Monday, February 25, 4:45 p.m.
We’re gonna show you what beer paradise is all about!” says the emcee, clinging to his mic in Pure’s DJ booth. To my father, this would mean one Heineken after mowing the lawn (you know, to wash down the dust and clippings) and then a second to actually savor. I accept a Stella Artois from the bartender—poured from the bottle into a logoed glass just for the purpose—and immediately notice that it’s lacking one of the little bibs that sits like a Christmas-tree skirt around the base of everyone else’s stemmed Belgian beer glass. Uh-oh—I’ve only been here about 20 minutes, and already I’m turning into a brew snob.
The doors open right at 5 p.m., making this probably the earliest I’ve ever seen the inside of Pure, and the first time I’ve had a chance to look at the newly renovated furnishings (courtesy of Fresh Wata’s Tricia Costello) as Nightclub & Bar Show attendees fall in to hit the complimentary buffet and open bar.
In the center of the dance floor, two temporary bars offer up three beers on tap and provide two sinks for washing glassware. A throng of bartenders in white Stella logo polo shirts cluster around as Cian Hickey of InBev International demonstrates the nine-step “ritual” for pouring a perfect Stella Artois draught, his look as serious and intense as a priest giving the sacrament. Even the vocabulary is sacred and awesome.
“This is called the Purification,” Hickey says with a slight brogue, taking the Stella glass by the stem (“Always by the stem!”) and soaping it up inside first with the stationary three-pronged brush, then laying it sideways to scrub the stem, before giving the base a little swirl and finally plunging it “from toe to top” into the second sink three times to get all the detergent out. Held up to the bright club lights, it’s the cleanest, proudest beer glass I’ve ever seen.
“Next comes the Sacrifice.” A chill goes up my spine as he tilts the glass at a 45-degree angle and pulls the first draught of foamy Stella, only introducing the glass after the initial pour has been allowed to run off—hence, sacrificing beer—catching the fresher beer midstream and filling the glass this way until straightening it near the top; this moment he calls Liquid Alchemy. A thick head forms as the glass is pulled out of the running stream (the Removal) and set aside as a second glass goes in.
While the Alchemy and the Head steps are repeated, Hickey deftly whisks a flat, dull knife from a canister and, again at a 45-degree angle, scrapes the foaming head off, sending it cascading down the front of the glass. For obvious reasons, this is called the Beheading, news he delivers with a satisfied smirk as nods of approval spread throughout the hopefuls. They will repeat these steps momentarily in the Draught Master Competition.
Hickey only has to eyeball the height of the head—two fingers tall inside the glass—for the Judgment, and of course his beers are perfection. Once again the glasses take a dip in the sink to wash off any fallout from the Beheading before they receive their puritanical little neck ruff drip-catchers and are placed in front of us, the judges, for the Bestowal, upon logoed coasters, as prim and clean as a baby on Easter Sunday. I feel guilty for wanting to drink it, but when I finally do, it’s with the utmost reverence.
The Ritual is performed over 14 times before Anthony “Paesan” Alba, the Nevada chapter VP of the United States Bartenders Guild, is named the winner and awarded a giant Stella glass as his trophy. In the fall, Alba will travel to Belgium to represent the U.S. in a worldwide search for the Draught Master with the greatest beer-pouring prowess as set out by the 1997 Belgian Draught Master Program.
“Every beer in Belgium has its own glass,” explains Hickey. With over 1,000 brands available, and a ritual of some sort associated with each, I would bow before the Draught Master as his humble servant, Heineken respectfully tucked behind my back.
Xania Woodman thinks globally and parties locally. And frequently. E-mail her at [email protected] and visit thecircuitlv.com to sign up for Xania’s free weekly newsletter.