Flanders' Brut Beer GÔDE Brings Fizz and Sparkle to Hong Kong

Melding centuries-old methods for producing beer and sparkling wines, GÔDE - the Champ Beer is the culmination of two worlds finding their sweet spot. Godefroy Baijot, the brand’s founder and namesake, said the conception of this effervescent beer began in his native Champagne wine region in France and his wife Julie’s hometown in Flanders, a beer paradise where GÔDE’s brewery is based.

“I decided to create a beer that looks like me—a champ beer that is halfway between beer and sparkling wine,” Godefroy, a champagne grower for nearly a decade, tells The Beat Asia.

“It is a revolutionary product created with a sophisticated beer drinker in mind. It tastes amazing in a hoppy, fizzy way. Think champagne meets beer!”

Brewing and Traditional Method

GÔDE combines two ancestral crafts, that of brewing and Méthode Traditionnelle (traditional method), to create a bone-dry, light-bodied drink with a champagne-like finish in a relatively nascent brut IPA category.

The first part is the brewing process of traditional beer, followed by Méthode Traditionnelle, an ancient technique used to produce sparkling wines. At this stage, a second fermentation occurs using liqueur de tirage, a blend of yeast, sugar, and still wine. In this process, yeasts consume sugar, die, and decompose, before producing alcohol and carbon dioxide to give birth to the drink’s fizz and add layers of sensory elements.

After this, the bottles are brought down to the cellars, where they are shielded from light for six months. This process, called maturation on lees, allows the wine to develop its rounded mouthfeel and aromatic profile. Next, GÔDE enters a process called remuage, or riddling, where the bottles are placed on champagne racks and delicately rotated every eight hours throughout four weeks, allowing the sediment to glide towards the neck of the bottle. By the end of the fourth week, the bottles will have stood in an upright position with all the sediment gathered in the neck, ready for the final stage—disgorgement. Here, all the excess yeasts accumulated from the riddling process and collected in the bottle’s neck are removed. The result is a fantastic drink that brings out floral, fruity, and citrusy notes, with a distinct spiciness. Sipping on GÔDE gives you a light mouthfeel that is at once “bright, dry, and vivacious.”

Flanders to Hong Kong

From their brewery in French Flanders at Godewaersvelde, GÔDE is bringing their sparkle and fizz to Hong Kongers, both as a companion under the scorching summer and a nightcap to the occasional breeze. From Aug. 17-20, the city’s wine and beer connoisseurs can swing by the Gourmet Zone (Booth Number 3B-D16) at the Hong Kong Food Expo to have their hands on GÔDE’s pale golden brut beer in chalk white and brick red champagne bottles. Be greeted by the semi-sweet character that slowly lightens as the carbonation draws itself across your palate, melding the aromatic flavours of ripe banana, allspice, green apple peels, unripe pears, a hint of meadowsweet, and malted barleys, which give it the subtle caramel touch.

As an exclusive treat, The Beat Asia readers get a special FREE DELIVERY on 1 bottle when you purchase GÔDE online in Hong Kong via House of Fine Wines by clicking here. Just enter the code "Thebeat" upon checkout!

For more details, dial +852 2345 4377, or email [email protected].