Green Bench Brewing chosen to be Florida host of Zwanze Day 2021

In a much-anticipated announcement, the world-renowned Belgian lambic brewer Cantillon posted on Friday, August 13th that St. Petersburg’s Green Bench Brewing was chosen to host Zwanze Day, a one-day celebration of lambic that includes tapping a keg of Cantillon Zwanze 2021, only available at host locations.

About Zwanze Day:
Zwanze Day is the annual celebration of Belgian beer, especially that from Brasserie Cantillon.

The celebration originates when Cantillon founder Jean Van Roy found bottles of his very limited beer, Zwanze, on sale on eBay for massive amounts of money. Van Roy decided that he wanted to get his beer to as many people as possible and not only the fortunate few Wh would then sell his beer, so he transformed Zwanze Day from a bottle release at the brewery to a draft-only release in a limited number of very select bars around the world. Hosting Zwanze Day involves an application and being selected by Van Roy.

Zwanze Day 2021 will take place on September 25th.

About Zwanze 2021:
While the release of Zwanze is the same every year, the beer is not. Each year the beer or blend of beers is different, making this release unique from any other. This year, Zwanze will be called “Parasol” based on the brewery’s description.

From Brasserie Cantillon:

Here at Cantillon, we’re no strangers to experimentation.

In the early 50’s, Paul Cantillon tried blending Lambic and oranges. The result wasn’t exactly spectacular.

The refermentation in the bottles was so strong, that the brewery workers at the time were forced to sprint past the bottles through the cellar in order to avoid being hit by popping corks and drenched in beer.

Our grandfather Marcel Cantillon loved this story, and often loved to tell it to us as children.

So 70 years later, inspired by our great-grandfather, we’ve made a special blend of Lambic and citrus (a blend featuring mostly oranges) in his honor.

The acidity of the beer and the fruit and the freshness of the citrus in contrast to the bitterness of their zests makes for a particlarly thirst-quenching Zwanze.

The name Parasol will remind my fellow Belgians of a certain age of the orange-flavored soft-drink of the same name we used to drink back in the day.

This year’s Zwanze Day will be held on Saturday, September 25th.

Green Bench Brewing is located at 1133 Baum Avenue in St. Petersburg. More information will be posted as it becomes available.

If a road trip sounds enticing for this annual beery celebration, the next closest beer establishments to host Zwanze Day are The Avenue Pub in New Orleans and The Porter in Atlanta.