Now all you have to do is GET there!- The Professor
“We are proud to announce our second FÅ‘zdefeszt, Hungarian Craft-Beer Festival: 6-9 October, on Thursday, Friday, Saturday from 12h – 24h, on Sunday from 12h – 18h, in Budapest, VIII. Palace-district, off Kálvin tér (LÅ‘rinc Pap tér – Krúdy Gyula utca – Mikszáth Kálmán tér – Szabó Ervin tér – Kálvin tér). First Hungarian Craft-Beer Festival rolls again. The entry to the festival is free.
No author mentioned. From xpatloop.com
By 2010, Hungarian Beer was almost a thing of the past, while 90% of Hungarian beer-drinkers did not even know what they were missing. We – beer-bloggers, journalists, craft-brewers – were determined to turn around the disreputable image of beer in Hungary, with the ultimate selfish goal of making good, real beer available generally. So we organized Főzdefeszt – First Hungarian Craft Beer festival in May, 2011.
After the spectacular success of that first festival, the hidden popular interest in Hungarian Craft Beer became evident. Our goal was to bring together all the people interested in the future of beer in Hungary – we did that and did something more: kickstarted something like a beer-revolution: in one season half a dozen quality beer-festivals sprung up, new breweries were founded, and more than 20 new brews were born to meet the demands outlined on our spring festival.
The most important change was that the majority of Hungarian brewers understood the new dynamics: they must stop trying to concur with the low prices of big factories and they must start to brew special beers that can only be brewed by them, while observing and challenging traditional beer-culture at the same time.
Just as in May, we put great emphasis on the introduction of new brews on our festival, and in October we shall have a lot of that! Since its autumn, most of new brews belong to the darker and stronger style of beers. Bors Brewery brings us the first Hungarian ’Belgian’ Beer, christened Friar Tuck, a 7,5% amber ale. Stari reintroduces its old Irish Red, a legend among veteran beer-connoisseurs. Köleses Brewers (Millet-Beer) march on discovering exotic grains to show us their new Buckwheat Lager. A new lighter, everyday version of this summer’s beer-hit, Keserű Méz (Bitter Honey) is coming to town.
Bauer Brewery presents its outregously black and sweet 9% double-bock, Drakula, and a 8% fruity winter beer brewed with caramel and cherry. Three of the exhibiting breweries did a special high-gravity festival-pils exclusively for FÅ‘zdefeszt.
North of Budapest, in rural Csobánka, a new type of brewery opened just a few weeks ago – Csobánka Craft Brewery would only brew ales, or ’traditional beers’ int he style of the local home-brewed ale tradition. They use special yeast and exclusivel quality ingredients to brew beautiful, tasty ales. Their greatest hit is said to be Fekete Bárány, (Black Sheep), a high-gravity pitch-black stout with smoky chocolate falvours. And of course, May’s festival-winner beer, Grabanc, the first Hungarian IPA (or rahter APA?), with its heavy hop-armament (Cascade-Chinook) will be back with its second – even better – batch!
We also aim to show what’s going on in Central Europe, so we invited Pivo Dum from Praga – with its cafe-beer and neetle-beer – and Kocour from Varnsdorf, the most revolutionary of Chech breweries – their famous Samurai IPA will be featured. Hofstettner from Austria will also present its bio-, honey-, and dry-hopped beers – he is the brewer who is brewing the beers of the would-be seventh Trappist Brewery of the world – in Engelszell Monastery!
We aim to write some beer-history with bringing Central Europe’s most precious and special and expensive beer to Mikszáth Square – Kaltenecker’s B27 – It is an exteremly heavy dark beer with 11% alcohol aged in Tokaji wine oak barrels, brewed with spruce tips with needles, juniper and coriander, brewed by Slovakia’s most innovative brewer, who also brings his rauchweizen, porter and wheatbeer.
We would also like to keep audience updated about the developments of beer-culture in Hungary so we offered chance of introduction to two freshly founded organizations – Society for Hungarian Beer-Gastronomy and the Association of Home Brewers, who also go out of their way to present the wonders of home-brewing on our October festival, brewing beer on the spot, and offering the hot and sweet, unalcoholic wort to those interested.
In Szabó Ervin Library there will be a temporary exhibition about the history of Hungarian Brewing. Vörösmarty Cinema will play movies in association with beer. There will be street-music and performances, and funny vehicles like Beer-bike, Dixie-rikshaw, Főzde-Bus, and riksaw-cabs. The entrance to the festival is free, you have to pay from the beers in forints, and you drink it from plastic glasses in case you don’t bring your own mug.
We are convinced that Hungary’s lack of a muscular, traditional beer-culture is a possibility, because it offers fertile ground for dashing and creative beer-revolution.”