Antwerpse Brouw Compagnie Seef Bier

Seef is hard to describe. It’s effervescent, full-bodied, nicely finished. It has fruity, wheat beer-like notes in the nose and palate, but it also has a beguiling earthiness. Moderate hops nevertheless leave Seef dry and more-ish, easy to enjoy. Do I taste brettanomyces? Is it sour? Not really, but sort of. . . Seef is an old style of beer that was produced in small family breweries in Antwerp. It disappeared entirely after WWI as these breweries were dismantled for the war effort, by one side or the other. People remembered it, but the beer was not brewed for almost 100 years until Johan Van Dyck—who had been intrigued by stories of the beer—set out to recreate what had been a very popular beer.