Kwak Like a Duck

by

“What’s that?”

“It’s a beer glass.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“It’s a special kind of beer glass for a special kind of beer.”

“Which beer?”

“Kwak.”

“Like a duck?”

“That’s quack.”

“That’s what you said.”

“I said Kwak. The name of the beer is Kwak. The beer we’ve got on the beverage list. I’d like to serve the beer in these beer glasses.”

“No.”

“I think our diners would like the glasses as much as they love the beer.”

“These glasses are ridiculous.”

“Maybe they are, but they’re part of the history, the nostalgia, the identity of the beer. Maybe the beer tastes better out of these ridiculous glasses.”

As a sommelier, I love introducing diners to beers and wines and spirits they don’t know yet. As the sommelier of a New York City restaurant, I was hoping to serve our diners Pauwel Kwak in its distinctive novelty glass—a tall, curvy vessel braced by a wood frame. The general manager of the restaurant didn’t go for it.

The story of the beer and its glass departs in the 18th century with Pauwel Kwak, a brewer and the owner of the De Hoorn Inn in Dendermonde, a city in the middle of the triangle of Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent in the north of Belgium. The story says carriages of passengers made daily visits to the De Hoorn Inn. That the passengers would alight at the De Hoorn for refreshments, but that their drivers couldn’t leave their coaches or drink with their passengers. And that inspired by the thirst of the carriage drivers and their market for his beer, Pauwel asked smiths to make a special glass with a stand which would allow the drivers to drink his beer without leaving their carriages.

That’s the story.

Pauwel Kwak is alternatively called a Belgian Strong Pale Ale, a Belgian Strong Amber Ale and a Belgian Strong Golden Ale. A Belgian Strong Ale is made with water, spring barley pilsner malt, and adjunct sugar (e.g., cane, corn, beet, occasionally honey), Belgian yeast (obvs) and hops. The color of Kwak is alternatively described as amber, gold, copper and brown. The beer smells and tastes of brioche and caramel, of white pepper and baking spice, of orange, banana and yellow plum. It’s sweet, bitter and malty. Its alcohol isn’t shy, but it’s easy to drink. It’s a beer without a definitive style.

The history of the beer called Kwak is a story of contemporary advertising. Late in the 20th century, Brouwerij Bosteels introduced Pauwel Kwak and its distinctive novelty glass. The beer honors Pauwel, but the beer called Kwak isn’t the beer Pauwel Kwak made. Just the glass is.

I like to imagine my fancy diners at that New York City restaurant drinking a beer called Kwak out of a glass and a stand made for carriage drivers who couldn’t drink with their fancy passengers. I wonder what our clientele of book publishers and advertising executives would’ve made of the beer and the glasses and the stands. I’d like to think they’re as fool as me for nostalgia and apocrypha.

The Specs: Brouwerij Bosteels Pauwel Kwak

  • Brewery: Brouwerij Bosteels, Buggenhout, Belgium
  • Style: Belgian Strong Golden Ale—or Belgian Strong Amber Ale—or Belgian Strong Pale Ale.
  • Alcohol by Volume:  8.4%
  • Price: About $14 for a 750-milliliter bottle. About $18 for a four-pack of 11-ounce bottles. 
  • Glass: Goblet or Chalice.
  • Glass and Stand: Can be purchased at beer shops and on the web. Prices vary.