Hey Folks,

A quick word about Weldwerks Brewing being “distributed” in Nebraska.

Some of you might know Alex, as I do. Alex is a former resident of Lincoln. I first met him when he worked at one my early retail accounts in the Capital City. Since then, he has moved on to work for Weldwerks Brewing in Colorado. A while back I happened to see him here in Lincoln. He told me he wanted to come back with some beer and have a little festiveness at a few of the places in Lincoln where he had close friends. He wondered if I could help him do that and I told him I’d be happy to do so.

I do want to make it clear that whatever is happening is what Alex wanted to happen and Good Life Provisions did not select any accounts. We are just helping out some friends to have a party or two. This wasn’t some business move to reward a certain account or anything like that. BUT, we do think it is super cool that Alex wants to share what he has become a part of since he left Nebraska and we are very happy we are able to help him do that. At this time, there has been no discussion with Weldwerks about any further distribution in Nebraska.

Question: Why Not Zwanze Day?

Answer: Maybe Yes! (see below for more, including 3 original knock knock jokes)

Zwanze is Brasserie Cantillon. Zwanze is a word from a unique dialect that exists more or less only in Brussels, Belgium.  I was told that it means something like a person who would never answer a straight-forward question: Well, yes maybe.  Somebody sarcastic, I guess. The first Zwanze beer (it was not originally thought of as an ongoing series) was a lambic made with Rhubarb (a tart/sour vegetable).  The laugh here is classically Brussels: Why would you need to add a sour vegetable to a sour beer?!  Ha! (insert roaring laughter track)

For the uninitiated, it needs to be said that Brasserie Cantillon is very perhaps the place that led to a world-wide reverence (and resurgence) for sour beer.  They brew lambic, generally consisting of raw (unmalted) wheat and malted barley produced via a turbid mash (to amplify the starches). Those liquid grain sugars and starches are cooled overnight in a shallow vat up in the attic…then they are moved to oak barrels. No slurries of lab cultured yeast or bacteria are pitched. Everything that impacts the beer lives within the air, the walls, the pipes, and the barrels…of that place in Brussels.  Once in the barrels, the beer ferments and evolves from 1 to 3 years before being blended with other batches and maybe seeing some fruits (or vegetables!) added towards the end.  The result is dry, acidic, woody, wacky, lactic, and frequently intense but still nuanced.  In the 1990s, these beers influenced the people who would become the icons of the American craft brewery scene…and they still influence and inspire.  Even if you won’t find vanilla or milk sugar in any of them…

So what?

2 years ago, I ordered a single keg of Kerkom Kriek from Shelton Brothers (the importer of Cantillon).  When the shipment arrived, the Kerkom Kriek wasn’t there…but there was a keg of Cantillon Kriek.  Whoops!  I tucked it away.  Eventually, I got tired of moving it around my warehouse as we grew…so I asked Dave at Casual Pint if we could tap it on what has become International Zwanze Day…and call it “Not Zwanze Day.”  We couldn’t get a keg of Zwanze here (they are too limited) so this isn’t Zwanze Day.  Dave was worried we would make somebody upset by using the name Zwanze at all, so I called my friends at Shelton Brothers and they said “That’s cool, we can probably send another Cantillon keg if you want it.”  Answer: maybe Yes! But time got delayed (time is NEVER on time, is it? Certainly not when you want it to be), and we couldn’t get the second Cantillon keg here in time to tap them both ON “Zwanze Day.”  So we decided it was cool to delay the Kriek tapping because in the end, this is NOT ZWANZE DAY.  No Zwanze is being offered. Yes No Maybe Thank you. Right?

So, for your beer drinking needs, we have that accidentally shipped Cantillon Kriek keg, Cantillon Classic Gueuze…and some beers from folks that are very much friends of Brasserie Cantillon: Brouwerij De Ranke, Brasserie De La Senne, and from the USA Hill Farmstead. 

You will never find all 6 of these beers on tap at one location in Nebraska again. Some may never appear again even on their own.   But RaritY isn’t the point. The soul is what we are concerned with here. Coming together. Friends & Community. What makes us in common and what makes us other? The people that make these 6 beers are some of the most dedicated artisans I have ever encountered. They are all also very unique, interesting, and empathetic souls.

The ghostly souls of those far away folks will wander into the Casual Pint community and fall out of the faucets for a day. I am so giddy.

Peace.

KNOCK KNOCK

Q: Who is there? A: Not Zwanze.

Q: Not Zwanze Who?  A: Maybe No?

KNOCK KNOCK

Q: Who is there? A: Rhubaarb Fool

Q: Rhubaarb Fool Who? A: Who did put Rhubaard in my lambic?

Editor’s Note: Bourbon Barrel Peace has been released in Nebraska as of April 25, 2016.  See the end of this post for locations that received it.

Back in late winter of 2015, when I asked Mikkel if he would do a beer to help support my dear friend Pat Clinch’s fight against pancreatic cancer, I also asked if he could put some into bourbon barrels.  Because, why not?  Mikkel delivered.  A few bourbon barrels from that one and only brewing of Peace were filled in June 2015.  In January of 2016, those bourbon barrels were emptied and bottled.  The beer is still called Peace, but the barrel aging makes a clear impact on the beer.

Good Life Provisions received a small allotment of the BA (that’s short for Barrel Aged for any non-beer geeks out there) version of Peace and as of April 25, I have started spreading it around to my accounts.  I decided that I wanted this version to be shared with the world though, so the volume available in Nebraska is much smaller (less than 25%) than the non-BA version. Pat’s face will be showing up (and already has) at bars and shops and glasses in Scandinavia, Europe, and many other US states.

Of course, thoughts of Pat have never ceased, but sitting down with this beer and having my first taste of it brought quite a wave of emotion back.  I felt that the clear thumb print of the bourbon on the beer was fitting.  I have never been a “shot guy”, and I can’t say Pat really was either but I have quite a few memories of him imploring me (or demanding) that I take a shot with him to get things started!  Pat was one of the very few people with whom I would indulge in that way, and I feel like it was frequently bourbon that we shot.

Enjoy responsibly and all that.  Don’t forget that hugs are free and should be given liberally.

Locations receiving BA Peace during the week of April 25, 2016:

Lincoln:

On The Go Convenience.  5240 S 48th St (NE corner of 48th & HWY 2)

Happy Raven. 122 N 11th St.

Hy-Vee Williamsburg. 6001 Village Dr. (40th & Old Cheney)

Jake’s Cigars.  101 N 14th St.

Leon’s Grocery.  2200 Winthrop Rd.

Meier’s Cork & Bottle. 1244 South St.

Moran’s Liquor Works. 3400 A St.

N Street. 1801 O St.

The Still.  6820 S 70th St.

Omaha:

Beertopia. 3570 Farnum St.

Brix at Village Pointe. 225 N 170th St. Suite 101

Hy-Vee Stony Brook. 14591 Stony Brook Blvd

Hy-Vee Linden Market.  747 N 132nd St.

Spirit World.  6680 Center St.