‘Not just an alcoholic beverage’
Belgian beer recognized as Unesco cultural heritage
On 30 November 2017 Belgian beer was officially included to the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. To figure out why Belgian beer culture is so important and well known in the whole world, I went to one of the house breweries “Jessenhofke” in Hasselt, Limburg and asked the opinion of the owner Gert Jordens-Putzeys, who is zythologist and creator of beers.
Gert and his wife Christel Jordens-Putzeys started brewing 16 years ago, in 2000. They have got a small brewery, producing 100% organic, ecological and environmentally friendly beers. Gert and Christel taught me a little history, introducing me to an overview of their brands. Their small artisanal brewery has 900 selling points in 10 countries throughout Europe. They named their brewery “Jessenhofke” because they founded it in the Jessenhofstreet and the original name of the brewery is the Garden of Annies. Annies was the noble lady, whose castle was in this street. There was a little road to her garden at the backside of the castle; it is just 800 meters from the brewery.
Also they made organic jewelry by reusing crown caps and own branding glasses. Currently they have got new actual labeling because Jessenhofke was not pronounceable for customers who do not speak Dutch, so they changed the letters and everybody in the whole world can read the letters. Gerts profession is to create beers and recipes for himself and for others. He has already created more than 50 original beer flavours, from honey beer, dark honey beer, women-friendly beer to herbal beer etc. For Gert, brewing is a hobby and a little bit of a profession too. Besides, he started to produce jenever by transforming the old beer to gin (‘jenever’).
Beer is much more for Belgian people than just an alcoholic beverage. Being a journalism student from Russia, Gert told me he knows that Russian people also drink a lot of alcohol. But there is a huge difference between Russian and Belgian drinking cultures. Russians mostly drink just to get drunk, most Belgian people drink to feel the taste and to enjoy it. Before Gert Jordens had a brewery he went to a beer shop and he took one bottle of each beer, created food and tasted at home just to compare different types of beers. And after that the story of his brewery started.
Gert: “In Belgium we have a lot of beers. And also various types of breweries. The 5 biggest breweries in Belgium own more than 95% of market. All the other breweries share the rest of the market, so that what they sell per year the big ones are making per day. But the small and creative breweries discover the new tastes, they try new ingredients (for instance, herbals are very popular in “Jessenhofke”). So it definitely makes Belgian beer industry very rich.”
Belgian breweries produce a variety of beers, in many different ways. There are a lot of completely different types of beer available in Belgium. And that makes creates a rich culture. Brewery Jessenhofke is special, because there are more than 120 organic Belgian beers but there are only 3 breweries, which are completely organic. Jessenhofke is the one of them.
Gert Jordens-Putzeys is a teacher in zythology, a beer sommelier. One of his lessons is about which beer is well served with which meal: “For example, there are a lot of wine and cheese evenings, but in fact cheese and beer is a better pairing than cheese and wine. You can vary more with cheese and beer. A lot of wine tastes worse with cheese than without and a lot of beers and cheese taste better together. Each beer has got its own story.”
There is a very light regular beer, with only 3,5 % alcohol, called “Jessenhofke Lichtblond”, which is developed for restaurants in Brussels and you can drink it just at noon. People have to work and drink only after lunch. “Maya” is the first cradle-to-cradle beer in the world. Creating that product was very innovative. So they made the recuperation of the washing water of the seitan producing Maya. “Triple classical one” was awarded as best home-brewed beer in 2002. There are also various kinds of beers, for instance, winter beer or Christmas beer. Beers are unique because they are made from burned mold instead of coloring by caramel. They use at “Jessenhofke” the old way of producing real high-quality beers, not the cheapest industrial way, which is mostly used nowadays.
Belgian beer has got the richest diversity of tastes and flavors from sour and sweet to bitter due to different ingredients. There are also different types of breweries and consequently different ways of producing beers. The history of beers date back almost to medieval centuries. There even is a science, named zythology, that focuses on beer culture. And the beer culture continues to grow and become even wealthier. So now, when you are drinking Belgian beer, it is not just an alcoholic drink you consume, but with it a part of Belgium’s cultural heritage.
