Beer for the Discerning Dog

Last year, a Napa Valley woman created beer for dogs from malted barley, water, and “beef flavor.” It’s called Happy Tail Ale and a six-pack retails for $8.99 at stores across the country. However, the Happy Tail Ale now has an import rival for the dog with a discerning palate. To find out how to treat your pet to a special indulgence, read on.

From the land of Heineken, Amstel, and Bavaria beers comes Kwispelbier: the European answer to your best friend’s plea for brewski. A pet store owner in the Netherlands, Terrie Berendsen, concocted the unique beverage for her Weimaraners. She’s quoted in an Associated Press article as saying, “Once a year we go to Austria to hunt with our dogs, and at the end of the day we sit on the verandah and drink a beer. So we thought, my dog also has earned it.” Weimaraners, named after the Grand Duke of Weimar in central Germany, were originally bred to hunt small game. However, they’re not the only kind of dog that enjoys Kwispelbier. After only a week on the market, the beer is a sensation – even with the hefty price of $2.14 per bottle. “Kwispel” means “wagging a tail” in Dutch.

WeimaranerThe beer consists of a mixture of malt and beef extract and is prepared by Schelde, a brewery in southern Holland near Terrie Berendsen’s hometown of Zelham. It’s non-alcoholic and safe for humans to drink. Dogs don’t process alcohol the same way humans do, so, although they can occasionally have a few laps of regular beer, even a small amount can be fatal. To order some for your pet, you can try contacting the Schelde brewery directly. They have a cool web site – worth visiting on its own – but unfortunately you’ll probably have to figure out some Dutch to get Kwispelbier sent to your home. There’s an e-mail address listed in the “contact” section. Proost!

Emily Swan
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