Dupont / Iron Hill Spéciale Belge For Philly Beer Week (UPDATE)

TOURPES, Belgium – Frost lingers in the Wallonian morning air as a group of sleepy Philadelphians arrives early to the cobblestone courtyard of Brasserie Dupont.

The legendary farmhouse brewery, in the Belgian countryside a few miles from the French border, has agreed to collaborate on a special brew with a contingent of brewers and bar owners representing Philly Beer Week. To be poured at the Philadelphia festival this summer, it will be the first collaboration in the brewery’s 166-year history – a fact that speaks both to the prominence of the city’s annual beer celebration and its special relationship with Belgian producers.

This beer will be something Dupont hasn’t done in recent history: a ’30s-style "Spéciale Belge" with pale ale malt tweaked by peat-smoked barley.

"I am definitely excited," said Chris LaPierre, head brewer at Iron Hill’s Maple Shade location, who was chosen in a Philly Beer Week raffle in the fall to be the local pro to participate. "I’m just hoping to learn as much as possible."

Dupont’s fourth-generation brewer Olivier Dedeycker is there to greet them. He is already focused and intense. Within moments, he and LaPierre are down in the malt room, inspecting the grains to be used in the brew. The peat-smoked barley from nearby Malterie du Château de Beloeil is the subject of discussion. LaPierre fears that too much will overwhelm the beer, but after munching a handful, he realizes it is gentler than expected.

Once they agree on the blend, the augur in the old grain mill clicks into gear. Conveyor belts surge to life. A sweet haze of toasty malt fills the air. Enormous flames burst from furnace jets beneath Dupont’s 90-year-old copper brew kettles. And the climactic finale of the Philadelphians’ weeklong Belgian mission starts rising to a boil.

Philadelphia has been called "Brussels on the Schuylkill" for good reason. Canadian beer writer Stephen Beaumont coined the label in the late ’90s when "there was nowhere else in the U.S. that was as into Belgium." The sustained interest distinguishes the city as one of America’s best beer towns, even as Belgian styles become more influential in craft brewing across the nation.

Update 5/7/2012:

Spéciale Belge, Brasserie Dupont’s first collaboration in its 166 year history, is the featured beer of Philly Beer Week. It will debut during the Opening Ceremonies at Independence Hall on June 1, 2012 in the presence of Mayor Nutter; starting June 10, the beer will be available coast to coast.

But how did this momentous collaboration come about?

For those of you who do not know Philly well, Tom Peters is one of the nation’s leading publican proponents of Belgian beers and is the proprietor of Monk’s (and several other notable spots). In recognition of his contributions, he was inducted into the Belgian Brewers’ Guild in 2004 (Don and I were the first Americans ever inducted… a decade earlier).

Back in the early winter of 2011, Tom – a co-chair of Philly Beer Week (PBW) – called us to ask a “spéciale” favor. He had a fond wish to convince Olivier Dedeycker, of Brasserie Dupont, to brew their first ever collaboration beer for this year’s beer extravaganza in the City of Brotherly Love. Dupont is one of Tom’s favorite breweries, and he considers Saison Dupont to be the absolute benchmark of the saison style. Additionally, he’s a fan of spéciale belge, a Belgian amber beer style that dates back to 1905. He asked us to help make the case to Olivier – which we were happy to do – as well as that a smoky version of spéciale belge be brewed.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2012. Each year, PBW holds a contest in which home brewers buy a raffle ticket in hopes of winning a free trip to the brewery where the PBW collaboration beer of the year will be brewed. In addition, contest winners get to choose a local brewer to accompany them on the trip. This year’s winner was Joe Masciandaro, a member of the Barley Legal Homebrew club. His local brewer of choice was Chris Lapierre (Lappy), a well regarded brewer who operates out of Iron Hill’s brewpub in Maple Shade. Iron Hill has won many medals in US competitions and was a worthy honoree.

Don and I arrived in Belgium in mid-February, and within a few days, the PBWdelegation made their appearance for the brew day at Dupont. We met them there at the crack of dawn. Literally (see left). All was ready for the big day. This year, PBW had a wonderful writer and the Philadelphia Inquirer restaurant critic in tow to chronicle the delegation’s entire voyage, and especially the Dupont brew day. We absolutely urge you to read writer Craig Laban‘s article on brew day and stay tuned for more of his writing when the beer arrives in Philly; a few tidbits of his brew day observations are excerpted below:

history – and simplicity in recipes – are the philosophy of this house,” says Dedeycker. As proof, he brings out two frayed brewing logs, elegantly scribed 110 years ago by his grandfather, Sylva Rosier. Dedeycker turns to these first whenever he needs inspiration for a “new” beer. His excellent Monk’s Stout is a prime example. As is the Spécial Belge, the collaboration that is simmering away next door. Coordinated by Dupont’s pioneering importers Don Feinberg and Wendy Littlefield of Vanberg & DeWulf, it is the product of two years of conceptual discussions with Peters, and LaPierre offering fine-tuning input, too.

have a test-batch here, do you want to taste?” says Dedeycker, who holds up a glass with an amber brew. It will be darker once made against the caramelizing heat of the larger copper kettle. The smoke will be dialed-up an extra notch, too. Peters chimes in swiftly: “It’ll be my first beer of the day!”

After touring the brewery, having a tasting of Dupont beers, a lunch at La Forge (where Olivier’s elementary school classmate in Tourpes mans the stove), and a visit to the local malterie that supplies the barley (smoked and not), the crew piled back into the brew house to witness the ceremony of adding hops. This was performed by Lapierre and Masciandaro. We apologize for the crappy photo, as the lens got steamed up:

We will let Craig’s evocative reporting take it from here:

The finishing hops

It was just after 3 p.m., and the group had returned from a tavern lunch of braised rabbit and a field trip to the local maltery, where toasty puffs of roasting-barley smoke streamed into the sky.

The collaboration beer is roiling inside the kettles, a rich and biscuity foam rising nearly to the top. It is time to add the finishing hops so this Spéciale can begin to cool and start its fermentation. About 200 kegs and 1,300 bottles are to be shipped in time for a June 1 debut at Philly Beer Week’s Opening Tap.

While the rest of the crew gather around the kettle for the finale, Reed sneaks up creaky wooden stairs to the attic, where the kettle’s vent pipe opens up in the floor. As LaPierre and Masciandaro in tandem grab buckets of English Bramling Cross hops and slowly dump them in below, Reed reaches his hand to cover the hole.

As green hops hit the brew, a gust of beer steam billows into the room around Reed, with the vivid smell of black currants, hay, and lemon. Slowly, it evaporates through the gaps and holes in Brasserie Dupont’s terra-cotta-tiled roof and drifts across the frigid Belgian countryside, west toward the Atlantic.It was just after 3 p.m., and the group had returned from a tavern lunch of braised rabbit and a field trip to the local maltery, where toasty puffs of roasting-barley smoke streamed into the sky.

The collaboration beer is roiling inside the kettles, a rich and biscuity foam rising nearly to the top. It is time to add the finishing hops so this Spéciale can begin to cool and start its fermentation. About 200 kegs and 1,300 bottles are to be shipped in time for a June 1 debut at Philly Beer Week’s Opening Tap.

While the rest of the crew gather around the kettle for the finale, Reed sneaks up creaky wooden stairs to the attic, where the kettle’s vent pipe opens up in the floor. As LaPierre and Masciandaro in tandem grab buckets of English Bramling Cross hops and slowly dump them in below, Reed reaches his hand to cover the hole.

As green hops hit the brew, a gust of beer steam billows into the room around Reed, with the vivid smell of black currants, hay, and lemon. Slowly, it evaporates through the gaps and holes in Brasserie Dupont’s terra-cotta-tiled roof and drifts across the frigid Belgian countryside, west toward the Atlantic.