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2009 Belgian Beer Adventure
No dangling over icy cliffs, no soaking in hot beer baths, and no lions or tigers or bears, but there was beer adventure aplenty on our trip to Belgium. We billed the trip as the Great Beers of Belgium but in truth it was more the Great Tastes of Belgium. Between the beers sour enough to make your cheeks touch to gourmet dinners with "sweet meats" it was adventure enough.
Deb & I joined our fellow beer trip adventurers in the lobby of our hotel in Brussels on Friday late afternoon and immediately started off exploring the culture, architecture, and history…no wait, actually most the husbands were out looking for an ATM to get cash. Then we set out with our walking tour guide to explore one of the most beautiful squares in all of Europe. Of course, a long walking tour meant ever increasing thirst. We ducked into a couple of cellar bars for some liquid refreshment and to get to know each other a little better before heading off to Restobierres (http://www.restobieres.eu/), the famed Brussels restaurant, for our first beer themed dinners. I finished off with a Kriek Beer Sabayon cooked & whipped by owner Alain Fyat himself.
Four couples from Portland, Cincinnati, and Minneapolis along with our BeerTrip guide, Mike of Montana, were soon exchanging beer/travel stories, sharing some excellent beers not available here, and anticipating the next ten days of exploring some of the best beers, breweries, and food anywhere in the world. The late Michael Jackson (the beer writer not the singer) described Belgium as the "Disneyland of beer." And we had a ten day all-you-could-ride pass.
 Our first full day was a history lesson in brewing. Our Cincinnati couples (Rob & Roxanne, Phil & Peggy) took the morning off but we were joined by our new friends Rich & Amy from Portland on our own personal tour of Cantillon, the famed lambic brewery. Operated as both museum and brewery, here the extreme sour beers are created from October through March using methods unchanged for centuries. Lambics are sour on purpose and are an "acquired" taste. The brewery is dusty, dirty, and overrun with spiders. Why? Because the wild yeasts creating that unique sour taste live in the wood & patina of the structure. Cleaning might drive them to extinction. Belgian brewer tradition is not never hurt a spider, as they are the natural pest control for the brewery.
From there, the rolling tasting room (bus) took us off to tour the Vapour Brewery in the countryside. Here we toured the only remaining steam powered brewery in the world and enjoyed a fabulous lunch of smoked salmon, varied local cheeses, and fresh baked breads. Beer is produced just one weekend a month using the same equipment as the farm workers used in the early 1800’s. Truly a "farmhouse ale" as the brewery equipement was purchased to supply the farm workers with their daily beer when most farm work was not mechanical but human & animal powered.
Over the remainder of the trip we slept at the foot of the Boullion Castle, overnighted in a quaint hotel called La Calestienne in Nismes, and settled in Brugge for three nights, before moving on to Antwerp. Each day, each brewery, each meal, was a window into one of the more interesting countries we’ve visited. The word I kept coming back to was "quirky". Between stops at three of the Trappist breweries we would visit Rulles Brewery. Here at Rulles we found some quirky brewers. Combining modern technology, yeast from the monastic breweries, and only hops from America, they are quickly making a name for themselves in a land with over 800 breweries.
Bink Breweries puts it clearly: 131 Year Brewing Tradition, We brew it here, we drink it here, and we sell what is left over.
In Brugge
If you haven’t seen the movie, then you should.
Brugge is a city that time forgot for hundreds of years and is so much the better for it. Once the richest city in northern Europe, magnificent buildings abound as nothing was torn down or rebuilt. Brugge actually means "bridge" and the town is often called the "Venice of the North" due to the extensive system of canals instead of roads. Its eighty breweries have now dwindled down to one, but it remains a beer mecca.
 Travelers from around the world come to see the city, ride the canal boats, and explore the pubs. We enjoyed the Monks Hole, a small pub under the church accessed thru a small half door. Originally this is where to monks would come to relax. Deb & I spent an afternoon on our own exploring & sampling the city’s delights. Coming back from the wooden wind mills lining the canal to the sea, we stopped at the Cafe Vlissinghe: open daily since 1515 AD. Here we got a tip from a local patron and found our favorite dinner place, an intimate bistro featuring an open oak fire grill with steaks and ribs. Oh, and they had a seriously small but amazingly delicious beer list.
 A quick train trip and we found another quirky brewery to tour. Born on dates are very important to the Rodenbach Brewery. Opposite our macro brews of America, here they demand that their beer age at least six months and the best be aged at least TWO YEARS in giant oak vats. They serve no beer before its time to paraphrase Orson Wells. This oak barrel maturation is a long slow bacteriological process to consume the sugars left behind by the beer yeasts and thus produce "the most refreshing beer" in the world per Michael Jackson. This beer is shockingly dry, tart, and delicious. Brewed in the same location for nearly 150 years, the brewery nearly disappeared due to a lack of capital. A larger Belgian brewery is now the owner and is committed to keeping this unique brew on the market.
Antwerp
From Brugge, we went on to Antwerp. Here is the city famed for its diamond markets, its port, and amazing downtown of shopping and historical buildings. We went for the beer.
The DeKonick Brewery was our last brewery tour and featured something I’ve never seen in any brewery. They have a large device for vacuum packing whole bales of hops (check out our Czech trip story for a photo showing hop bales). Looks very ordinary but finding something that unique was cool for me. The true gem of the city is not a brewery nor a beer restaurant but simply the bar known around the world as the Kulminator.
What makes the Kulminator the greatest beer bar in the world is completely hidden. In its cellars are beers not from around the world, but from history. Want to try a beer brewed in year you were married? How about one from each year your children were born? Oh, and you want them all to be the same brand? No problem. You’ve always wanted to compare the 1983 Rochefort Trappist with the 2003 version just to see if they’ve changed anything or wondered if time does improve the brew. You can do it here. In the photo album I’ve posted, you can find a picture of me posing with the beer menu. Slightly larger than the Mpls/St Paul yellow pages, you can lose yourself in beer history.
Thankfully just a short walk back to the hotel…oops it is pouring rain and I have a paper map. I think we’ll go back and have another while we wait for the cab.
The Czech Republic drew us with its low prices and beautiful exotic Prague. Bavaria with its classic beers and the famed Oktoberfest pulled us in. Belgium always seemed a little too weird in its beers. Yet, those in the know for beer kept telling me to go. And so we went.
To me, Belgium was the most like America of the countries we’ve visited. Oh, I can’t speak any of their languages (but beer is universal) but the attitude of "let’s try it and ignore the rules" imbues the brewers just like our American craft brewing brethren. And, no matter where you ate, whether feast, food stand, or all you can eat ribs; it always was with French fries…opps strike that… pommes frites.
More trip photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dan.justesen/BelgiumBeerTrip2009
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