a Belgian beer pub

Belgian Beer Festival in Prague

Evan Rail’s Beer Culture blog informed that on weekend from October 23 (Friday) until October 25 (Sunday) this year Svět Piva will organize a big festival of Belgian beer named “Belgium in the Glass and on the Plate.” The event will take place at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Prague (Nebovidská 1, Prague 1—Malá Strana).

The festival will be partially financed by the Flanders Tourism Information Office, the body promoting incoming tourism to Flanders and Brusselsand in particular and outcoming tourism for Belgian residents.

Similarly to the Christmas Beer Markets that took place last year the event will be divided into several “multi-hour sessions: Friday 3–5 p.m. and 6–9 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m.–1 p.m., 2–5 p.m. and 6–9 p.m.; Sunday 2–5 p.m. and 6–9 p.m.”

Each session can be visited by 250 beer amateurs who will have to solve very tricky dilemma - which ones of 75 available beers to taste. The preliminary announcement do not list the whole range of options but claims that “lager, Trappist beers, spontaneously fermented beers <so called lambic beer>, Belgian wits and experimental beers” will be presented.

A ticket for one session will be priced at CZK 150 (about EUR 6 or USD 9). Good food will be also available in plenty including specially chosen beer hors d'oeuvres.

Note:

Belgium has very long and rich brewing tradition. The first evidences of beer making in this European country date back to the Middle Ages. Today there are some 125 breweries in Belgium – both international corporations facilities along with local microbreweries. All together they produce some 800 standard beers. If special sorts of beer are counted, the total number of Belgian beers will increase tenfold.

Photo: a Belgian beer pub, by Chmouel (wikimedia.org)

Date: 09/10/2009