Duvel. It isn’t just the eponymous flagship of a world-famous beer brewery; it’s almost a style all its own. The oft-imitated and never-matched Duvel—which means ‘Devil’ in the local tongue—has inspired an entire generation of new-world craft brewers as they try to unlock the mysteries and traditions of old Belgium.

The range of beers from the family-owned Duvel Moortgat is both impressive and distinctive. Besides their namesake Duvel, they also brew the famous abbey-style beers of Maredsous, La Chouffe with its folk elves on the labels, and even a taste of the new with America’s own Ommegang. The thirst-quenching and invigorating Vedett White is also made available only in Belgium and Japan via their importing partner, Konishi Brewery.

We sat down with Duvel-Moortgat’s Michel Moortgat, who was in Tokyo for the release of Liefmans’ “On the Rocks,” which is a new take on a traditional style fruit beer—by enjoying it on ice!

You’re in Japan to promote the release of Liefmans’ “On the Rocks.” Can you tell us a little about how this method of enjoying beer came to be? Are there other cases of doing something like this?

It came up by accident in fact! (laughs) Liefmans is a very old brewery; the region they are from is very well known for its brown beer styles. So, that’s the base of the whole brewing process, you make a brown lager beer—Liefmans produced Goudenband, which is a brown beer, but much stronger and top-fermented—and mix it with cherries and raspberries throughout the year. When we took over we wanted to have a more refreshing, more accessible, fruitier beer, so we created Liefmans Fruitesse. It’ll be baptized, soon, in Belgium.
At one point our brewmaster said, “This is good, but since it’s intended to be a very refreshing summer drink, maybe it could be good with ice cubes.” And the idea of putting ice cubes in beer scared us at first; we thought, no, we’re not going to do this. We are quality brewers, relying on old brewing traditions, so we’re not going to start putting ice cubes in beer! But we tried it, and everybody around us that tasted it thought that it was at least as good with the ice cubes, if not better. So, we said, why not? Because it hasn’t been done in the past—at least from what we know—we cannot do it? So we looked for a specific glass we thought would suit it perfectly with the ice cubes, and we launched it.

We thought we were going to be criticized for doing it, but in fact it was the opposite that happened. Many people congratulated us because it really brings a new dimension to beer drinking and they thought it was innovative, something that might attract more people to the beer drinking experience. As you know, beer consumption is declining in many countries. One of the reasons is certainly the fact that younger people are raised with sweeter tastes these days, and they’re not as used to drinking bitter drinks like beer. So it’s important for brewers to attract younger people. And I think drinking beer in a way you would with cocktails or other drinks—in a more contemporary, less traditional way—can attract non-beer drinkers to the beer scene. You start with Liefmans on the rocks, and you can gauge it, and your palate can appraise it, and then you end up hopefully with the Duvel.

Good as a gateway for wine drinkers, say, or possibly for people who like spritzer drinks and so on?

Indeed.

Duvel is known for having one of the most rigorous maturation schedules in the world. As Duvel continues to grow, what challenges do you face maintaining that high level of quality?

One of the concerns we have since we broadened our beer portfolio is that it’s adding an enormous complexity to our brewing process. Specifically, concerning Duvel, we have a constant shortage of warm and cold cellars. You have the maturation process, and then afterwards you have the refermentation in the bottle, and that really takes a lot of time. It’s about 2 weeks in warm cellars, then it’s about 5 to 6 weeks in cold cellars, and doing that needs tremendous space. For the moment certainly, our continuous concern is to make sure that the beer has the time to undergo this maturation and refermentation.

The brewery went through an expansion about two years ago?

We try to invest every year to keep our production process up-to-date. We like to apply the best available technology in the sector. We think that innovation, plus investment in quality processing, helps the quality of the beer. So, two years ago we installed a new brewhouse. In 2003 we installed a new bottling line. In 2005 we added new fermentation vessels. And so we try to continuously improve the overall brewery.

I’m very interested in the top cropping system for collecting the yeast from previous batches. How did that innovation come about, and how did it get implemented into the brewery?

We have always applied top cropping, but many years ago, we had fermentation in open vessels—we could very easily crop the yeast from the top of these vessels. When we moved to cylindro-conical tanks, it was much more difficult. We have very smart people working at the brewery. We also partner every year with the University of Leuven to sponsor PhD candidates to address the specific questions we have. Sometimes we do it on our own, sometimes we partner with breweries that have the same concerns.

So essentially you come to them with problems, and the PhD students research it and find solutions to the problems?

Yes. We say, look, this is what we experience, and it’s a very niche-specific problem. We don’t have the time or the people to go into that much detail, so can you—over two or three years—really go in-depth to find a long-term solution, and so that’s how we come up with those innovations.

Despite the global economic recession, Duvel Moortgat had some impressive growth last year and the years prior. Why have your brands continued to rise despite the challenging circumstances?

First, we strongly believe that our success is due to the quality of our beers. So that’s always our main concern. We’ve spoken about that, all the research, the investments in new technology. The production time for Duvel is about 90 days. Not many breweries throughout the world take that much time to make their beer. Sometimes it’s not necessary, either, but for us it is important.

Second, we see that in many industrialized countries people drink less, but better quality, and so we try to play a role in that. We’ve grown our geographical activities. We’ve set up sales companies and subsidiaries in the UK, France, the Netherlands and the US. We’ve grown our portfolio. For instance, La Chouffe, which was a very small brewery, started up 27 years ago by two brothers-in-law. They were very successful, but 3 or 4 years ago, they decided that they had reached the maximum level that they could on their own, that it would be better for their company to team up with a bigger brewery, and that’s how we started to talk. They joined the Duvel Moortgat group and in 4 years’ time we were able to more than double their sales because we have a broader distribution and sales capacity. We invested in their production capacity to catch up to the number of sales. And globally, it helps the growth of our company. But we are still a niche player if you look at the global scale.

In terms of total volume of sales?

Oh yes, we are still so small compared to many others. Also, I think the fact that the big breweries have become increasingly bigger creates opportunities for the smaller ones because they leave pockets or holes wherein the smaller ones can operate. So as the big become bigger, the pockets grow bigger.

I heard an interesting story regarding the decision to once again brew Duvel Triple Hop, which has been out of production for a little while. What is the story behind this decision? Outside of Duvel Green and Triple Hop, there have been relatively no other offshoots of Duvel. Are there any plans to expand on the Duvel line?

We brewed it for the first time three years ago. We noticed that, among beer lovers, there is a revival of growing interest for hoppy beers, so we decided to brew this kind of beer. It was a very limited release, and all of the bottles were sold within a couple of days, and many beer lovers were sad they couldn’t drink more Duvel Triple Hop.

Me too!

(Moortgat laughs) So, we had said that because it was a one-off, we couldn’t do it over. But a group of beer lovers in Belgium asked over and over whether we wouldn’t brew Duvel Triple Hop again. And then we said to them, a little bit as a challenge, “If you can find ten thousand people asking for it, we will do it!” And so they put a fan page on Facebook, and within one and a half months they had over ten thousand people asking for Duvel Triple Hop. We said, you won, we lost, we’re going to brew the beer, and it will be released in September.

Are there any other plans to expand the Duvel line in the future to include any other Duvel-named beers, in addition to the Triple Hop?

Well, another innovation from last year is we distilled some Duvel brew. We made a brew of Duvel, and then we transported it to a distillery. And instead of fermenting it, they distilled it and kept it for three years in cherry and oak barrels. We decided to release it in small quantities, and there again, it was sold in a couple of hours. There were only 2750 bottles.

The good thing about that is, not only does it highlight the Duvel brand, but it also educates consumers, because then they can see both the differences and the similarities between brewing and distilling, like you can see between brewing and making sake. So, if people come up with good ideas, we can do them, but probably always in a limited way.

Many people say that the Duvel tulip glass is the best glass for enjoying not only Duvel, but also a wide range of other beers and beer styles. What is it that makes the tulip glass so special?

The tulip shape, the fact that it narrows, and then it widens, that’s where the aromas can really be released. You can put your nose into the glass. If it only widened from the bottom up, the various aromas would simply dissipate. Here, they are kept, and then they are released only at the end of the glass, so that you can enjoy them as much as possible. I think the shape maintains the head, which is very important for beer.

Do you have engineers that study the glass and the aroma circulation, or is this just trial and error until you find something that works?

We don’t have specific people, but of course you do it through collaboration with your suppliers and glass manufacturers. What is also special about the Duvel glass—and I think that this is also something that we invented—is that in every single glass we have a ‘D’ engraved on the bottom of the glass. And the ‘D’ is not there because it’s nice or good looking, but because that’s the point where the carbonation is released, continuously feeding the creamy head of the beer.

Duvel Green has been well-received in the US. Are there any plans to introduce Duvel Green to Japan? Certainly there are a large number of specialty Belgian beer bars and cafés where it would find a home.

Well, there is no specific plan for the near future, but indeed, I think Japan certainly has the potential to be one of the next countries to have Duvel Green on draft. It also is a new experience for us; we haven’t done Duvel on draft in the past. We launched it one and a half years ago in the US and in the UK. It is, as you know, not re-fermented. That’s also where the name ‘green’ comes from, meaning a younger beer. We still want to concentrate a little bit on those two markets. They are both very big, so there is still a lot of work to do, but Japan in my view could certainly be one of the next countries.

A lot of Japanese craft beer brewers are going to be concerned about the amount of Belgian beer coming into Japan. I think they see it as competition. On one hand, it could be competition for their own craft beers; on the other, it could be developing a taste for craft beer and high-gravity beers. Do you think that the aggressive import of Belgian beers is going to help craft brewers in Japan, or do you think it will be competition?

When you look at the United States, you see that they also started importing foreign beers. In the beginning, they imported Heineken, and then German beers, and then Belgian beers, and now, finally, they have a very lively craft movement that is becoming very, very strong, and is the only segment of the beer sector that is really growing. I also think that if you look at wine in the United States—they started to import French wine, but today they make equally good wines in California, so I think that importing serves more as an introduction to consumers than competition. 


Thank you for your time.

by Jason Koehler

Find out more information about Duvel Moortgat and Liefmans’ ‘On the Rocks’ at: www.duvelmoortgat.be www.liefmans.be

Belgian Beer Weekend Tokyo 2010
Sept. 10-12, Roppongi Hills Arena
www.belgianbeerweekend.jp

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This article was published in Japan Beer Times # () and is among the limited content available online. Order your copy through our online shop or download the digital version from the iTunes store to access the full contents of this issue.