In the wake of World War I, British soldiers still stationed in the Belgian province of Hainaut were desirous of the sort of Scottish ales they drank at home; strong, dark, sweet, and unrepentantly malty. So they came to a 70 year old brewery in the town of Silly, located about 40 kilometres southwest of Brussels, and asked the great-great-grandfather of current brewery co-owner Lionel Van der Haegen if he would brew them such a beer.
And Silly Scotch was born.
While it would be wrong to characterize the Scotch as Brasserie de Silly’s flagship beer, it is undoubtedly one of the brewery’s most famous, and now for the first time it and several of its stable-mates are available in western Canada, while it also returns to Ontario this winter. The official launch took place on September 29 at downtown Vancouver’s Chambar, where the Silly Blanche, a highly quenching, coriander-forward wheat beer, will soon serve as the house witbier.
A crowd of roughly 70 beer enthusiasts gathered in the atmospheric downstairs room of Chambar to sample not just the Blanche and the Scotch, but also the grapefruit-flavoured Pink Killer, the hop-forward Green Killer, the somewhat atypically sweet, amber-hued Silly Saison, and draught Enghien Blonde, a mischievously quaffable golden ale of 7.5% alcohol.
Also featured were the smoothly sweet but dry finishing, 9.5% alcohol La Divine, which joins the portfolio in the west and hits LCBO shelves within a month or so, and the organic pale lager, Silly Bio Pils.
At 175 years of age and led by the sixth generation of Van der Haegens, cousins Lionel and Bertrand, Silly is one of Belgium’s most esteemed family breweries, although neither as large nor as headline-grabbing as some others, such as Moortgat-led Duvel and lambic brewer Lindemans. As such, the Silly beers can sometimes be most undeservedly overlooked, to the detriment of beer enthusiasts everywhere.
The Scotch in particular could teach some Scottish brewers about balancing malt-forward strength with relative lightness and approachability, just as Green Killer has lessons to impart on the judicious use of hops and La Divine is an impressive demonstration of subtlety in a strong beer. Overall, while it is undoubtedly an oft-repeated cliché, it is fair to say that the Silly brewery is anything but.
The above-noted beers are presently available in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon. La Divine is soon to be available in Ontario, followed by Silly Scotch in the winter. Visit @silly_canada and @savoirboire on Instagram.
