Characters & Labels

Enamel Plates

On old postcards you see beer brands on pubs, a way to know where the pub was and which beer was available. Nowadays these signs are no longer made in large quantities, and they are very valuable. They are made of steel, painted with enamel and fired in an oven at different high temperatures. So we had a series of 50 plates made in 5 colours, with the black done twice. This gives a double thickness: old-fashioned, but different. The plates are signed bottom right and numbered on the back. Made by the only (and best) remaining enamel maker in Belgium, in Brussels. Size: 65 × 45 cm.

Beer Village

Once upon a time in Italy there was a man who had the idea of inviting some small and special Belgian brewers, so Italian beer lovers could skip the trip to Belgium. This first happened in his pub and soon moved to outside locations. Gianni has called it Beer Village since 2006. He asked me to draw a logo for the glasses, quite an honour! As he is stopping in 2026, I thought he would be pleased with a painting as a tribute. Of the last edition…

XL

Anniversaries are popular, but too many anniversaries are tricky. When we had been brewing in Esen for 40 years, we thought that remembering the first (?) years could be a good thing. My mother said: 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 you do, but 40? I said: Mom, it is good for business. She agreed. We made a special beer, XL, a play on words: XL means 40 in Roman numerals, and also extra large. We are not XL, so it is just funny. But COVID-19 kept us from celebrating. After COVID we brewed XL again, a blond beer of 7% alc., with Maris Otter malt and orange peel, dry-hopped with WGV hops.

Dulle Teve Riserva

In 1998 we had a brew of Stille Nacht with a yeast mutation, meaning too much pressure. This meant opening every single bottle and pouring the beer into wine barrels to go on fermenting. The first and still the best was Reserva 2000, on barrels of Château Léoville Las Cases from Saint-Julien. Later we chose different barrels to age in, in this case Italian barrels from Piedmont, and called it Riserva.

Dulle Teve Riserva 2018

We had 4 barrels in total, but one turned sour. Why, we do not know; we blame the barrel. Or the wine, which was chardonnay (white wine). Since then we have more confidence in red, tannic wines. The story of all these attempts is worth a (small) book. The sour beer has never been sold and is still imprisoned, waiting to improve its life. We are desperate…

Oerbier Man

The Oerbier man had to be invented quickly. We went to the glass factory (the next day), and in Belgium you need a proper glass. So we chose one glass and one character: the Oerbier man, a kind of funny yeast cell that could be a human being. On the belly it says 1980, which makes later copies ridiculous. It can be made in three dimensions and used as a lamp if you put a light inside! The current version is opaque, but you can easily (?) have it personalised by painting it.

Kest Mart

St Peter's Church in Esen is a landmark and has been rebuilt several times. The last time was after the First World War, and this was remembered in 2026, 100 years later.

Esen Kermesse

Stille Nacht

A preliminary design of a label for the Christmas beer Stille Nacht. Meant for beer cans, but never realised (the label).