The Brussels, Belgium based Cantillon Brewery is considered by many the foremost brewer of lambic and gueuze style beers in the world. These sour, spontaneously fermented beers take years to produce; combined with the brewery’s location (a dense urban area, with little room to expand) demand for Cantillon’s regular line of beers exceeds supply. When Cantillon releases a limited supply beer like Zwanze– an experimental beer with a recipe that changes every year– the brewery faces quite a dilemma when it comes to how to release and sell it. In 2010, bottles of Zwanze were sold at the brewery for a reasonable price, but when a bottle showed up on eBay selling for over ten times the original price, Cantillon decided to change the way they release Zwanze this year. Thus we had Zwanze Day 2011, with kegs sent to 21 different bars in nine countries, all to be tapped and drank around the same time on the same day.
Lucky for us in San Diego, Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens was selected as one of the bars to host Zwanze Day 2011. Tickets went on sale a few weeks ago with $25 getting you four ounces pours of Zwanze 2010, Zwanze 2011, Cantillon Iris along with an eight ounce pour of De la Senne Taras Boulba, a Belgian Pale Ale and a chicken and waffle dish from the Bistro. $20 tickets were also available which included all of the above minus the Zwanze 2010.
Everyone I spoke with was glad they decided to do a ticketed event because of the potential crowds a release like this could bring. Events at Stone are usually perfectly run with very few problems; unfortunately that wasn’t the case this weekend. The grass in the garden was closed due to re-sodding which cut down on available space and made the event feel more crowded than it was. There were also only two pouring stations; one for Zwanze 2010 and another for all the other beers. This caused long lines which at one point doubled back on itself with nowhere else to go. But since everyone had pre-paid and was getting the same amount of each beer, there was no worry that one might wait in a long line only to get to the front and find the beer was gone. The lines moved relatively quickly, but with a bit more planning the long lines could have been avoided almost entirely.
Prior to the event, I had only tried one of the beers served at Zwanze Day (Cantillon Iris), so I went in with few expectations. Zwanze 2010, a sour white was pleasant, but very mildly sour without much of the funk usually associated with Cantillon and a very dry finish. Zwanze 2011 was much more sour, but also lacked funk. There were some sweet berry-like fruit flavors, along with sweetness from the grapes mixed in with the beer. Cantillon Iris was my favorite beer of the day, funky and sour with a somewhat bitter finish, it’s one of Cantillon’s “off the shelf” beers (though good luck finding it on any shelves around here). After three palate-fatiguing sours I don’t think it would be fair to pass any judgment on De la Senne Taras Boulba, although I’d be interested in trying it again the future.
