BEN VINKEN – THE ORIGINAL BELGIAN BEER SOMMELIER
Ben Binken is the world’s number one Beer Sommelier and on a recent visit to Pattaya, had a beer or two with our own Barry Upton on a luxury yacht moored at Ocean Marina.
He was then due to do a tasting at a monastry in Bangkok, famed for their trappist craft beers.
He told Barry that Craft beers in England have only one style but with Belgian beers there are many variations with trappist beers deriving from six monastaries.
Ben is always looking for colour, taste, smell and bitterness level, tasting the sugar and spice levels in the throat which makes beer tasting more complex than that for wine.
For over 30 years, Ben Vinken has been a tireless champion of Belgian speciality beers: as a Beer Sommelier, beer lover and organiser of the annual Bierpassie weekend beer festival.

Ben is also the author of several beer publications; two of these, ‘Trappist Beers from A to Z’ along with ‘Beer and Cheese’ are available in English.
He admits that never in his long career has he witnessed the hype now surrounding Belgian beers abroad. “Nevertheless, Belgian brewers should not rest on their laurels,” is Ben’s opinion.”
“They must provide a guarantee of quality and uphold our good reputation. Balance and a tradition that goes back centuries, that is what we are aiming for.”
“But this should not stop us from being creative. Many beers have been improved through re-fermentation or the use of dry hopping. These beers have set new standards.”
The dynamic attitude of the microbrewers has filtered through to the big players.
In 1979 Ben Vinken started his career as a legal consultant with Lamot, a Pils brewery in Mechelen. “But I discovered that I was better suited to sales and marketing,” he explains.
In 1984 he moved to Palm Belgian Craft Brewers, where he could focus on speciality beers.
These were marketed through tastings held in one café after another, events were held, the beer was served in its proper glass every single time…
“We were pioneers,” Ben laughs.
In 1992 Ben set out to be an independent publisher. Books about Belgian beer were few and far between. “I published Michael Jackson’s Great Beers of Belgium in three languages,” Ben explains. “It turned out to be a runaway success.
Michael Jackson, the English trailblazer for beer tasting, was proved right in the end,” Ben Vinken concludes. “As early as 1984, he predicted ‘a quiet revolution of taste’, anticipated the resurgence of artisan brewers and made an unashamed plea for ‘real ale’. Michael taught us how to name and describe the various beer tastes and how to pour the beers in the correct way.”
“He also inaugurated us into the secrets of beer and food pairing. There really is nothing new under the sun.”
Ben Vinken is now writing books on cigars, saying that the hand rolled ones from West Cuba are still the best where the temperature is cooler. The Dominican Republic and Honduras also make high quality cigars.