Massafra bottling line renovated Primus in the picture From cloudy to clear PAGE 8HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NR. 13 This photo is one of the 226 entries that the Bralima Brewery in Zaïre received for the photo contest based on the theme "Primus fait mousser la photo" (Primus makes a sparkling photo). It was the second time that Bralima, in co-operation with Kodak, had organised such a contest for both professional and amateur photographers. The jury was enthusiastic about the quality of the photos. The entries covered a wide range of subjects. But they all had one thing in common: the Primus brand was always clearly in the picture. How did beer taste in the olden exactly certain about. But, accord- days? It's something we cannot be ingtothe American professor Solo mon Katz, beer must have tasted good even several thousand years ago. So good, in fact, that nomadic tribes were willing to abandon their wandering lifestyle for the sake of enjoying a good brew: they settled down so that they could grow grain - beer's most important raw material. The taste may have been good, but the beer was certainly not clear. And the beer brewed inthe Middle Ages was no exception. In those days drinking beer was a good deal healthier than drinking water from the ditch. Since no filtering method was known, the nutritious el ements remained in the beer. Medieval people certainly relished their beer. Consumption in litres per head was well above what it is today. But whether we would have found that medieval beer quite so palatable is yet another matter. It was a dark, cloudy concoction with a low alcohol content and probably a rather acidy taste. And, to make things worse, the beer's taste tended to fluctuate greatly in those days. Seeking for clarity Over the centuries the appear ance and taste of beer has changed a lot. At a very early stage attempts were made to improve its quality. Improving the clarity was one of the chief aims. Somehow those early consumers were quick to realise that beer ought to be clear. Why did our forefathers think it so important that their beer should be clear? According to Dr. Adriaan Jansen of the University of Amsterdam, author of a thesis on "Beer in the Low Countries", our ancestors took their inspiration from the clarity of wine and cider. In former times those drinks were easier to clarify than beer and Beer: how to make a meal of it Our request in the cookery column "Beer: how to make a meal of it" (see Heineken Barbecue International Magazine,February 1988) has already brought in several responses. Will Reinsma, of the Heineken head office in Amsterdam, sent us the following recipe for beer soup as a starter. Beer soup Cheese with beer Odd-Erik Thorshaug, editor of the personnel magazine ofFrydenlund Ringnes Bryggerier A/S, the brewery which brewed Heineken under licence in Norway, read our request and sent in some recipes, including the following one for a hot cheese snack made with beer. Mr. H.M.A.M. de Vette, who works for Heineken in Zoeterwoude, sent us a booklet of beer recipes by Ann Wanstall. Thinking ahead to the summer months we opted for "Creole" T-bone steaks in a very special marinade, ideal for grilling on the barbecue. The other ingredients you'll need for a success ful meal are: an evening with a pleasant tem perature, a soft breeze, a glowing bed of charcoal and, above all, a big appetite! they were mainly drunk by higher classes. As a rule, therefore, wine and cider were considerably more expensive. So the taste of beer was influenced by the clarity of other, more costly alcoholic beverages. Meanwhile, filtering techniques have been improved to such an extent that it's a simple matter to make any beer sparkling and bright. But, even only a century ago, that was still not the case. Traditional ales still remained rather cloudy until the time when brewers started producing a new brew, a beer which was viewed as 'modem' in those days. And that beer has since taken the world by storm. Nowadays we call it lager, in former days it was known as 'Bavarian beer'. Sense of drive That 'Bavarian beer' started to become more widespread on the European continent in the middle of last century. And people got to like it. Though it was a great deal dearer than traditional beer, it also tasted better. Gerard Adriaan Heineken, the founding father of our business, was also aware of this fact. In 1869 at an international exhibition in Amsterdam he noticed his brew was less popular than the imported Bavarian beer. And he commented in a letter: "At the exhibition our beer is finding little sale, which is quite natural, as Dutch beer is not very much to the people's taste". The Bavarian beer tasted different, that was obvious. But one aspect of that different taste was formed by its clarity. The slightly cloudy Dutch beers gradually fell out of favour amongst consumers. One of the first Dutch brewers to recognise this shift in the public's taste preference was Gerard Adriaan Heineken. With a sense of drive he started in that same year of 1869 on the production of bottom- fermented (Bavarian) lager beer. And, in doing so, laid the founda tions forourbusiness as we know it today. Our Dreher brewery in Massafra, in the south of Italy, has been very busy over the past few months working on the bottling line for returnable bottles. At the beginning of March the bottling line was ready for production. Dreher's engineers have modernised the line by re placing the rinsing machine, filling units, pasteuriser and labelling machine. At the end of this year the palletiser and depalletiser will be renewed. A completely new bottling line is scheduled for completion next year. Beer soup, cheese and barbecue Ingredients: for 1 litre (serves 4): 2 stale slices of brown or whole-wheat bread, toasted or fried; 40 g butter; a generous pinch of grated lemon (or orange) peel; ]h tsp. cinnamon pow der; 30 g flour; lh litre lager beer; xh litre milk; 1 to 2 egg yolks; soup aroma; pepper; salt. Method: Melt the butter, then add the lemon peel, cinnamon and flour. Stir well and cook until the flour colours slightly. Keep stirring as you pour the milk and beer into the pan. Then bring briefly to the boil. Add the aroma, pepper and salt to the soup according to taste. Pour the soup over the bread in the soup tureen before serving. Method: Grate some Gouda or Swiss cheese, adding paprika powder or cayenne pepper to taste. Whisk the yolk of an egg and add pilsner lager to it until you have a thick sauce. Put the cheese and the sauce on a toasted and buttered slice of bread and then place it under the grill until the top turns a golden brown. Serve with small sticks of celery and radishes. Ingredients: 2 big T-bone steaks, Vh cups of lager beer, 1 /3 of a cup of olive oil or sunflower oil, two tablespoonsful of honey, one table- spoonful of salt, 3/4 tsp. black pepper and four cloves. Method: Mix the beer, oil, salt, black pepper and cloves together in a shallow dish. Leave the steaks in the marinade for 12 hours, turning them regularly.

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Heineken International Magazine | 1988 | | pagina 8