Jeroen van Bommel

Setting priorities

What is the best temperature for a good glass of beer? It depends on the drinkers taste, the weather, and whether you are going to drink the beer in or outside. But most of all, it depends on the type of beer. And even between those types there are a lot of differences.

,,Ah, Colonel. There you are. Try a real old English beer.”

,,Thanks! Well, bottoms up. My God, it’s warm!”

,,I bet you never tasted anything like that in your life. Warm? It’s quite cool for me.”

,,It tastes like tub water that comes through the faucet.”

The scene described above is from Dad’s Army, an English comedy show about the British Home Guard during the Second World War. An American officer gets handed a pint in a local pub in England. He quickly spits out the first sip, because he thinks the content of the glass is too warm. Everyone has their preferences and habits.

Aromas

In general, a beer is served with an average temperature of 5 degrees Celsius. This is perceived too cold for beers with a higher percentage of alcohol. More alcohol in the beer? Then you can go a lot higher with the serving temperature; up to 13 degrees Celsius, bringing out the full flavor of the beer. Some of those beers you can warm up by holding it in your hand a little longer. You know you have reached the right temperature when you smell the beer foam and the aromas are clearly traceable.

Cooling indicators

Some beers have a cooling meter on the bottle or on the can. In 2009 Grolsch was the first brand in the Netherlands with an improved thermo-chronic ink for the beer cans. The blue ink of the label got a deeper color at the recommended drinking temperature. Grolsch kept that temperature at around 6 to 8 degrees. Around the same time, Grolsch also came with a Cooling Alarm. It was an app which indicated when you had to cool your beer. ,,Turn on the Grolsch Cooling Alarm and drink your cans cold at the outside temperature you specify,” the brewer advertised.

Refilling

What about storing a can or bottle in the freezer? How often does it happen that a beer bottle is forgotten and the freezer compartment’s turned into a surreal work of art in no time? Avoid the freezer to prevent this and keep refilling the fridge (how about an app which tells you when to restock huh). If there’s a party and it’s self service, there’s always the question whether the guests have some social sense. And if they do, then there’s also the unspoken rule to always make sure that the cooled beers are first for grabs, otherwise, you’ll still face the same problem of warm beer (yuck).

Extra cold

With Heineken Extra Cold (we are going back to 2006 for the introduction) you don’t have think of a cooling meter like Grolsch has, let alone a freezer. The beer was tapped in the bars with a temperature of 0 degrees Celsius, with the tap itself covered in a layer of ice. The brewer claimed that during the development phase many women were especially positive about the taste of the extra cold beer. It seemed milder and gave less of that full-stomach feeling, because the carbonation bubbles turned out to be smaller at this temperature. The beer also tasted less bitter. The Heineken Extra Cold created an other experience, not comparable to the beers served and drunk at room temperature, or even to the other pilsners, which have a cooling system.

Cooling tips

If you use a glass to pour the beer in, you should of course also pay attention to the glass itself. When drinking a cool beer, you have to make sure that the glass itself does not come straight from the dishwasher, or at least cool it afterwards with a cold jet from the faucet.
Having your cold glass ready but forgot about the bottle? Here are some tips to quickly cool your beer:

Keep the bottles under the cold tap – It takes a long(er) time and your sink gets dirty with beer-labels. It also costs a lot of water and the bottles won’t stay cool for long.
Place the bottles in a bucket of ice water – When adding ice cubes, the glass of the bottle reacts with the ice. Not cold enough? Add salt for a lower freezing point (salt water freezes at a lower temperature). Stir occasionally so that the colder water makes more contact with the bottles.
The quickest way to cool the beer? – Wrap the bottles in a wet cloth and put them in the freezer, that way the cooling process starts faster. Do you easily forget things and don’t want that messy scene described earlier? Then we advice you to use the second tip.

When using salt with ice(water), make sure you wipe your can or bottle clean with a towel. Cold beer is nice, but an unexpected dose of salt with your first sip, not so much.

Do you have a beer cooling tip yourself? We would love to hear from you!
info@beerndx.com

The sediment we know as commercial

A tv ad can linger in your head. Until the very moment that you are in the supermarket or in your local pub. Make a choice. Did it actual stay in your head? Is it not just the price and your own taste that made you decide? Is the tv ad that influential?

Hello, he’s here again! On our television screen. With a beer in his hand: Bond. James Bond. With a significant difference: actor Daniel Craig is playing himself. But all of this still because of the cooperation between the film producers and the brewery. The former is preparing us for a cinematic experience in April. The latter is trying to get us to be as adventurous as the hero/actor: choose this brand. And this is just one of the many examples of beer ads on tv, past and present.

Something different than a Martini (source. Youtube)

Best friends

According to men blog guys.nl a beer ad for tv can be summarised into a one minute workshop. To make a commercial like that turns out very easily: ,,You need beer and men. Those men should not be too handsome, otherwise the viewer cannot identify with them. The main characters are holding the beer in their right hand: like that, most viewers can imagine they would use the product. In beer ads for tv the men always come in three. So, no single man all alone being pathetic.” The clip also explains that when one of the men wants to do something, the rest follows automatically. It’s the reason why you see the group drinking beer above a toilet bowl. The same toilet bowl, that is. ,,Although a toilet is not a good place to sell your product. So, just safe on the couch with three men.” And from here we can continue with a selection from the range of beer ads on tv, because evidently guys.nl saw the Amstel ads, the ones with the three best friends.

Very successful (‘they’ were talking about it near the coffee machine) were the commercials of Amstel. They were full of humour and the experiences of the three guys were more or less recognizable. In addition, it was a series, causing people not to switch channels whenever a new spot was aired. The viewers were curious ‘of what they would do now’. Moreover, the three actors who played the Amstelbuddies, took ‘revenge’ when they were put aside in favour of a new campaign. Something unexpected was heard after that by the three men: ,,Right. First a Bavaria.”

‘Not done’

You are going to wonder which tv ads from the past could be shown nowadays. Better formulated: which ones should better not be shown. In case of the friends, one clip stands out. Due to social developments and the event of pushing back the boundaries of political correctness, it would be ‘not done’ right now. It is the clip where the three men are asking themselves something. The ‘brave’ guy takes his chances and asks a blond woman a question about soccer using two glasses of beer and a wine glass. ,,Look, if the attacker gets the ball. Between the goalkeeper and the last player. How do you call this situation?” The blonde responds with a hoarse voice: ,,That’s offside.” The man says thanks and returns to his friends smiling with the anouncement: ,,It’s a man.”

There is another category of beer ads on tv which cannot always stand the test of time: commercials with stars in them. Famous people who, for a nice fee, are promoting a beer brand. Okay, at this moment Daniel Craig is still famous. But what about the ‘golden oldies’? When Lee van Cleef appeared on the television screen for Bavaria, some cries of wonder were to be heard at home. ,,Wow, that they got him to do this!” The movie cowboy shot a cap from a beer bottle to show his preference. How would that work today? It won’t have the same impact like then, because the current generation didn’t grow up with the used celebrities. Show it an audience now and it will only ring a bell to a few quiz show candidates. Mickey Rourke, Hugh Hefner and Diego Maradona could share the same fate. Morgan Freeman not. Probably.

Style, humour and a message

Many ads stand out because of the use of a certain style, humour or the message they want to carry out. The music plays a major role in one (old hits in a new jacket), the punchline of a joke in the other ( the walk-in fridge; apologies for the spoiler). And a change of mentality with just another one, like ‘when you drive you, never drink.’ Also, there are commercials with the purpose of profiling the brand as a sponsor of a music or sports event. That’s how they pay attention to a day or period on a calendar as well. Think about the football championships.

And what about the beer brands which are taking a different path? Not just a warning for drunk driving. No, it’s something… different. You see beer, you know the brand, but still… Charlie Sheen is leaving rehab after an alcohol abuse problem, but on the road homewards he thinks he is seeing everyone drinking beer. A cab driver, a pregnant woman, police officers, even his friends welcoming him back home. But then it’s revealed it’s a different kind of beer: Bavaria 0.0%. Alcohol free beer. The question arises: did I just watch a beer ad on tv? Or not?

Below the threshold of consciousness

With beer ads, one of the purposes is to get you thirsty. And that what you just saw sinks below the threshold of consciousness. That you will choose a certain brand at a certain time. A beer can have sediment at the bottom. It is possible. It can have a purpose. Is it the purpose to drink it? It’s an additional effect of brewing, like contracting ad agencies to get an audience to drink beer.

So? Are tv ads influential? It depends, with such a transfer of information, on the degree of exposure of the message to the recipient. However, the actual effect can never be measured extremely well. But if your brand won’t be named or it won’t be seen, it won’t be bought. Another question: which commercial can you remember? If you can name the brand as well, then you can state the brewery contracted the right ad agency. Moreover, the Trappist Westvleteren won’t be needing an ad on tv; word of mouth advertising has done enough.

It all comes down to the same thing: a beer, anyone?

Which beer commercials on tv are the most memorable to you?

Beauty is in the eye of the (be)holder

Drinking of beer is a matter of taste and preferences.The accompanying glass is usually dictated by the brewery. It is the reason that beside vases, flutes and pint glasses the most different creations are on the market and in the pub. We will focus on the glasses with holder for you.

Beer glasses without a foot; glasses that make you drink in an uptempo. And when there is a holder, you have to make room for it. Pub owners are dealing with this and the fans are dealing with it. But that makes the fan a fan.

The coachman’s glass

With a whole building surrounding the glass, it seems an unnecessary complicated plan to conquer the beer market. And yet, the story of the coachman’s glass is interesting and authentic enough to be told. Pauwel Kwak was in Napoleon’s time an innkeeper in Belgian Dendermonde and his customers were mainly coachmen. Because they didn’t have a lot of time the fine man invented a matching glass. One that enabled the coachmen to drink and to stay at their stand. The glass with a ball underneath (comparable with a Cambridge yard glass) was attached with a wooden holder on the coach. The beer came from brewery Bosteels from Buggenhout.

The principle of the coachman’s glass is the one like that of the boot glass. When there is air in the ball (or in the pointing piece of the boot), and the drinker underestimates the final gulps, the complete content will come out of the glass like a tsunami. A real challenge.

Expensive glasses

Nowadays the holder of the coachman’s glass will be delivered with a foot to let the drinker to be able to put the construction down. A nice object for home then. And that’s why the glasses became a popular collector’s items. As they experienced it at inn De Dulle Griet in Gent. The glasses disappeared by the dozens. If one ordered a Max from the House (not to confused with the beer from Pauwel Kwak), then one should hand in a collateral: a shoe. After ordering a beer a shoe is tossed in a basket and then the thing is hoist up from behind the counter. After a toilet visit the question remains: how come my one sock is that wet?

‘La corne du bois des pendus’

Brewery D’Ebly was taken to court in 2012 by aforementioned brewery Bosteels. The glass associated with the beer ‘La corne du bois des pendus’ would resemble too much with the coachman’s glass of Pauwel Kwak. Both glasses have a wooden holder, so they can stand straight. And there ends the comparison. Pauwel Kwak is to be drank out of a straight glass with a ball underneath, ‘La corne’ is horn-shaped. That’s why the court ruled in favour of D’Ebly.

Laafse Lurk

And then you had the glasses of the Laafse Lurk. The Double beer was inspired bij The People of Laaf from the amusement park The Efteling where it was served. It was brewed by Arcener Steam Beerbrewery in Arcen, now known as the Hertog Jan Steam Beerbrewery. The reasons the beer no longer exists: the relative high percentage of alcohol, the glasses that invited the drinker to drink in an uptempo, and the surroundings of the park consisting of attractions for children.

Out of what exceptional glass did you drink?