Wed, 18 Jan 2012

Draft Beer Update
Flying Fish Grand Cru replaced Stoudts Pumpkinfest. Grand Cru is a very tasty Belgian style gold ale. It's Flying Fish Farmhouse's bigger brother and is long time favorite around here.

Sly Fox Grisette replaced Ithaca Cold Front. I remember when Sly Fox first brewed this one. Head brewer Brian O'Reilly was the head brewer, the salesman, and the delivery guy. Sly Fox has come a long way. That was many years ago. I recall Brian's email telling me Grisette was a Belgian farmhouse ale. That was many years ago and my memory ain't what it was. So I looked up the official description to refresh my memory. "Grisette is a a Belgian farmhouse ale which was originally brewed in the Hainaut Province to be the beer of the miners in the area, just as Saison was the beer of the farmers. It was lighter than saison and frequently contained wheat as well as barley malt (as does the Sly Fox version). The name is derived from the French word for grey, referring to the young women (the grisettes) who doled out pints as the men exited from the mines while still dressed in their grey factory frocks."

So it's more of mineshaft ale than a farmhouse ale. Vincent Van Gogh when he was a missionary in Belgium lived with and ministered to the miners. Maybe he enjoyed a few grisettes (beers not women) during his time there. We can now enjoy some Grisettes here at the Grisette Lodge. If you want to paint or draw while you are here, feel free.

I did a little Googling a Vincent did indeed live in the Borinage, which turns out is an industrial region in the Belgian province of Hainaut. That's our lesson for today.