Carnivale Brettanomyces 2026

I made it back to the Carnivale Brettanomyces after too long a gap. Apart from a memorable year camping in Belgium it's been based at various venues in Amsterdam when I've been before. It's now in Utrecht at De Kromme Haring brewpub or a nearby room. It's also broader in outlook, not necessarily focussed on just Brettanomyces, but covering all deviant fermentations. Some are more deviant than others!

I wasn't sure about having it all based at the same site, but on reflection it works well. Easy to get to the lectures and meet fellow beer nerds old and new. 

I did a couple of lectures myself, one my take on beer and revolution, the other on the British brewing tradition. 

Only one of these included mention of Brettanomyces!

The first lecture I attended was by Richard Preiss of Escarpment Labs on phenolic yeast. 

He confirmed something I've long suspected but never articulated: 

Talking of POF+ (Phenolic Off Flavour positive) and POF- yeast gives the wrong impresssion. POF is a trait, not a binary. 

Next one I attended was a talk on lager yeast by Steven van den Berg. Not hugely deviant, or particularly new to me apart from this rule of thumb for fermentation temperature:

Ferment at 1° per °Plato!

But your friend may ask: "Isn't fermenting at 25°P and 25°C a bit bleedin' strong and hot for lager?". To which I can only reply: "It certainly sound like that to me". Just because the wort attenuates doesn't mean the beer has a good flavour profile. But having said that, it's not something I've tried myself, so as ever, more research is needed. 

Then things definitely moved in a deviant direction with a talk on mycorrhizal fungi from Hugh Glashier.

Pretty tenuous link to beer, no matter how broad your definition. But absolute fascinating. 

And my life is certainly enriched knowing that there is such a thing as Woronin bodies. 

As a long term devotee of deviant drinks I was surprised to find myself out nerded at Kester Ratcliff's talk on Wild Yeast Beyond Brett. Weird yeasts from fermented teas and bees came up. Interesting stuff, but don't think I'll be trying it myself. 

After the excesses of the recent Austrian study tour I'd been pacing myself on the beer intake so for me the last night was the best night. One thing I'd missed about not being in Amsterdam was not getting to the Wildeman. So I was delighted when people from the Wildeman came to De Kromme Haring . Particularly as they brought anstich lager with them.

It's like the heathen version of cask beer, served without extraneous CO2, so less displeasing to god. Amazingly I also bumped into some wonderful Brazilians who had samples of cachaça matured in tropical woods to taste. Fascinating stuff, I'd been really curious about after some work I did recently.  

Don't call it rum

The night before I'd ended up tasting fermented chilli sauce and someone's homemade marmite. It is a community event. 

I also got to try canned lambic. I'm not sure of god's take on that one as we're getting into the obscure realms of theology. I was pleased though!

Pierre Tilquin with Tilquin in the can

It being my first time at the festival in Utrecht it was the first time for me to see the gravity pour. I would guess simply because they can, an anstich keg is taken up the spiral stair case outside the brewpub and just poured to people waiting below. I thought this was pretty ludicrous until the wonderful woman from the Wildeman handed me an empty glass. I was soon in the thick of it, or rain of it, and I immensely enjoyed my half of flat beer poured from a great height. I couldn't stop giggling like a loon. 

The big speaker at the event was Garrett Oliver, who gave his talk on Sunday. He's a great speaker, though I think it's fair to day our views differ on the craft beer revolution. He tied it to the Slow Food movement, which kind of worked. But I don't see how in a capitalist society you can escape the drive towards the industrial production which Slow Food is against as volumes grow. 

"I've been to hundreds of beer festivals but never one remotely like this"

I still had time for a pint before heading back home. But just the one as I wanted to keep my wits about me before I was safely in the departure lounge. 

Things to Tom Platt for posting my camera back to me after I foolishly left it at one of the talks. See, I told you it's a community event!