If you're unhappy with your product in any way Simply email us at shop@goodbeerhunting.com SHIPPINGAll orders will be processed and shipped in about a week's to ten days time This isn't always perfect (we're not Amazon) so if you have a rush please email us ahead at shop@goodbeerhunting.com to make sure we can pull it off in time Your email or personal information will never be shared or sold to anyone Longreads and photographic journeys documenting our ongoing worldwide adventures in beer three young Belgian brewers changed the words on the label of one of their beers from “IPA” to “PISS OFF.” “I wanted to put ‘FUCK OFF’ on it,” says Brouwerij ‘t Verzet co-founder Alex Lippens I just couldn’t believe that people were telling us what our beer was.” Rebel Local is an English-Style India Pale Ale the 2011 success of which allowed Verzet to open a commercial brewery earlier this year “We were influenced by the English IPA,” Lippens says “It was created with around 45 IBUs and dry-hopped with classic English hop varieties.” the emergence of IPAs—a style indigenous to England but resurrected by the citrus and tropical fruit characteristics of new world hop varieties (and now hugely popular in the United States)—is very much ongoing “Everyone was telling us that it wasn’t an IPA,” Verzet co-founder Koen Van Lancker concurs Van Lancker and third co-founder Joran Van Ginderachter were 24-year-olds with a healthy suspicion of authority—‘‘t Verzet” translates into English as “The Resistance”— and a desire to rail against the perceptions in the beer world of Belgium as slow-moving and traditional Opening a business together was a kind of anarchy The three met while studying at university “In our final year we were offered the option of studying brewing science for our master year of biochemistry,” Van Lancker remembers “We were the only three people in our class who chose this subject.” They graduated in 2008 and immediately secured jobs in three very different breweries Van Lancker got a job at De Proef Brouwerij “proef” can mean “taste,” “test,” or “try.” But De Proef the brewery is a contract facility in Lochristi owned by scientist and brewmaster Dirk Naudts “I’ve got huge respect for Dirk,” Van Lancker says Working at De Proef—who brews for Mikkeller and To Øl—exposed Van Lancker to myriad styles and a range of beers from other parts of the world “Belgium has always been our first influence,” Van Lancker says “But because I worked for De Proef I had a lot of Scandinavian beers and a lot of American-style beers.” Lippens began working for Brouwerij Omer Vanderghinste a regional family brewery in West Flanders most known for its traditional blond and its mixed fermentation Vanderghinste Oud Bruin (5.5% ABV) “The day after I ended my brewing studies I started working in Omer,” Lippens says “After two years there I became head brewer.” He split his time between the brewhouse and technical projects such as automating the brewery filtration and cleaning systems Verzet fulfills his craving for a different challenge “I was never involved in recipe development at Omer,” he says but that my creativity was being pushed down I personally don’t mind bringing a beer out that doesn’t work My personal goal is to be the best brewer in the world Van Ginderachter worked at Belgian family brewery Van Honsebrouck before securing a four-month internship at New Belgium Brewing Company in Colorado thanks to a family contact (His uncle is New Belgium brewmaster Peter Bouckaert.) That opened up the doors for another opportunity For the last three years he’s worked at Three Taverns Brewery in Decatur “My uncle Peter was put in touch with Three Taverns founder Brian Purcell who was looking for a Belgian brewer,” Van Ginderachter says “Peter gave him some schools to contact and he also recommended some people “It was the hardest decision I had to make in my life,” Van Ginderachter says “I was always interested in working abroad Alex and Koen also encouraged me to go for it I miss working with them and we stay in contact Even though I’m not involved in day to day production we talk every two to three weeks about ideas for the brewery “He helps us with contacts in the United States,” Lippens says “Before we bought this brewery he advised us to stop working in Belgium because the U.S But we’re here in Belgium to push things forward.” The trio gained a formal education in brewing and biochemistry They worked full-time jobs at three different commercial breweries while producing Verzet beers at four different facilities in Flanders They purchased their own purpose-built 20HL system earlier this year Their range of beers includes not only a low-alcohol hop-forward Session Ale and a mixed fermentation Stout aged in whiskey barrels the most traditional of beer styles in the region in which they brew The experience in various breweries has given them a sense of perspective on managing their own skill sets “It’s not because you worked in a big brewery that you can work in a small brewery,” Van Lancker admits “We worked in different breweries and mostly at different stages of the process and Lippens has more experience in the brewhouse Despite the maturation, some rebellion remains intact. Several months ago in an interview with Swiss blog, Bier Versuche the owner of the Danish beer company Mikkeller spoke about how easy it was to brew “I know this sounds arrogant and might not be right,” Mikkel Borg Bjergsø told Bier Versuche “But I always say you can train a monkey to brew a beer.” The throw-away line got under Lippens’ skin It undermines the talent and hard work of brewers respect for the guys you work with is everything.” In a statement more befitting their name and the irreverent behavior of their youth Lippens and Van Lancker went out and bought monkey masks for a one-off release called Scandinavian Pussy “We’re just monkeys making this beer so we named it after him,” Lippens says “He’s a Scandinavian Pussy because he is too scared to run his own brewery.” Few breweries in Belgium produce as varied a lineup of beers as Verzet not to mention one which looks to other countries for inspiration as much as it does to their Belgian heritage Super NoAH—standing for “No American Hops”—is Verzet’s 4.9% ABV bitter Session Ale “We were trying to avoid overusing ingredients and spices in particular,” Lippens says “Like a good chef making his sauce perfectly when you taste something in there but you just can’t recognize it It’s good practice for us to learn to be subtle.” Oaky Moakey (7.5% ABV) is a Stout aged in whiskey barrels which undergoes a mixed fermentation “We put a clean brew into whiskey barrels to take the characteristics of the whiskey,” Van Lancker explains “We then have older barrels which go to the lacto side and we blend them in before bottling That way we have more control over the final flavor We’re building up our volume now and we want it to be consistent.” 7% ABV) was conceived as a celebration beer for the 50th birthday of a local priest he was going out to India to do some volunteering work with the money raised,” Van Lancker says “We found out that the Mango was the local fruit in India so we looked for a hop which gives the impression of Mango We found that in the Ella hop from Australia.” Verzet’s mixed fermentation Oud Bruin (6% ABV) may not be their biggest in volume it’s the indigenous beer of the region in which they are based Their interpretation leans closely to the red-brown sub-variant from South West Flanders made famous by Rodenbach and neighboring Verhaeghe “You have the balance in the old-school versions which are more sweet,” Lippens says “We wanted to go more to the sour side and add our own twist.” Nino Bacelle of Brouwerij De Ranke—where ‘t Verzet gypsy brewed for a period—has seen the development of this beer first hand “The Oud Bruin they make is fantastic,” Nino raves “It’s the only Oud Bruin in the whole of Belgium which is not filtered or pasteurized It’s the beer that Van Ginderachter reflects most on from the States “The Oud Bruin is a beer which we can all be very very proud of,” he says we were a very small brewery with very limited money It was stressful to make such a huge investment for our size and keep it in barrels for a year before bringing it out I’m really happy with how it has turned out.” The Oud Bruin starts out as a Brown Ale with high levels of residual sugar which is fermented in stainless steel for primary then aged for lactic acid bacteria inoculation and flavor development in one of their 40 wooden barrels or four large oak foeders They taste through the barrels and foeders and use various batches as part of a blend with young brown beer before bottling “We blend mostly based on taste,” Van Lancker says “We’ve been producing the Oud Bruin for five years We more and more understand what is going on and how we can influence what’s going on In the beginning it was difficult for us but it’s getting better every time Verzet has recently started a series of Oud Bruin spin-offs “I was reading a book about making oak leaf wine,” Lippens says “I link everything I read and see to beer and breweries so I pitched the idea to the others of aging the beer on oak leaf to see what impact it would have on the tannin content Brewing without a brewery in Belgium has become a political minefield, whether that’s contracting brands or gypsy brewing. Two years ago, a group of Belgian brewers wrote an open letter—published in the Le Soir newspaper in May 2014—about how they thought contract beers and beer firms were hurting the country’s beer culture The 12-paragraph letter was signed by 15 breweries including Yvan De Baets of Brasserie de la Senne and Kris Herteleer of Brouwerij De Dolle Brouwers supposedly one of the last of our national treasures which seem to have purely commercial interests are placing its reputation in serious jeopardy They brewed their beers themselves in various facilities around Belgium including Gulden Spoor “I think we did worry about what people in Belgium thought,” Van Lancker says There’s a growing realization about the importance of operations outside brewing through Authentic Beverage Management Imports “We now see that we have to be more professional in our marketing,” Van Lancker says “We’ve grown up and had conversations amongst ourselves about being less anarchic In the beginning we thought that nothing else mattered apart from the beer But we now know that everything has to be perfect you’ll give it a good label and good packaging.” While they may not agree with the brewers who signed that open letter Their purchase of a brewery was financed by two silent investors “They’ve been involved since our home-brewing,” Lippens says of the benefactors “They help with book-keeping and logistics and this building But they don’t want to get involved publicly and they’re not involved in brewing decisions at all but they want to make money out of it after 10 years and help us build our dreams.” The three young men of Verzet want to accomplish some things as well And as the success builds up and they build out their own spot “My personal goal was to have my own brewery before I turned 30,” Lippens says but you do need a certain amount of people drinking your beer to gain a reputation and Publications that’ll drive you to drink the plot is situated on the transition from a typical part of a flemish ribbon development to a detached ‘belle époque’-style architecture so it was vital that the design could seamlessly link both to create a fluent transition all images by jeroen verrecht the trapezoidal shape of the site forced the architects of graux & baeyens to find a creative solution. they created a semi-open house, which begins very narrowly on the street side and opens up to the back. due to the site’s shape, the house’s side façade became a part of the street scenery by default garden strip and the proximity to its neighbor the architects decided to have the side façade staggered in relation to the plot boundary creating an animated the zig-zagging facade allows the side garden to be developed into a habitable space the house was designed as three intersecting square-plan volumes with varying roof heights and clad in multi-colored bricks the rectangular spaces hold functions such as an office this creates an interesting mutual relationship between the attached areas accentuated by the concrete beams that support the upper level and roof playing with the notion that both the front and side facade face the street the architects used it as an opportunity to add volume to the two-dimensional ribbon development their design establishes a dialogue with the adjacent villa bringing a new aesthetic to the neighborhood architecture & interior design: graux & baeyens architecten photography: jeroen verrecht design & construction year: 2013-2017  designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here. AXOR presents three bathroom concepts that are not merely places of function but destinations in themselves — sanctuaries of style yellow and red jersey from teammate Tim Merlier with a solo move from a large breakaway De Bondt attacked over the top of the penultimate climb with 10km to go and never looked back opening 20 seconds over the 18-rider chasing group that could never agree to cooperate in chasing him down Deceuninck-Quickstep's Iljo Keisse and Pieter Serry led the group home to complete the podium Franklin Six (Bingoal WB) and Jordy Bouts (Bel) Tarteletto-Isorex were the first attackers and quickly gained a large margin holding 3:30 ahead of the Muur van Geraardsbergen cobbled climb shattered their lead and broke the peloton in two leaving them with less than a minute not long after the climb Louis Vervaeke (Alpecin-Fenix) and Tim Declercq (Deceuninck-Quickstep) bridged across to the trio but served more as an anchor and the race was back together after only 61km Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) sparked a large attack as the race entered the seven local laps with 131.6km to go drawing out 20 riders: Dries De Bondt and Otto Vergaerde (Alpecin-Fenix) Tosh Van der Sande and Jelle Wallays (Lotto Soudal) Iljo Keisse and Pieter Serry (Deceuninck-Quickstep) Alfdan De Decker and Xandro Meurisse (Circus-Wanty Gobert) Lindsay De Vylder and Aaron Van Poucke (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) Dimitri Peyskens and Ludovic Robeet (Bingoal WB) Gianni Marchand and Michaël Van Staeyen (Tarteletto-Isorex) Eli Iserbyt and Laurens Sweeck (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) and Mathias De Witte (Natura4ever-Roubaix-Lille Metropole) The group managed to keep a two-minute gap over a decreasing chasing peloton until the final lap when they would battle for the tricolor jersey De Bondt tried to fracture the lead group with 13km to go before the climb of the Schernaai but couldn't make a dent when Serry tried an attack over the top and crashed in a turn De Bondt seized the chance and launched a solo move Bakelants led a furious chase on the Tiegemberg but De Bondt still had a dozen seconds in hand on the descent she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track Laura has a passion for all three disciplines When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads UCI governance and performing data analysis.