Category: Belgium

Is This Man the Dr. Frankenstein of Beer? 

In a Belgium lab, one scientist is tweaking a more efficient, super-powered yeast — but brewers are turning their backs

Through the winding hallways of the centuries-old University of Leuven in Flanders, Belgium, past the sterile black counters in biological laboratories, buried in the depths of freezers, and suspended in cryogenic slumber, there sleeps a creature feared by the masses.

It’s small — microscopic, in fact — but it packs a punch. The creature is barred from entering certain laboratories in the United States to safeguard against contamination. It’s feared by the general public as an abomination of nature, an organism whose critics say it was created by the hands of man playing god. The creature is the target of lobbyists and NGOs that would like nothing more than for it to be destroyed. But, is this creature — actually a manmade strain of yeast, a single-celled organism humans have been cultivating for at least 7,000 years — just misunderstood?

Read the Full Story at: Is This Man the Dr. Frankenstein of Beer? – Eater

REVIEW: The Ardennes – A Biblical showdown to a Belgian Christmas 

The name of director Robin Pront film for non French speakers can trick them into imagining a gang film of two brothers whose last names is Ardennes. Fortunately it is not.

Two brothers plan and execute the robbery. Kenny (Kevin Janssens) takes the fall for it, and spends years in jail, while , Dave (Jeroen Perceval) makes a run for it, begins a fresh start, and falls in love with his brother’s ex-girlfriend Sylvie (Veerle Baetens). The camera forwards four years later, sober and clean, Dave and Sylive are having a child, while vowing to live a 9-5 “dull” life, away from their past.

READ THE FULL FILM REVIEW AT source: REVIEW: The Ardennes – A Biblical showdown to a Belgian Christmas – 9th Euro Film Panorama – Arts & Culture – Ahram Online

Beer, bière, bier 

Next summer, my wife and I will be visiting Belgium for the first time. Linda loves chocolate and waffles. I have been known to enjoy an occasional beer. Sang the Ink Spots, “My prayer, is to linger with you, at the end of the day, in a dream that’s divine.” It will be something like that. We’re coming, chocolate, waffles and beer. We’re coming. [ – Pas De Merde – ]

In Belgium, beer (bière in French, bier in Flemish but said just like beer in English) is an institution. As much as the Mannekin Pis (terribly disappointing and underwhelming) and frites (delicious in every which way), beer is an integral part of Belgian identity (…)

READ MORE: Beer, bière, bier – Saturday Features – The Kathmandu Post

Agnes Obel’s Haunting Chamber Pop | Mother Jones

Alex Bruel Flagstad Agnes Obel

Citizen of Glass
Play it Again Sam

Agnes Obel’s music would be the perfect soundtrack for a scary movie, but not a brutish modern one—her haunting chamber pop belongs in the world of old-fashioned spooky films like the 1940s classics “Cat People” and “The Uninvited.” (David Lynch is reportedly a fan, which makes sense.)

Citizen of Glass, the Danish singer’s wonderfully transfixing third outing, weaves old and new instruments, including strings, piano, mellotron and the Trautonium, an early 20th-century ancestor of the synthesizer, into a luminous backdrop for her eerily composed vocals. Poised and uneasy at once, Obel seems to be revisiting episodes of extreme distress from a distance, as if seeking to dull the trauma through calm reflection. As she declares in “It’s Happening Again,” “The past isn’t dead/It’s alive, it’s happening/In the back of my head.” The result is a beautiful album likely to soothe the dark night of the soul, or induce an anxiety attack.

Source: Agnes Obel’s Haunting Chamber Pop | Mother Jones

A CH Belgium Beer Drinker’s Tale 

Asleep at the Keyboard went to Belgium and drank a lot. Here’s his report.

Our last brewery tour was at Cantillion as my friend convinced me I needed to see a lambic brewery. Aside from a walk-in cooler and 3 new bright tanks for fruit beers, there did not seem to be a single bit of equipment that was less than 50 years old! It was amazing to see canvas belt driven pumps, mash paddles, grain mills, etc. The crowning masterpiece was the riveted copper coolship which gleamed like new!

READ FULL POST at: A CH Belgium Beer Drinker’s Tale – Canis Hoopus

The 9 Beers You Need To Drink Now, According To ‘The Beer Goddess’ | VinePair

“Yes, there are other Belgians that are higher rated, more rare, etc., but when I am in Belgium and I’ve had my fill of sampling all the rest, I always defer to Duvel,” Morrison says. “It has more hop profile than many Belgian beers, and as a hop head, I can’t go too long without a fix.”

Source: The 9 Beers You Need To Drink Now, According To ‘The Beer Goddess’ | VinePair