I was a bit interested to see how the Zwanze Day event would go at the Paris location, as the beer scene isn't quite like back in my home of San Diego (or most of the US, for that matter). I know that tickets for Mikkeller Bar's event in San Francisco sold out in a matter of minutes (to the dismay of my Bay Area friends), and my drinking buddies for the night told me about how their friends back in Austin had to enter a raffle for Jester King's Zwanze tickets due to weird Texas laws that prohibit them from actually selling anything Cantillon there. However, my first year in Paris taught me that the French hate both craft beer and being early for anything, especially early enough to wait in line, so I figured we'd be safe to arrive around opening time without any worry (actually, the only reason we decided to get there at opening was to save a table for later on in the night, which was a great idea looking back).
When we got there maybe two minutes after opening and found two American tourist couples already waiting to order. We chatted with them for a minute before buying our tickets and our first bottle of the night, but then went back to our seats before we could into a beer dick size-off (I'd like to say it's just because I don't like being pretentious, but mostly I don't like being pretentious when there's a chance I could be out-pretentiousnessed by someone else).
My friends and I started off with a bottle of Fou'Foune, their absolutely amazing apricot lambic that just so happened to be my first Cantillon, and is one of my five favorite beers of all time. I've actually been waiting to have it again since I first had it last year due to its extremely limited availability, and it was even better than I remembered. Although I normally don't pay much attention to apricots in day to day life, they do make a great addition to beers (Ballast Point's Barmy Ale is another good apricot beer that comes to mind), especially sour ones. It also brought to mind Lost Abbey's Spontaneous Cheer, a peach spontaneous ale. I probably took a bit too long to finish, just because I didn't want it to end, but I finally downed my last sips when my friend's boyfriend put my next beer down in front of me.
Fou'Foune
I moved on to the Iris Grand Cru. Earlier on in the year, I had plenty of chances to try Iris and loved it, so I was excited to try the Grand Cru. Sadly, I was a bit disappointed by it and it is my second least favorite Cantillon that I've tried (the first being their Faro- why ruin a good thing by watering it down and adding sugar?). Not to say that it's a bad beer- it's incredibly complex, with a lot of Iris' malty and caramel notes and a noticeable earthiness, but the lack of sourness found in most other Cantillons made it fall a bit flat. I was a bit worried because I knew that this beer was the base of Cuvée Florian, but then I realized how stupid I was worrying about something like that.
Iris Grand Cru
Next up was Cuvée St. Gilloise and the Classic Gueuze. I've had both of these beers on tap quite a few times, and really enjoy the hop flavor that comes up at the end of the St. Gilloise (what can I say, I grew up in San Diego). However, this was my first chance to try the two simultaneously and compare them directly. I was really surprised at how much sweeter the Gueuze tasted compared to the bitterness from the Cuvée St. Gilloise, especially considering that I normally love the more acidic, vinegary notes of the Gueuze. Both were great and if I had to pick one that was my favorite, I'd probably tell you to stop bullying me and go do something better with your time.
Cuvee St. Gilloise
Classic Gueuze
Finally, 9 pm rolled around and everyone in the bar stopped talking so we could hear the bar owner announce the beer. My friends and I had all heard different aspects of what exactly happened- we thought there would be some sort of bar-wide toast to the beer, there was some talk of a livestream of Jean Van Roy announcing the beer in Brussels for everyone around the globe, but instead the bartenders just started pouring the beer after it was introduced. After hopping over our table's extra chair and making my way past some girls who just happened to wander into the bar for a Saturday out right as the beer was being tapped and had no idea what was going on, I gave my ticket to the bartender and shuffled back to my table with my half-glass of Cuvée Florian. We waited for a few minutes, thinking that our non-existent toast would happen, but after seeing everyone around us start drinking, we did a toast of our own and went for it.
Luckily my worries about the Iris Grand Cru tasting somewhat flat for a Cantillon were not reflected in this beer at all. It had an amazing cherry taste up front that wasn't overpoweringly sweet at all like other krieks I've had (even Cantillon's Kriek goes into that territory) but instead moderately sour, with an amazing grapefruit bitterness at the finish. I'm not going to try to get into more detail than that because a) I'm not that good at finding all 15 undertones in a beer within a few minutes of drinking it and b) I wanted to enjoy it, not scrutinize it.
Cuvée Florian
So there you have it. That was my Zwanze Day. Although I'm kind of sad that I didn't get the entire excited beer community vibes from it, I'm more than glad that I was able to experience it at all, especially without having to wait in line or fight for tickets. I'm definitely looking forward to next year's, whatever it may be!
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