Brugge Beer

Spring Cleaning

This weekend's heat wave is brutal. 68 degrees today! When will it end?

It was great to see a bunch of people enjoying the sunshine - and frites and beer - on the patio Saturday and Sunday.

A couple of things...

There's this guy named Ted Miller and he's sort of the head PooBah of all that is Brugge. You may have heard of him. He actually posted here once. And I've begged him to be more active here.

Well, it seems he'd rather talk to some other guys instead of us. The issue in the blog, linked below, is important, and I'll address it in another post, but by the end of the thread, they're all singing the Brugge version of Kumbaya!

http://dig-b.blogspot.com/2008/03/beer-wabash-valley-arrives.html

Last Thursday...

Brugge Brasserie was thrilled to host 2 groups last Thursday, both from a website I'd never heard of 3 days before.

The Indianapolis Beer Meetup Group

http://beer.meetup.com/189/

The Indianapolis French Meetup Group

http://french.meetup.com/754/

Both groups were filled with fun people and they're both obviously smart as well, since they made the decision to eat and drink at our place.

Thanks to Chris and Jean-Luc for getting everyone together. The place was rocking till way past my bedtime. We hope to see both groups again soon.

The Website...

As hard as it may be to believe, our website should be up within the next 2 weeks. We wish it had been sooner, but we're big believers in keeping our mouths shut until we actually have something to say. This blog will be moved to become a page of the new site. We'll keep you posted.

Cardiff and Portsmouth

A new law firm? A British shoemaker?

No, it's the unlikely matchup for this year's FA Cup final to be played at Wembley on Saturday, May 17 at 10:00AM.

A special Steak, Egg, and Frites breakfast will be available as Brugge Brasserie will open at 09:30. Reservations recommended.

Ale Fest 2008

After spending a few months in sunny, tropical Bangkok, I returned to Indy last week just in time to spend most of the week scraping ice off my car. What a treat.

Fortunately, I also returned just in time to be part of Ale Fest 2008, at The Egyptian Room in the Murat Centre.

There has been a bit of controversy -unfounded and unnecessary, if you ask me - about the "motives" of the organizers and sponsors.

I read and heard allegations the event was nothing more than a marketing ploy to promote World Class Beverage's stable of products.

In the interest of full disclosure, WCB distributes our beer.

These allegations are false if you ask me, but if you were going to have a beer festival, wouldn't you want to partner with a company that sells more craft beer than anyone else in town?

In addition, WCB "donated" more than half the beer served at the event, with no expectation of any profit, except for the hope of future sales.

The bottom line is attendees had the opportunity to sample and enjoy 4 ounce glasses - real samples - of every style of craft beer available from over 75 different breweries.

Beer enthusiasts turned out in greater numbers than anticipated - the consensus was over 700 people.

As a fledgling brewer, we're glad we were there.

Happy 2008 ! ! !

We hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday season. And we'd especially like to thank all those who celebrated part of their holidays at Brugge Brasserie.

Ted tells me (I'm in Bangkok for a bit) the restaurant was filled with friends throughout the season.

Makes perfect sense to me. Holidays and cold weather are the the perfect combination for a hearty Flamande and a couple - OK, maybe 3 or 4 - Blacks.

2007 ended on a great note for Brugge Beer as we were invited to participate in Hoosier Beer Geek's New Year's Eve extravaganza at Deano's Vino.

Ted created a special beer for the event, which, I'm relieved to say, is easier to drink than pronounce:

Sint Sylvester Voornavond Ale

Here's what our friends at HBG had to say:

http://hoosierbeergeek.blogspot.com/2008/01/exceeding-all-expectations.html

http://hoosierbeergeek.blogspot.com/2008/01/sint-sylvester-vooranvond-hbg.html

Sounds like I missed a great night.

Lots of things are going on as Brugge looks forward to 2008 and we'll chronicle all the activity on these pages.

But for now, all the best for 2008 and thanks for your continued support of Brugge.

Treat yourself well.

Charlie

EURO 2008

The draw for the 2008 Euro 2008 Finals was held today. The contest will be held June 7 - 29 in Austria and Switzerland.

http://www.uefa.com/Competitions/euro/index.html

Our good friends, the English, were unceremoniously handed their hat in the qualifying stages.

Had Engerlund qualified, we were thinking of running a 3 city trip, beginning in Brugge, followed by excursions to 2 England matches before returning home.

With England exiled, would anyone still be interested in such a trip?

If so, we need to begin planning soon.

Drop a note here or on my email at:

charlie@brugge-beer.com

Explanation of Weblog Name

Our good friends at Hoosier Beer Geek were kind enough to mention our new Weblog, going so far as to commend us for being so "creative" in coming up with a name.

Check their site for an in-depth analysis of all the sweat and blood that went into its development.

http://hoosierbeergeek.blogspot.com/2007/11/hop-crop-news.html

Charlie

Great American Beer Festival

We all enjoyed the GABF in Denver last month.

Brugge entered 5 beers into the competition.

3 of them made the Medal Round.

Here are 2 comments on the Diamond Kings of Seven:

Judge 1: Too much oak

Judge 2: Not tasting oak

Here are 3 comments on Diamond Kings of Heaven ( The '06 Diamond Kings )

Judge 1: Very high bitterness

Judge 2: Bitterness on low side

Judge 3: Bitterness to style

Here are 3 comments of the Lupulin L'Amore - a hoppy Belgian Specialty Ale created by our good friend Jim Matt, entered in the ProAm competition.

Judge 1: Bitterness low

Judge 2: Bitterness good

Judge 3: Bitterness high

Hmmmmmmm........

Look forward to reading Ted's comments on this.

FWIW, my favorite beer at GABF was Deschutes' Obsidian Stout. Sadly, not available in Indiana right now.

http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/brewpub/ontap/5828.aspx

Charlie