Author: Chris

Yesterday was probably one of the biggest days in all our beer travels. Not only we were visiting the brewery with the most elusive beer in the world, Westvleteren, we were also visiting a nearby brewery that makes one of the most unique beers in the world, Rodenbach. In planning the trip, this was the day I was most excited about.

Unfortunately, health didn’t completely cooperate. The first few Flogging Molly days of the trip, we mingled with a bunch of people who had been sick over the previous weeks. I had been sniffly over the past few days, but yesterday was the first day I felt like crap. And it had nothing to do with all the beers I drank the previous night at ‘t Brugs Beertje.

After conveniently ignoring the wakeup alarm, we finally got on the road an hour late.  Our first stop was the Sint Sixtus Abbey, home to the most sought after beer in the world, Westvleteren. It was a longer drive from Bruges than I imagined, with the last few kilometers down these one-lane country roads being the most frustrating. One the one hand, I felt like shit. But I also had the adrenaline pumping in anticipation of trying supposedly the world’s best beer.

Finally we parked and I rushed up to their cafe/restaurant, In de Vrede, to make sure they were open. All good. We quickly found a table and instead of waiting for the waitress, I rushed over the counter to order two beers.

Before the beers arrived, we decided that we should buy beer to take home to California now. The beers they sell are very limited and can quickly run out. You can still stand in a long line to buy beer from the little window over at the Abbey, but now there is also a more civilized way to buy your beer. There is a little store in In de Vrede. I think the only advantage of buying across the street at the Abbey is that you get the cool wooden tray instead of a paper six-pack holder.

And being the Westvleteren rookie, I tried to buy 8 bottles of Blonde and 12 bottles of  Westvleteren 8, the two beers available for purchase. I placed this request despite having read previously that a person can only buy a six-pack each. I blame the rookie maneuver on the mixture of sickness and adrenaline. In the end, I ended up with 6 bottles of Westvleteren 8. Returning to the table, I sent Merideth over to the little shop and she purchased her six bottles of Westvleteren 8.

With all the beer purchasing settled, it was time to try the beer. We tried all three, Blonde, Westvleteren 8 and Westvleteren 12. I have to say that each are really, really, really good. Westvleteren 12 was still young; it could use years of mellowing. I could see myself sipping the Blonde or Westvleteren 8 all day long.

Are they the best in the world? I would say ‘Yes’ at the moment I tasted them, but that statement is probably tied into the whole journey to get to the point of me actually trying them. I had the same feeling the other day when I drank Orval at their Abbey. In the end, it is the experience that is at the heart of beer travel.

Moving on, we visited the town of Poperinge, the center of hop production in Belgium. Unfortunately, the national hop museum was closed for the season, so we just walked around town for a bit and smiled at town’s numerous hop adornments. We did buy some hop-shaped chocolates.  We also double-checked to see if the recommended beer bars were really closed on Wednesdays. They were.

We finished up our Poperinge with a sobering visit to the city hall. World War I raged in this area, the battlefields of Ypres(Ieper) are just a few kilometers down the road. The nearby countryside is dotted with Commonwealth war graves, the final resting place for soldiers from Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Australia and the UK.

In the less enlightened times of the years 1914-18, shell shock victims were shot for being cowards. And in the courtyard of the Poperinge city hall, there is the memorial to British soldiers executed here for desertion. Not sure if the post is original but you can also visit the cells where they spent their final hours.

Then it was off to Roeselare and the Rodenbach brewery tour. I have been going through a serious ‘sour’ phase for the past year and Rodenbach’s Grand Cru is a chief reason for it. I was determined to visit Rodenbach while we here.

We are not normally into organized brewery tours, but that was the only way we could see the oak barrels, the secret behind the unique Rodenbach beer. I contacted the brewery several weeks ago and luckily there was a English language tour happening yesterday. Luckily, I say because English tours are rare at Rodenbach and we have done brewery tours in a language we can’t understand before and they are kind of boring.

Our group primarily consisted of people from NATO. There were about 20 of them and the 2 of us. After watching a short video on the family history while sipping regular Rodenbach, we set off on the tour of the brewery. We were shown the brewhouse, from the outside, and the old malting facility from the time when Rodenbach did their own malting.

But the real star of the show are the oak barrels. There are 294 of these massive vessels some as much as 150 years old. Walking through room after room of the Grand Cru in the making, I only wished that I had one of the keys that worked the sampling spigot.

Rodenbach employs two coopers to keep them in working order and maintenance includes being ‘scraped’ every 12 years.

It is in these barrels that Grand Cru gets its magic. After two years of aging, the beer from different barrels is blended to create the final product.

We finished off our day by tasting Grand Cru. And what a day is was… visiting two gems of the brewing world… the rarest and maybe the most unique.

We left Flemish-speaking Belgium Saturday morning and headed south into French-speaking Belgium. The main target of the day was the Abbey Notre Dame de St. Remy, home of the Trappist brewery Rochefort. Before Rochefort, we were going to stop at Fantôme followed by Caracole.

Fantôme holds an important place in my beer education. It was their beer that started me appreciating Belgian beers. Fantôme was not my first Belgian, but before Fantôme, I didn’t really think twice about them. Post tasting Fantôme, I knew I needed to explore the uniqueness that is Belgian brewing.

Arriving at Fantôme around noon, I went to the door only to have the owner/brewer inform me in a combination of French and sign language that they wouldn’t be open until 2pm. This would force a change in plans. We decided to return to Fantôme after Rochefort  instead of going on to Caracole. We didn’t have time to do both.

We drove on to the town of Rochefort and after a wrong turn and a bit of hunting and searching we found the abbey. Besides the wrong turn, it took some time as the abbey is not signposted until the you find the road it is on, plus we entered the side of town opposite of the abbey.

Rochefort is unique among the Trappist breweries in that it is the only one that doesn’t have their own brewery tap. Though this is bad news for our brewery list, it did count toward our goal of visiting all 7 Trappist breweries. We walked up to the gate, peered in, shot some video and took some pictures.

We still needed to try the beer so we drove 2km up the road to the unofficial brewery tap, Le Relais St. Remy. As we walked up, there was, of course, that anxious moment as to whether they were open or not. Much to our glee, we noticed an older couple enjoying a meal, so all was good.

Rochefort has three beers 6 (7.5% ABV), 8 (9.2% ABV), and 10 (11.3% ABV). Since we didn’t need an 11% beer, we both tried the 6 and then I had an 8. Later that evening, I had the 10 with dinner. All are dark, delicious and quite easy drinking even as you go up the scale in ABV. We also enjoyed a nice meal of ham and leek quiche with a salad.

Then it was the 26km drive back to Fantôme, which was much shorter this time because we didn’t take the wrong turn. The brewery and adjoining tasting room is located on the main road that runs through the small town of Soy.

If there are words to describe the brewery tasting room, they would funky and rustic. There are ghosts and even some laminated pictures of dried ham hanging on a beam. While we were there, another couple came in to buy beer to go. Besides them, the only people in the bar area were the owner/brewer and two women who we took to be his mother and grandmother. See Grandma in the picture below.

Funky could also describe the beers. We tried the regular Fantôme, which can only be described as an apple bomb. This was the beer that first awoke me to the uniqueness of Belgians. They also had the Brune, which according to CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide to Belgium, is a rare occurrence. So, we savored the Brune, which had a strong raspberry flavor. There was a chocolate version, too, but not available for tasting, so Merideth bought a bottle of that to take with her.

I am not sure the Fantôme beers are for everyone, but I really enjoy them. With quirkiness like this, they just exude a passion for brewing.

It was time to head further south almost to France to the town of Bouillion, our home for the night. But on the way we stopped at a war cemetery Merideth spotted. War cemeteries are our favorite historical places to visit in Europe mainly because they are the most poignant and thought provoking monuments in Europe.

The cemetery, located in the town of Hotton, was for UK and Commonwealth soldiers, airmen and even a 53 year old war correspondent for the Daily Telegraph. Walking down the rows and reading the headstones, you see the person’s name, date of birth, the day they died, where home was… From this you get a sense of connection to the people who made the ultimate sacrifice that all the books and movies cannot provide. Most graves we visit are bare, but some have flowers or occasionally a picture.

These cemeteries are dotted all over Western Europe and are usually signposted from the main road.

Merideth signed the guest book before we left the cemetery and then we continued our journey south to our final destination. It is a good travel day when we can indulge both our love of beer and history.

Friday we were finally ready to get down to the real reason for our visit to Belgium. Flogging Molly was headed back to the States and Ute back to Germany. So after burning the candles at both ends on the first two days, we finally had time for some serious beer work.

Leaving Amsterdam mid morning, we took the train to the Dutch/Belgian border and picked up a car. Once we had a vehicle, our destination was Kluis Achel, the newest of the Trappist breweries and also our first Trappist that we have ever visited.

It was actually somewhat hard to find. Merideth’s job as navigator is not always easy and this wasn’t the easiest job. By the way, it sucks being the driver, too. My idea is that we would skirt along the border, hang a right at Eindhoven and then we would be there. Well, the Eindhoven roads were a big construction zone and unlike Germany, the Netherlands didn’t list EVERY possible town that you could reach via each exit. But after some trial and a few errors, and through the constant drizzle of rain we did reach the abbey.

Haven been only around since 1999, the brewery and it’s adjoining tasting room/cafe has a quite a school cafeteria look and feel. You even pick up trays and go down a line of food to a cash register at the end. And being cold, rainy, early December, we were two of maybe ten people in this cavernous hall. And definitely the youngest.

But don’t let that fool you… there is still great Trappist beer to be had.

We tried both beers available, the Blonde and Bruin. They are really good beers; smooth, delicious and very good at disguising their ABV. But having them at the brewery gives them that transcendental quality. Add artisanal cheese and then the dessert that was basically a cinnamon bun on top of a custard tart… wow!

After two days of non-stop partying and the drive, we were pretty wiped out. Luckily, we were just staying a few kilometers down the road in Hamont. If you visit Achel and stay nearby, spend your night at Villa Christina in Hamont. The building is from the 1750s and has been transformed into a really nice Bed and Breakfast… probably the nicest we have ever stayed at. You do have to climb up an original set of steep stairs that I am sure would not pass any sort of safety inspection in this day and age.

To cap off our day, we found a local’s pub in Hamont right down the street from our B&B, the Hotel de Klok. And they had a great selection of Belgian beers plus good food. I don’t eat beef but they had a stew, Stoverij, that is made with beef marinaded in Belgian beer. I stepped outside my comfort zone and had it… it was amazingly delicious. There is nothing better than finishing off the day with great beer and food.

 

We arrived in Belgium early Wednesday morning after a somewhat bumpy ride over to Europe. Landing in the predawn darkness at Brussels airport, we quickly passed through passport control, collected our bags and were on a train to Antwerp.

The challenge of day was to simply stay awake, as we were seeing a Flogging Molly/Street Dogs show that night. Since we had time and wanted to conserve our energy, we had a leisurely day planned that included a good deal of walking and only two beer stops. Freshly showered, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we set out from our hotel to check out the old city center on our way to Antwerp’s only brewpub.

The first stop was ‘T Pakhuis. Located on a quiet street south of the old city center, we were the first customers of the day. They had three beers available, a Blonde, a Bruin and a 9.5% Tripel that I wasn’t remotely interested in drinking unless I wanted to go to sleep immediately. Merideth started with the Blonde, myself with the Bruin. And a good sign was that Merideth liked the beer. She is not a huge Belgian fan so to hear encouraging words bodes well for the trip.

Though we have been to Belgium before, it was always in the French-speaking regions. In Antwerp, they speak Flemish/Dutch and this was our first introduction to the language. It shares a lot of words with German so you would think we could pick it up quickly. But that was not the case. Since it was slow, we were able to enlist the help of the bartender with key phrases and pronunciations. It’s still a work in progress.

Our only other beer stop for the day was to visit the Kulminator, Antwerp’s most notable beer bar. Though they boast less than a dozen taps, the Kulminator is world famous for their aged beer selection.

The bar is cozy, rustic and quaint. The major decorating feature seems to be a who’s who of beer bottles, whether as a candle holder dripping with wax or a dusty bottle adorning a shelf. A couple of cats made appearances now and then from behind the bar. Besides being a beer geek destination, their clientele seems to be mainly older locals, which added to the quirky ambiance.

We were handed the rather thick binder that was their beer menu. To say it was overwhelming would be an understatement. While we perused the seemingly endless beer listings, I enjoyed a Kriek from Kasteel and Merideth had Belgian Pils. Trappists, Guezes, Krieks. You name it, the Kulminator had them going back to the 1990s. Some were expensive (20 euro+), others could be had for a price of a regular beer.

In the end, we couldn’t choose. Part of the problem was jet lag induced indecision, but the other issue was that most of the beers were in the 9%+ ABV range. We still had hours to go before the show and we wanted to be awake to see it. We left Kulminator with a heavy heart. We wanted to stay all day but we needed to move on.

We made it through the day and it was finally time for the Flogging Molly/Street Dogs show. We had a good time like always and I happily survived a partial collapse of the crowd barrier when I was at the front. Not my fault.

Being in Belgium, I had visions of watching Flogging Molly while quaffing a Chimay Blue or a La Chouffe. So you can imagine my disappointment when I saw the only beer they served at the venue was Stella Artois.

As many of you probably know, I am not a big fan of “wife beater”. For me it lacks any real flavor or depth and is just a gateway beer for any other non-descript macro lager. But we had an extra drink token and I decided to give it a try. Where else would Stella taste its best than in its home country? My opinion remains the same; even in Belgium, it tastes just like any other non-descript macro lager.

After the show, we met up with friends at a bar in Antwerp’s city center. Here, not having a bunch of beer at the show paid off as Bar Mondial sported a nice selection of beer including several Trappists. So, we finished up our first day in Europe staying up to the wee hours of the morning enjoying beers from Orval and Westmalle. As we got back to our hotel after 3am, we were pretty impressed with ourselves for making it through the whole day. It might be a while before we top it as a first day in Europe.