bars receive the special kegs that will be tapped at 9pm Brussels time on September 14th. Stateside, kegs can be found here.
- Alewife Queens — Long Island City, New York
- Armsby Abbey — Worcester, Massachusetts
- Avenue Pub — New Orleans, Louisiana
- Beachwood BBQ — Seal Beach, California
- Birch Bar — Norfolk, Virginia
- Brouwer’s Café — Seattle, Washington
- ChurchKey — Washington, D.C.
- Crooked Stave Barrel Cellar — Denver, Colorado
- Hill Farmstead Brewery — Greensboro, Vermont
- Holy Grale — Louisville, Kentucky
- Hop & Vine — Portland, Oregon
- Jester King Brewery — Austin, Texas
- Lord Hobo — Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Mikkeller Bar SF — San Francisco, California
- Monk’s Caffé — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Novare Res Bier Caffé — Portland, Maine
- REAL a Gastropub — Honolulu, Hawai’i
- Redlight, Redlight — Orlando, Florida
- Russian River Brewing — Santa Rosa, California
- Spuyten Duyvil — Brooklyn, New York
- Stone Bistro & Gardens — Escondido, California
- West Lakeview Liquors — Chicago, Illinois
