This beer will be something Dupont hasn't done in recent history: a '30s-style "Spéciale Belge" with pale ale malt tweaked by peat-smoked barley.
"I am definitely excited," said Chris LaPierre, head brewer at Iron Hill's Maple Shade location, who was chosen in a Philly Beer Week raffle in the fall to be the local pro to participate. "I'm just hoping to learn as much as possible."
Dupont's fourth-generation brewer Olivier Dedeycker is there to greet them. He is already focused and intense. Within moments, he and LaPierre are down in the malt room, inspecting the grains to be used in the brew. The peat-smoked barley from nearby Malterie du Château de Beloeil is the subject of discussion. LaPierre fears that too much will overwhelm the beer, but after munching a handful, he realizes it is gentler than expected.
Once they agree on the blend, the augur in the old grain mill clicks into gear. Conveyor belts surge to life. A sweet haze of toasty malt fills the air. Enormous flames burst from furnace jets beneath Dupont's 90-year-old copper brew kettles. And the climactic finale of the Philadelphians' weeklong Belgian mission starts rising to a boil.
Philadelphia has been called "Brussels on the Schuylkill" for good reason. Canadian beer writer Stephen Beaumont coined the label in the late '90s when "there was nowhere else in the U.S. that was as into Belgium." The sustained interest distinguishes the city as one of America's best beer towns, even as Belgian styles become more influential in craft brewing across the nation.
