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About ourselves:
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Dany
De Smet : 37 year old brewing engineer and
beerlover born and living in Melle, near Ghent (East-Flanders, Belgium).
Finished brewing school in 1992 as brewing engineer. Started working
at the Huyghe brewery (known from Delirium
Tremens, pink elephants beer) as brewing master in 1992. Since
1996 working as hygiene specialist for the brewing industry. Also
since 1995 educating brewing science at Ghent Brewing Highschool (Brewing
technology and Quality Control). Home brewer since 1992.
Participated in founding the local beertasting organisation BLES from
Zottegem. |
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Marleen
Vercaigne : 37 year old beerlover from Ronse (east-Flanders,
Belgium) was ‘infected’ by the beermicrobe through me, and helped me doing
the homebrews since 1992.
About the birth of ‘Slaapmutske’ :
Since 1992 a lot of different homebrews were made ‘in the kitchen’ in very
small amounts (approx 50 litres/brew). This was done by Dany and Marleen,
together with Patrick Scheirlinck, an old collegue of Dany, who is
actually still working as brewing master at the Huyghe brewery.
In november 1999 our son Jonas was born and to celebrate this event a
special beer was brewed : Jonasbeer. It was a brown-red spicy beer with
9
vol%
of Alc that was very much appreciated by the visitors in the hospital (visiting
little Jonas…). A lot of the visitors wanted to buy some bottles of this
‘Beer of birth’ and slowly the idea of maybe brewing again and getting the
beer on the marked started to grow… After
a pregnancy of some months out of the original Jonasbeer a brownred, full
malted topfermentation beer with a spicy aftertaste was born :
xxx !?
We didn’t had a name ! ! !
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While we were brainstorming for an name, it happend that little Jonas
was crying and then we always dipped his sooter into a little bit of
the nameless beer and gave it to
him. As by miracle Jonas stopped crying, was happy and fell into
sleep... |
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One moment my wife smiled and said : this beer is a real ‘Slaapmutske’
(which literally means ‘sleeping hat’, but also is used for ‘the last
beer that is drunk before going to sleep’)! At that moment we looked
at eachother and both knew for sure: ‘Slaapmutske’ had to be the name
of our newborn brewing child !
And
because it was winter at the time the extinction
'winterbeer' was added so the official name became: 'Slaapmutske
Winterbeer'. |
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Slaapmutske winterbeer
is
released on the (local) Belgian market in 2000 and is a success. To be
able to follow the growing demand on the market we decided to work
together with the Proefbrewery in Lochristi (East-Flanders, Belgium) to
brew the beer under license over there. That way we can make 1400 litres
each time.
Above this, the use of the modern brewing installation in combiation
with an intensive quality control give the additional advantage that
the perfect quality of the beer is always guaranteed! |
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In March 2001 we brew a blond beer as well : Slaapmutske Blond.
It is a full-malt beer made with malts from barley and wheat with a
specific,
spicy ‘nose’.
This
is due
to the use of very fine American, aromatic hop varieties
and due to a supplementary dry-hopping!
For the first time we filled the beer in both bottles and barrels
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Beginning of 2002 the Slaapmutske-trilogy is finished with a
golden-colored triple beer : Slaapmutske tripel.
Again very aromatic hop varieties are used to get a beer with lots of
character and a spicy taste!
From the summer of 2002
all Slaapmutskes are permanently available in barrels and in bottles.
Cheers!
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In May 2004 the first Slaapmutskes
are available in The Netherlands and in August 2004 Slaapmutske is
sold for the first time in South-Africa.
In December 2005 Slaapmutske starts selling in Denmark and the USA,
where Slaapmutske Triple Nightcap is launched.
From March 2006 Slaapmutske is available in Italy and from April 2006
also in Spain. In 2007 Spain will become the first country (except
from Belgium) where Slaapmutske is available on draught.
In April 2007 Slaapmutske starts export to UK and Norway and in Juin
2007 also to Canada.
In July 2007 the first kegs to USA are shipped...
From May 2008 Slaapmutske is also available in
Japan.
About the label:
Is a design from ourselves : ‘a smiling moon’.The moon refers to the
original en literal roots of the beername : ‘sleeping hat’ and she is
smiling because when you drink the last one of the evening, the atmosphere
can be expected to be very pleasant… The slogan of the beer is : ‘Beer
for the good-tempered people’ (in dutch good-tempered is translated as ‘goodhadded’).
Cheers !
The original
label is face-lifted a first time at the end of
2005 and the beginning
of 2006, when the moon starts wearing a real ... nightcap!.
To
be continued...
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