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Since 2008, Brasserie Cantillon in Belgium has released a rare beer that is sent to very select locations throughout the world to be tapped simultaneously, and that day has been known as Zwanze Day. The word “zwanze” has its roots in the region’s Flemish dialect and actually has its origins in Yiddish. It essentially references a sharp-edged (yet good-natured) type of self-deprecating humor that is considered by some to be a defining trait of the Flemish people, and for some, a way of life. A “zwanze” is a joke, a “zwanzer” a joker. And if zwanze refers to a joking way of life and a zwanzer is a joker, then there was no better place to enjoy a Zwanze Day beer than at Austin’s Jester King Brewery.
Zwanze Day beers are always different – that’s part of the fun. Past beers have included a rhubarb lambic – a spontaneously fermented witbier and an elderflower lambic – now sold as Cantillon Mamouche. This year’s beer, Abbaye de Cureghem was a “Belgian-style Abbey Ale” that was blended with 10% lambic and top fermented with wild yeasts present in the brewery as well as the lambic.
This year, Jester King ran a lottery on their website for a 4-ounce pour of the coveted beer. 150 people were randomly selected. Not only was I lucky enough to happen to be in Austin on Zwanze Day – and to actually sample the 2013 Zwanze beer – I also had the opportunity to catch up with co-owner and brewer Jeff Stuffings and to get his take on the event and some of the small but positive legislative changes that have been happening for the craft brewers in Texas.
Well, congratulations on getting a keg of the 2013 Zwanze beer. How was Jester King selected as one of the 46?
I think it stems from 2 things. One is my partner, Ron Extract, used to work for a beer importer Shelton Brothers. He was responsible for bringing Cantillon into the United States from as early as the 90’s. And an interesting side note to hear about what a tough sell that was a decade ago as compared to now. You can barely find it these days. So Ron has known Jean van Roy for years. So when Ron helped me and my brother open the brewery, we wanted to be a Zwanze Day destination and that was something that they were open to. So that’s probably the primary reason why. But also, there is a philosophical similarity that we share with them. We’re not making authentic lambic and we’re very open about that, but there are similarities in the fact that we’re pitching wild yeast to impart a sense of place to our beer.
How many people were you guys expecting on Zwanze Day?
I think probably about 500 people, which is what we usually get on Saturday. Part of that has to do with Zwanze Day, but because of how tough the Texas licensing laws are on the smaller breweries, it’s a bit different here. If you look at how Zwanze Day is presented at some of the other locations, whether it be a retail bar or brewery, you’ll see an incredible selection of other rare beers, authentic lambics and really cool stuff from other parts of the world. All that stuff is illegal in Texas, so ours is in a way stripped down a little due to the law. So we just have the one keg and we’re giving free samples of it. Which people totally geek out on and is great but we can’t really put forth a full-fledged beer festival like we would want. We hope that there will be some more positive changes. The Texas legislature only meets every 2 years so it will be a while but in the meantime we’re working on trying to bring in some other breweries’ beers. We can’t directly but we are working with some distributors.
We heard some news about a brewpub and that you guys are going in that direction. Where are you guys at with that?
We actually are officially a brewpub now; it’s a little bit of a misnomer because we wanted to be able to sell bottles to go. It’s a really important thing for a small brewery to be able to do. So to do that in Texas, we had to officially become a brewpub, even though we don’t have a commercial kitchen or have any plans for a commercial kitchen.
The name Jester King…does this somehow coincide with the spirit of Zwanze Day or was it an accidental homage?
Wow, I never thought of that! I think it’s accidental; it wasn’t by design. The name Jester King as it was originally conceived, the Jester analogy represents the smaller brewer imparting interesting flavors and aromas into their beer. The King part of the equation is kind of a jab at the “king of beers,” speaking to the small brewers really being the king of beers versus Anheuser-Busch. There’s a little dig in there but it’s kinda tongue-in-cheek, just a poke.
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I’d like to thank all the folks at Jester King for the graciousness they showed me throughout my Zwanze Day visit. And a special shout-out to co-owner and brewer Jeff Stuffing for taking some time for me on such a crazy day and for sharing his stash of Zwanze beer with us. Thanks Jeff – you’re the best!
