Ciney (beer)

Tower of St. Nicolas in the logo and in nature (photo before the roof collapsed in 2010)

Ciney is a Belgian beer that was originally only made in the city of Ciney .

history

Roger Demarche founded the SA Brasserie Demarche brewery in Ciney in 1952 . In addition to the brewery, he also traded in soft drinks, beer and spirits. Demarche developed a new brown beer in the 1970s , which he offered in 1978 under the Cuvée Ciney brand . The new beer was first tapped on June 23, 1978 in Le Rubens on Place Monseu , the central square of the city of Ciney, where the St. Nicolas Church is also located. The tower of St. Nicolas, which forms the “ i ” in the Ciney logo, was badly damaged in a 2010 storm. The Ciney brown beer, which is classified as Bière d'Abbaye of strength S , was initially only available in 30 liter kegs. The brewery had twelve employees at the time.

In the following two years Demarche visited pubs and restaurants in the area around Ciney to further spread Cuvée Ciney . In 1980 he created another variety under the Ciney brand , Cuvée de Ciney Blonde , a top-fermented, strong blonde beer. With a production volume of around 1,000 hectoliters (1980), both types were regarded as Bière a façon , i.e. as a special beer that is only brewed in small quantities. Outside the area around Ciney, the beer was only available in Namur and Liège .

Ciney quickly became popular in the early 1980s and developed into a nationwide brand in Belgium by 1988. The brewery bought new equipment and vehicles and hired brewery staff, sales people and drivers until the number doubled to 30. The branding and colors have also been changed. In 1986 a third type of beer was added: Ciney Spéciale 10 , an amber beer with a high alcohol content. In October 1987, the Brasserie Demarche brewery was awarded a gold medal for its Ciney beers at the Salon de l'Alimentation de Bruxelles in Brussels . In addition to restaurants, which accounted for around 70% of sales, Ciney was now also sold as bottled beer in Belgian supermarkets . In 1992, sales of Cuvée de Ciney reached 40,000 hectoliters.

At the end of 1992, Roger Demarche transferred Ciney in the Lohnbrau to the Brasserie L'Union , which belongs to the Alken-Maes brewery . In 2000, Alken-Maes bought the Brasserie Demarche and the trademark rights to Ciney. Alken-Maes was taken over by Scottish & Newcastle , which in turn were taken over by a consortium of Heineken and Carlsberg, so that Ciney has been a brand of the Heineken Group since the beginning of 2008 . From 2000, Ciney was brewed in an Alken Maes brewery in Jumet in the province of Hainaut , but it was closed in 2007. Since then, Ciney has been brewed in the Alken Maes brewery in Alken .

Types of beer

All Ciney beers are brewed with top- fermentation ( French "Fermentation haute - Spéciale" ).

• Cuvée de Ciney Brune (7% vol.) Is ocher in color with red reflections and has an abundant mousse. The taste is smoky to malty with aromas of liquorice and banana and a slightly bitter finish .
• Cuvée de Ciney Blonde (7% vol.) Is light to amber in color , has a malty taste, a malty-sour aroma and a rather sour finish. The best drinking temperature is 4 ° C.
• Ciney Spéciale 10 (9% vol.) Has a dark ruby color, has a full taste with light oak overtones, the aroma contains traces of anise , coriander , cinnamon and clove .

literature

• Ciney . In: Bernard Dubrulle: Le Petit Futé Bières Belges . Petit Futé, Paris 2009, ISBN 2-7469-2108-1 , pp. 53-55.
• James Donald Robertson: The Beer-Taster's Log . Storey, North Adams (MA) 1996, ISBN 0-88266-939-7 , p. 43.
• Michael Jackson : Great Beers of Belgium . Running Press, Philadelphia 1998, ISBN 0-7624-0403-5 , p. 239.

Web links

Commons : Ciney Beer  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• La bière de Ciney - Labels, labels and logos on the Ciney city ​​website (French)
• Historique de la cuvée de Ciney - History of the Ciney brand on the website of the city of Ciney (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Historique de la cuvée de Ciney ( Memento of the original from August 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the City of Ciney website (Retrieved January 6, 2011.)  
2. ↑ Gazet van Antwerpen: Takeover of Ciney by Alken-Maes (Dutch)
3. ^ Bernard Dubrulle: Le Petit Futé Bières Belges . Petit Futé, Paris 2009, p. 55.
4. ↑ James Donald Robertson: The Beer-Taster's Log . Storey, North Adams (MA) 1996, p. 43.
5. ^ Joris Luyten, Michael Jackson: Grandes bières de Belgique . Lannoo Uitgeverij, Brussels 2006, ISBN 90-209-6597-2 , p. 333.