The taste that can make wonders

At Szent András Brewery, not a month can pass without something really special. The distillery now comes with a long-aged, strongly malted barley-wine with high alcohol content and dried-fruit characters. The brewery’s latest beer ‘Houdini’ promises cunning and surprises already at the first tasting, but, over some time, it enchants and amazes, just its legendary eponym, the world's most famous magician and escape artist – Hungarian-born Harry Houdini.

The small-scale beer factory in Békésszentandrás raises the experience of brewing to a whole new level. The brewery's portfolio has already included almost all major types of beer, be it modern lagers, full-bodied double bock, fragrant drinks, fruity or wheat beers. To complete this picture, the brewery now comes up with a mysterious – even capable of real miracles – American barley-wine, inspired by the work and the unusual way of life of Harry Houdini.

Despite its name, barley-wine has nothing to do with wine. Even more, it is a bittersweet type of beer with a high alcohol degree, compelling, and characteristically fruity aromas, the power of which lies in its complexity. ‘Houdini’ is an American-style version of this (an American barley-wine), which is more hops-accentuated, oily in texture and bitterer than its ancient English version, and it has a reddish amber colour. This highly full-bodied beer pleasantly combines the sweetly raisin flavour characteristics of the malt with the acidity, sour, juicy flavours of dark fruits while not containing any fruits. Due to the high dry matter content and the characteristic of the type, the latest pride of Szent András Brewery – under the right conditions – can be stored for up to a decade, it improves like a good wine, revealing more and more layers over time. The goal of the Békésszentandrás-based beer manufacture is to make this beer at least as unique in taste, aroma and type as its eponym, the legendary Harry Houdini was in his life.