Zwanze Day 2016 - Thin Man Brewery

Who's in? Tickets sold out in about an hour. I'm coming up from Pittsburgh (flying solo).

Anyone have additional information? Bottle shares in line? Draught list? Merchandise? I've emailed the brewery and will post any info received.

 

Here's the original info provided by Thin Man:

On Saturday, October 1st we are hosting the incredible Zwanze Day 2016 featuring the Zwanze 2016 & 5 other Cantillon beers on tap. We will be opening doors at 11am with all Cantillon on tap except the Zwanze 2016 which will start pouring at 3pm.

Zwanze 2016 will be served in 6oz pours so there is enough to go around.

Tickets for Zwanze pours will be capped at 160: You will not need a zwanze ticket for admittance, just for a pour of Zwanze 2016

$25 gets a 6oz Zwanze 2016 Pour, additional non Zwanze 6oz Cantillon pour & a commerorative 2016 Thin Man Zwanze Day 2016 glass.

Thin Man owes a huge thaks to Cantillon, Shelton Brothers & Remarkable Liquids for making this day possible.

Here is a description of Zwanze 2016 from Jean Van Roy, Owner/Brewer of Cantillon

The Zwanze 2016 :

When I was a kid, I would come to the brewery to lend a hand during my summer vacations. My father needed help refilling barrels of lambic with sour cherries and raspberries that came to the brewery by the ton. I would go home with red hands and a small case of indigestion after having stuffed myself, too!

At the time, sour cherries and raspberries came from the Pajottenland, harvested within about ten kilometers of the brewery: local fruit for a local beer. The summers were subject to the whims of the weather, going from sunny and hot one year to wet and cold the next. Being finicky fruit, raspberries were particularly sensitive to the changing weather, and went from being very flavorful and brilliant red to bland and colorless – something that of course determined the degree of acidity and the color of our Framboise Lambic.

At the beginning of the '80s, we compensated for the lack of color in our Framboise with the addition of Kriek Lambic. The excessive acidity added by the fruit was tempered by the use of vanilla. This is how, during the decade to follow, Cantillon Framboise evolved into a blend of 75% raspberries, 25% sour cherries, and .05% vanilla.

Throughout the '90s, with increasing demand for housing, labor costs rising, and artificial flavors and syrups coming into use by many of the Lambic brewers, there was an almost complete disappearance of cherry orchards and raspberry farms in the Pajottenland. We were therefore forced to look for our fruit outside of Belgium. Today, our raspberries come from Serbia. Brighter, more flavorful, and more consistent than their Belgian cousins, these Serbian raspberries mean we no longer need to turn to cherries and vanilla to make our Rosé de Gambrinus, which is now 100% raspberry.

For Zwanze 2016, I wanted to do a bit of a throwback and revisit one of these old blends. Since the intensity of today's Rosé de Gambrinus approaches that of the Kriek, the additions of cherries to the raspberries no longer seemed necessary.

Instead, we had to turn to a fruit that would bring more intense color and flavor sufficient to stand out. My choice was to bring in the blueberries that we've used for the last ten years to create our Blåbær Lambic, a special beer done for the Danish market.

For our third ingredient, we've opted to use the finest possible Bourbon vanilla beans. During the '80s we used vanilla extract for reasons purely financial. Traditional Lambic-based beers were, at the time, under-appreciated and the breweries that produced only spontaneously fermented beers struggled to make ends meet. Cantillon was no exception, and it was impossible for us to use real vanilla in our Framboise. Zwanze 2016 is the new incarnation of what should have been during the dark years of Lambic.

To best appreciate the complexity of this beer, we suggest tasting it at a temperature of 12 to 15° C (55 to 60º F). Don't hesitate to warm your glass a bit if the beer is served too cold.

We've stepped back in time 30 years for Zwanze 2016, which is the result of a blend of 82% raspberries, 18% blueberries, and .05% Bourbon Vanilla beans, on which we've aged two-year-old Lambic at a rate of 300g fruit per liter.

À votre santé et vive le Lambic!

Jean

 

I also created an event page here: https://www.beeradvocate.com/events/info/81204/

 

kkdowning, thanks for the info. Do you remember which Cantillon they had on draught last year? I know it was a different location, and different year, but it's always fun to speculate.

elucas730, sorry to hear about missing the ticket sales. I'll keep an eye out for anyone posting about extra tickets.

 

elucas730, and all, Thin Man posted this on their Facebook page:

Just so you know, Zwanze Day is not a closed event. There are 160 people fortunate enough to get tickets for the Zwanze beer, but we will have 5 other kegs of Cantillon on tap as well as a bunch of other amazing draft options, hopefully 6-8 of our own!!!! We also have gotten our hands on bottles of Drie Fontenein beers for Zwanze Day. See you October 1st.

BrettG19, I've never been, but have looked at the menu and plan on eating about four different times during the day.

kkdowning, have never had Thin Man beers, but am hoping that they offer taster flights so I can try them all while in the area.