OnTap Magazine

BREWER'S DOZEN JEAN PIERRE VAN ROY 9 CHARLIE PAPAZIAN 11 MICHAEL JACKSON 12 The resurgent popularity of the Lambic beers of Belgium is one of the great successes of the craft beer revolution. At the forefront of this resurgence has been Brasserie Cantillon in Brussels. Founded by Paul Cantillon in 1900 and passed down through the family, the brewery landed up under the control of Jean-Pierre Van Roy in 1969. At this time the popularity of Lambic beers had begun to wane, and the brewery was struggling to survive. Jean-Pierre took a decision not to alter his beers to suit changing palates and rather to focus on the traditional brewing and maturation processes. He opened up the Museum of Gueuze on the brewery property to educate and revive this ancient beer style. Fortunately, his efforts were successful and, now under the guidance of his son Jean, the brewery has expanded and thrived as international adoration for Lambic has grown. No person has gone more than a month in homebrewing without coming across the name Charlie Papazian. To say that he is the father of modern homebrewing is no understatement since his seminal work ‘The Complete Joy of Homebrewing’ was the catalyst for the homebrewing explosion which led to the craft beer revolution. He also founded the American Homebrew Association and the Great American Beer Festival. A true legend! No list of beer heroes, or heroes of any kind, should exclude Michael Jackson. The writer (not the moonwalker, in case you needed confirmation) was possibly the single most influential person in modern beer history. Not only did he create an interest in the idiosyncratic regional beer styles from Europe and further afield, but he laid much of the foundations for how we understand beer styles today. GEORGE HODGSON 10 We have all heard some variation of the IPA story. That beers sent to India were found to arrive in better condition if they were higher in ABV and contained more hops. Sadly, this story is not true, and the actual tale is less definite. What is certain is that one of the first references to India Pale Ale was a description of George Hodgson’s beer – one of the original and most prolific exporters of ale to the sub-continent. Given the fundamental importance of IPA to craft beer today, I’d say Hodgson deserves a little kudos. The single most influential person in modern beer history BEVPLUS (PTY) LTD 13 MICHIGAN STREET, AIRPORT INDUSTRIA, CAPE TOWN 7490, SOUTH AFRICA T: +27 21 820 9500 | F: +27 86 719 2632 | E: info@bevplus.com | www.bevplus.com ENJOY THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF FRESH FILTERED WATER WITH OUR TOP QUALITY WATER MACHINES!