De Koninck From Cask?

Beer-drinking circles were buzzing recently when Wetherspoons announced it was launching the famous Belgian beer De Koninck on draught throughout its 600-strong pub estate. De Koninck means "the king" and the beer from Antwerp lives up to the billing.

It's a classic pale ale. It was inspired by the English pale ale revolution of the 19th century but it has developed its own definitive character, a cinnamon-like spiciness from the house yeast and the use of Czech Saaz hops. It has been available in Britain for some years, usually in bottled form, and on draught in a handful of specialist beer cafes. But its prominent position on the bars of a major pub group will bring it to the attention of a new audience that can only delight in the superb aroma, flavour and sheer drinkability of this fine beer.

But - and I hate to be a party-pooper - I am perturbed by the manner in which Wetherspoon's is serving De Koninck. The British version of the beer is cask conditioned and it is never produced in this way in Belgium.

Regular readers may have picked up the message over the years that I am quite keen on cask-conditioned beer. But I am a traditionalist in more ways than one. I don't, for example, expect the classic Czech lagers Budweiser Budvar and Pilsner Urquell to be served in unfiltered, cask-conditioned form in this country because that would not be true to style.

The same holds true with De Koninck. In the great cafes and bars of Antwerp, where the beer truly is king, it is served on draught in a filtered but unpasteurised fashion from kegs. That is the Antwerp tradition and I respect it.

The beer on sale in Wetherspoons is sent unfiltered in tankers from Antwerp to the Shepherd Neame brewery in Faversham in Kent. There it is racked into casks, where it enjoys a secondary fermentation in pub cellars.

Real ale fans will no doubt celebrate the fact that De Koninck is served in the pukka fashion in Britain. But I would ask them to consider two questions:

Should a Belgian beer be sold in a manner that is not true to style and tradition in its own country? With independent brewers in Britain struggling to get on to the bars of the major pub companies, should they have to face competition from a "cask beer" that is only sold in keg form in Belgium? I don't doubt for one second the sincerity of Wetherspoons in serving De Koninck in cask form. The group clearly thinks it will have greater appeal to its core audience if it appears on handpumps. This is borne out by the fact that when I dropped into my local Wetherspoons to try the beer it wasn't available. It had sold out within days of going on sale and there are similar reports from other parts of the country.

But that doesn't change my attitude: a Belgian beer should be served in the traditional Belgian manner.

De Koninck, above all, should be served in a traditional glass known in Antwerp as a bolleke. Titter ye not, as the late Frankie Howerd would have said, as the name means little goblet in Antwerp. But you can imagine the mass outbreak of tittering that would engulf Wetherspoon's pubs if customers started demanding loads of bollekes.

On my last visit to Antwerp I called into a famous tavern, Den Engel - the Angel - in the city centre and asked for the ritual bolleke. There is no need to mention the name of the beer. The barman pours the amber beer with its dense foaming head into the ritual goblet and a waiter carefully deposits it at your table.

As most Belgians speak excellent English, there is no doubt the waiter in an Antwerp café knows exactly why the term bolleke brings on a fit of the giggles among British visitors. In fact many, keeping perfectly straight faces, will ask British drinkers "not to drop a bolleke" when they serve them with little goblets. Somehow, a pint glass of De Koninck from a Wetherspoon's handpump loses something in the translation.