The birth of Beer Pairing
Hello Burger Fans,
On this sacred day we meet again for a brand new special 10‑year THBlog article that is likely to interest lovers of our THBeers. We offer a little history lesson that is likely to satisfy more than one curiosity. 🍺🍔
Our idea of offering Beer Pairing did not arrive simultaneously with the creation of our concept. Like many genius ideas, it kind of happened by fate, a little misstep turned into a real opportunity. 💡 Some may perhaps remember those vague and distant days, but at the start, The Huggy’s Bar offered a wide selection of fairly common Belgian beers that could easily be found in supermarkets. As a Belgian concept, it seemed logical to us to offer a beer list up to the reputation of our beautiful country! 🖤💛❤ This formula worked very well for us and for our customers during our first years.
Only, during the 2014 World Cup football ⚽ held in Brazil, we wanted to celebrate the occasion in our own way. As a little nod to the host country, we created a cocktail with Brazilian notes 🍹, AKA the “Brazuca” (Yes yes, we know it’s not the best name we’ve come up with 😅!). We also offered a Belgian Burger 🍔 to support our team who were on fire during that World Cup. Although the primary objective was not especially to enjoy these two items together, the possibility of doing so was present. That’s what Thomas did… And big mistake on our part, we hadn’t tested the flavours together beforehand. Separately, they were divine, but unfortunately, the pairing wasn’t… ☹😬
From this unfortunate experience came the idea of optimising our suggestions of beers on the menu to improve the tasting of each of our Burgers. We therefore called on a zythologist to train us. 🤓🍺 For the more complex Burgers, the pairings were very easy to create because they were more than obvious. However, the difficulty turned out to be in the quest for the perfect match for a simple Burger, such as a Cheeseburger 🧀 or a Bacon Burger 🥓. As the tastes are less specific, they could pair with all and none of the beers at once. It seemed like mission impossible to find “The One”. 🥇
Only, during a beautiful summer afternoon, things were about to change during an otherwise innocuous meeting with our friends from Brasserie C. Here is how Thomas remembers this key moment:
We were having a good time with Renaud and François, the two founders and master brewers of Brasserie C. We were telling them about our ongoing thoughts on Beer Pairing and our desire to find the perfect beer to accompany our basic Burgers.
“We managed to find incredible pairings for most of our Burgers but we’re having trouble finding THE beer that will pair with our Cheeseburgers, Bacon Burger, etc. Do you have something in your range that might suit us? Or do you know a beer that could fit?” asked Thomas.
“In our current range, not really. But if you want, we can create a new beer together.” Renaud suggested nonchalantly.
“Create a beer?!” exclaimed Thomas and Roberto in unison.
“Yes, exactly. How do you see your perfect beer?” continued François.
The astonishment shared by Thomas and Roberto was due to the fact that at the time it wasn’t so common for a restaurant to create its own beer, and even less to create one that would adapt to our products, and not the other way around. In just a few weeks we managed together to create the perfect beer combining the character, bitterness and acidity we were looking for for this burger beer. 💪👑
And so the THBeer, the world’s first burger beer™, was born! 🍺 From the very start it was hugely successful with our burger fans which made us want to create the entire range of THBeers that we know today and to become a restaurant where we serve only house beers. Today, this range counts 8 THBeers ranging from pils to amber, right through to fruity, and it continues to develop with the imminent arrival of a THBeer Lite, low in alcohol, by early October. Stay Tuned! 😉🤟
