The consolidation and transformation of the brewing industry and the beer market in the 20th century swept away numerous local and
regional beer styles, with beers once ubiquitous in their own territories rapidly declining and almost being wiped from memory. Porter is perhaps the best known example, but there are more, and some are only now being rediscovered as the growing interest in specialist and craft beer drives a corresponding interest in brewing history.
One such rediscovered style is ‘seefbier’, which for over a century before World War II was the signature beer style of the city of Antwerpen and its surroundings. It’s mentioned by several Flemish authors, and in folk poems and songs. According to Domien Sleeckx, writing in 1863, seef was “a white beer [‘wit bier’] that foamed like Champagne, went to the head like port, and cost 10¢ a litre”. Lode Baekelmans, in 1904, made a similarly effervescent comparison in dubbing it “poor man’s Champagne”.
But seefbier has returned from the dead and now available through SKI. Seef falls in to the wheat beer category but it’s not a spiced style made famous by Hoegaarden. It has a double fermentation, first in the brewery and then in the bottle. Following primary fermentation, it’s matured for seven weeks to develop its full flavors and natural carbonation before being bottled. The finished beer is 6.5% alcohol and it has a hazy pale gold color: it’s not filtered. The appealing aroma offers a pronounced lemon/citrus fruitiness with a “fresh bread” grain note and a spicy and resinous hop appeal. On the palate there’s chewy grain, tart fruit and spicy hops, while the bittersweet finish is dominated by hops and fruit. It’s finally dry and superbly quenching. It’s deceptively easy to drink despite the level of alcohol.
