EP-137 Yvan de Baets of Brasserie de la Senne

GBH founder—and one of the co-hosts of this podcast—Michael Kiser has
previously described some episodes of this podcast as being
"bucket-list" interviews. Folks like Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver and
Allagash’s Rob Todd, for example: folks who’ve played huge roles in shaping
the industry as we know it and still continue to do so. Now, it’s my turn.

Today, I sit down for a conversation with Yvan de Baets, head brewer and
co-founder of Brasserie de la Senne in Brussels, Belgium. You’re more than
likely already familiar with the beers that de la Senne produces. Despite
only being in existence since 2003, its beers, such as the dry and bitter
Taras Boulba and the balanced, rounded Zinnebir, could easily be described
as timeless and iconic. These aren’t words to be thrown around lightly, but
try asking a brewer what his or her favorite beer is and more often than
not, it’ll be one of them. It’s no surprise, either, as we’ll learn from de
Baets later in this episode that Taras Boulba is a beer made for brewers.

De Baets was in town for a string of events centered around a new specialty
Belgian beer festival here in London called Ales Tales. The night before we
met for this interview we had hosted an event with him at The Prince in
Wood Green, North London and our conversation picks up from the points we
discussed that evening. This includes the origins of de la Senne and how
their first beer was brewed in a Brussels squat, to just how intrinsic the
Belgian capital is to everything this brewery does.

Yvan pulls no punches when discussing what he calls "fake brewers," or what
most of us know as contract, or so-called "gypsy brewers." He even goes as
far as to call some of them a disease within the industry. He even weighs
in on the use of Belgian beer terminology, such as Lambic and Gueuze,
around the world—including the recent fracas between Jester King and HORAL
.