2019 was a challenging year. We all probably didn’t have much time to really get serious about anything other than what was immediately and constantly happening. Never have the answers to our questions been so short and never have so many people written to us that unfortunately they don’t have time to participate this year.
Category: Background
Bierversuche.ch is a craft beer online magazine and blog. We cover craft beer tastings. We write about beer awards. And we provide background information about the craft beer market and the (Swiss) craft beer scene.
The background section includes articles with analyses of the craft beer market and information about the (Swiss) craft beer scene. Craft Beer Awards are also observed, questioned and discussed here.
Updated: Buying craft beer online (2019)
If you don’t live close to your favourite brewery or craft beer store, you don’t get around ordering your craft beers online. Here are your best options.
When big breweries go “craft beer”.
The big brewery groups are looking for ways to get a piece of the craft beer action. We have looked at three different strategies and we unveil, why corporate breweries are so keen to do so, even in Switzerland.
You can only get it there: Bürgenbräu on the Bürgenstock
Up there it is, the Bürgestock Resort. We looked up from the ship and thought about how the day would turn out. The name of the hotel awakens weak memories: Half knowledge about glamour and disappointment about the intermediate status, the long uncertainty about what will happen with the Bürgenstock. On this day we will ascend the mountain and have an exclusive beer.
The champions of the Swiss craft beer scene
The Swiss craft beer scene has experienced an almost incomparable boom in recent years. But as not only quantity but also quality counts, quality control with constructive and expert feedback is needed. At the Brau- und Rauch Beer Contest, the Swiss Beer Award with the most entries, an expert jury judged the submitted beers independently and impartially using the “Double Blind” method. This year, Torkelbräu lager from Niederlenz impressed the jury the most and was the overall winner.
2018 was both good and bad and definitely both
It feels like Craft Beer is at a crossroads. We are doing this review for four years now and never before have the answers been so contradictory and never before has there been as much concern among all the excitement. ➽
Can Switzerland handle 1000 breweries?
«Switzerland, a land of brewers» was the title of an article in the Swiss-German newspaper “Der Bund”. The article was built around the fact that by now more than 1000 breweries are registered at the Swiss customs authority. As in pretty much every newspaper article about this topic it also mentioned that this number means Switzerland has the highest brewery density per capita in the world. Considering each and every person in Switzerland “only” drinks 54 liters of beer a year, this sounds like an awful lot if not too many breweries.
The story behind Herr Schneider Hoppy Lager (with video)
Lager has brought us (all?) here, but with the love for ale the respect for lager often dwindles. In fact, most super mainstream mass-produced beers are lager. But Craft wouldn’t be Craft if there weren’t brewers brewing excellent and quaffable ➽
2017 is over. Long live 2018!
Like every year we asked our friends about their last year and prodded them for some foresight into the next year. Considering how varied this “beer thing” is, it’s no surprise the answers were equally varied. However, looking through the answers, it becomes crystal clear that one topic moved our friends, it itself being rather murky though. So, before we head any deeper into 2018, let’s quickly have a look back.
Putting likes over drinking beer
The other day I learnt what a “boss pour” is. The Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine defines it as «A stylistically improper and aromatically challenged pour whereby the pourer fills a glass to the rim without leaving a head on the beer, in vain hopes of impressing friends on social media.» Having an Instagram account, I immediately knew what it was referring to and it gave a term to what has irritated me for a while. But let’s first take two steps back.
Drinking beers from Flanders and learning things
Beer is to Belgium as Cheese is to Switzerland as is Guns to the US as is ceviche to Peru: you can’t separate the two. At home we have a book called “1000 Belgian Beers” and browsing through it you’ll notice that there’s a plethora of breweries you’ve never even heard of. Thus when we got an invitation from Flanders Investment & Trade to drink… uhm, I mean discover, beers from the area, we obviously had to go. The event catered to people in the gastronomical and retail industry, and we were there as a multiplier, apparently, to spread the good word about Belgian beers. All with the intention of these beers hopefully being available in Switzerland soon.
Beer labels: 3. my water is better than yours
“Pure mountain spring water, the best hops and the finest malt provide the unmistakable taste of our unique beer.” Sound familiar? Must. Because it’s written in similar form on many labels of traditional lagers. But since paper is patient and can’t fight back, the question naturally arises: is what it says on the beer label true? Is it really the case that these three ingredients have a significant influence on the taste of beer?