The Beer Tourist

De he(e)ren- the gentlemen- in question are the De Four brothers, the men behind the outstanding beer café and restaurant De Heeren van Liedekercke (DHL). If there is a café in Belgium where only superlatives apply, this must be it.

The barrels in front of the building are promising enough signs, but as usual in Belgium there is more than meets the eye. The restaurant is on the ground floor, and there is a nice garden terrasse at the back in addition to the downstairs seatings. When the café/restaurant is busy (and even when it is not), it is not a bad idea to sit close to the bar to attract the waiter's attention.

Joost De Four may be the master of the beer bar and cellar, but his brother Tom rules in the kitchen. He has received many awards over the years; best game chef in Belgium, best fish cook, and recently the best sandwiches in Vlaanderen were also said to stem from his kitchen. My beef in champignon sauce made with Pater Lieven Tripel was definitely a culinary highlight on my latest trip to Belgium. At the Zythos Bierfestival they have been known to promote bierpralines, made in cooperation with a chocolatier in Aalst. As with chocolate and beer, the brothers are an unbeatable combination.

Perfectionism also shone when the wedding between Joost and Jessica was celebrated five years ago. Two oude geuze were specially commissioned from the then (just) geuze blender Drie Fonteinen: J&J Oude Geuze Blauw (for the groom) and J&J Oude Geuze Roze (for the bride)- the former is a blend of 1 year old Lindemans lambiek and 4 year old Girardin lambiek, whereas the latter is a blend of 1 year old Boon lambiek with 3 years old Girardin lambiek. As expected when the best beer café in Belgium teams up the best geuze blender, the result is world-class beers. They are only available at the DHL, but in Belgium you can even buy beers to take away from cafés, a practice unheard of in over-regulated, stern Northern Europe.

Welcoming as the place is, you will still be faced with closed doors on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and with limited opening hours on Mondays outside the summer season. You can get there by train or by De Lijn, but the train is faster. From Brussel there are direct trains to Liedekerke. From there it is a 20 minute walk along the seemingly never-ending Stationstraat. Iddergem station (make sure not to confuse it with Idegem station on the same line; believe me, the only facility there while waiting for the train back is a frituur café) is closer, but you will have to change trains at Denderleeuw. The next big railway project may well bring it even closer. Inspired by the Parisian RER, the GEN - a regional express network around Brussels - is being built. My hope is that whilst bringing beer tourists easier to Liedekerke and around in Payottenland, the network does not challenge this unique part of Vlaanderen with its rich beer culture.

De Heeren van Liedekercke is indeed situated just a stone's throw from Payottenland- the Liedekerke municipality and the Vlaams-Brabant province are just across the nearby river Dender. No wonder then that DHL is especially strong on the lambiek and geuze family.

There is also an old beer list, but you have to ask for it. It may not be as extensive as at Kulminator, but it is very well-picked, featuring many geuze treats from breweries long gone. I had a Kriek from the now defunct brewery De Wets; De Heeren estimate that it was bottled in 1990. 18 years later the burgundy-coloured beer still produce a smallish white head. The body has probably gotten thinner with the years (though I was too young to taste it in 1990), but the port aroma is potent as can be. Good raisins aromas and flavours as well as some cellar character. You can still taste the cherries, though. Truth is that greatness ages well, and if I had been allowed to rate it on ratebeer.com, I would have given it 4.4 out of 5 (but the Belgian administrators of that site run a stricter regime of which beers can be entered than their UK and US counterparts, especially for defunct breweries where only few bottles remain commercially available).

DHL is strong on trappists as well, aged or not. Indeed, if you order an Orval, you will get a bottle that has been aged for 6 months unless you specifically ask for a fresh bottle. The Ambassadeur Orval title was granted to 340 cafés, taverns and restaurants which promote Orval with good presentation, service and originality. An obvious PR stunt from the brewery's side, but needless to say, DHL qualifies.

Another trappist, Westmalle, have coasters reading "Heerlijk duurt het langst" - the delicious lasts longest ( a pun on the proverb "Eerlijk duurt het langst" - honesty lasts longest). As any visit to De Heeren van Liedekercke is likely to be a delicious experience, it promises well for the future of Belgium's no 1 beer café.

Labels: Belgium, De Heeren van Liedekercke

"In Flanders Fields the poppies blow".

In the western corner of Vlaanderen, De Westhoek, not only poppies, but also hops grow. The area is home to some of the best brewers in the world, notably the Sint-Sixtusabdij at Westvleteren and De Struise Brouwers, who brew at Deca brewery in nearby Woesten-Vleteren.

The former is already a beer tourist pilgrimage destination, and the ostrich farm of the latter may well gain popularity with the opening of a brewery shop there.

The abbey of Sint-Sixtus itself, including its brewhouse, is beyond reach, and the brewery outlet also has more limited availability these days. It is open only from 2-5 pm, closed on Fridays and Sundays, and beers can only be bought (in crates of 24 bottles) with a reservation. The new restrictions seem to have relieved the surrounding area of the traffic jam that arose after the great publicity around the Westvleteren beers being rated as the world's best.

The most likely source for beers to take away may well be the little shop in a corner of the café and visitors centre, In de Vrede (The Peace). It is just across the street ("in the shadow of the Sint-Sixtus abbey"), owned by the abbey and open every day except Friday, the day of the crucifiction. The beer is sold in nice-looking sixpacks.

On the day of my visit, only the Extra was available from the shop. Judging from the best-before date, which is 3 years after the bottling date for all the Westvleteren beers (a mere formality, of course, since at least the 8 and 12 will improve for years beyond that if stored correctly), the beer had just been released from the warm room. There it is conditioned at 26 degrees Celcius for 10 days, according to Chuck Cook, one of the anointed few to get granted a visit behind the abbey walls.

As can be seen from the picture, the monks recommend that their beer be served and stored somewhat cooler than that; to be kept at 12-18 degrees C and served at 12-16 degrees is their recommendation.

Served at correct temperature and in great condition are all the three beers in the café proper, where one quarter of the total production ends up. In addition to the beer, the café serves up lighter meals such as a hommelpaptaart - hop porridge tart- that actually does not feature any hops in its recipe. Indirectly it certainly does, as it is made with the hoppy Poperings Hommelbier from local brewer Van Eecke. The ice cream, however, is made with Westvleteren Extra/ Westvleteren Blauw (the blue cap)/ Westvleteren 8- a dear child is known by many names. As always, for all you want to know about Abdij Sint-Sixtus and In de Vrede few web sites are as thorough as the one of the late John White.

Though spacious, In de Vrede fills up quickly in summer; many of the tables may already have been reserved. Judging from my observations, the combination of quiet country roads and world-class beer is appearantly not a good recruiting ground for a Bob- the term for a designated driver in the Low Countries.

My Bob was the belbus, the De Lijn mini bus on call, which leaves once an hour (if needed) and must be booked two hours in advance. For out-of-towners it is worth noting that the timetable seems to correspond well with the hourly train from the terminus of Poperinge. It is not unlikely, however, that the likeable little West-Vlaanderen town of Poperinge, famous for its hops and hop festival, may lure you to stay a little longer. There is a hop museum and a couple of decent bars. Among them is another café dedicated to peace, Café de la Paix.

The café names cannot disguise the fact that De Westhoek will forever be associated with The Great War rather than peace. After Poperinge the train calls at Ieper, the end of the line for a generation of men some ninety years ago, where the evidence of WWI is everywhere, but few places as strongly as at the Menenpoort with its 54,900 names of men lost and where the Last Post is played every evening.

The Flanders Fields have some chilling reminders of the horrors mankind can create. On the other hand, their brewers also prove what greatness can be achieved.

Labels: Belgium, De Struise Brouwers, Flanders Fields, In de Vrede, Poperinge, Westvleteren

The doors have closed for the last time for many Belgian beer cafés over the last few years, especially those off the beaten track. As the Belgians are drinking less beer, their beer cafés are becoming more dependent on beer tourists from abroad.

I was lucky enough to visit both Kaffee Barbier and Café 206, but never came around to blog about the latter, situated in the Antwerpen village of Sint-Katelijne-Waver, before it was too late. I regret not making it to Eglantier in Sint-Truiden or De Oude Speye in Damme. The best remaining beer cafés in rural Belgium are mostly weekend-only establishments, where the owners are making a living outside the less lucrative café business during the week. Examples of the latter are 't Kroegske and De Gans.

On the tourist trail the story is quite the opposite. The beer scenes in Brussels, Brugge and Gent are booming. The best beer selection these days is found at Delirium Café in Brussels and at Bierbrasserie Cambrinus in Brugge, cafés that have seen the light of day only during the last few years.

So it was with curiosity and delight that I approached a great "new" beer café in the less-visited, northeastern corner of Flemish Brabant, specifically in the little town of Diest. Ons te Huis, which translates as At our Home, has been around for some years, but this year their beer selection trebled as they started combining as a beer store. The deal is that the 170 beers in the yellow section of the menu are available cool and served in their correct glasswares. The 350 beers in the green section of the menu are from the beer store, but if you want them served in the café, just let the barman (or woman) know half an hour before, and he will have the bottle cooled for you.

The café may look quite plain, not unlike the bars found across the border in the Netherlands, but the service is unparallelled (the barman even helped me remove the beer labels for my collection). Winand and Moncy, the couple running the place, make sure that Diestenaars and others who find their way to Diest, are faced with an open door 7 days a week from early morning till late at night (the only exception being Mondays, when their home opens at 4 pm). Many of the beers are hard to hit elsewhere, and they are without exception sold at very democratic prices.

Indeed, my wish is that the locals vote with their feet and take advantage of the hospitality offered by Ons te Huis. It may not be the closest to the big sights, but in my opinion the rich beer culture of Belgium is dependent on locals like this to stay open.

Labels: beer café, Belgium, Diest, Ons te Huis

You certainly have to leave home (or your hotel room) to get to the best beer shops in Belgium. One of the best is undoubtedly Bierhandel Willems in Grobbendonk, a village in the Antwerpen province and a 40-minute bus ride from the Sinjorenstad itself. Willems en zoon stocks 300 different beers, and among them are quite a few rarities, including the three on the picture.

The bottle on the left is, I think, as close as you can get to a commercially available home brew, Bière Brassèe à la Maison. The female brewer has supposedly turned her bathroom into a brewery, called Brasserie La 42ème. Except for the location in a village near the Wallonian capital of Namur, little is known about this microbrewery. The beer turned out a bit too spiced, but by all means drinkable ( and far from being a candidate for my bathroom zink!)

There are women behind the beer bottle in the middle, too. It has become an annual event for the female (lead) members of OPA- Aalst Objectieve ProefAjuinen, one of the 24 local associations making up the Belgian beer consumer organization Zythos, to brew a beer. (In Vlaanderen, the inhabitants of Aalst are known as ajuinen-literally onions/buds- and objective taste buds were always the ideal of Zythos' predecessor, De Objectieve Bierproevers.) Supervised by chief brewer and leading beer authority, Jef van den Steen, at Kleinbrouwerij De Glazen Toren, this year's beer turned out a decent honey beer named Nette.

A little help from a bigger brewer was also necessary to bring the bottle on the right to the market. De Verhuisbrouwerij - the portable brewery - is a "hobby brewery" run by five enthusiasts in Antwerpen since 1998. They bring their 30 liter brewing facility with them in their caravan to your party/event, where you can witness a typical 9am to 5 pm brewing session. The beer that is brewed in the session, is only for the brewers' own consumption, though (following the legal definition of homebrewing, I suppose), let alone available after a 3-month process of fermenting and maturing. Knowing Belgium, it would surprise me if informal arrangements cannot be made to overcome the legal bits.

The "proef" is in the tasting (literally in Dutch), so together with the brewing equipment they bring their "big brews" for tasting sessions. These beers are the result of successful recipes that they let commercial brewers produce under licence. These give a small contribution towards some of the costs involved in this hobby. Or, as the hobby brewers say, you can support an association by buying a membership card or in this case by drinking a beer. An easy choice in my (and their) opinion.

So it was with good conscience that I opened my Trisser VI, a blond tripel brewed for De Verhuisbrouwerij at De Proefbrouwerij in a quantity of 1100 litres. My 75 cl bottle had been filled on 27 March 2007, and inside 7.6% ABV was kicking. It poured hazy golden with some orange below a rich, lacing head and released some herbal and piney hop aroma. The initial taste is sweet, but with good offsetting bitterness as well as some yeasty bread flavours. Spicy notes completed the picture of a more than decent beer.

Trisser is actually the nick name given to a student retaking the same exam for the third time, and this tripel is no doubt a comforting beer for such a fate. Maybe an appropriate beer for De Verhuisbrouwerij to bring to the excellent Vilvordia student beer festival on May 18, where they are scheduled to have one of their brew days.

Rolling home brew out to the beer lover community sounds like quite a good idea, if you ask me. Not because the monetary contribution is likely to make any difference nor does the brewing session necessarily open a new world to seasoned craft beer enthusiasts. However, the best beer bottles are tales of a great brewing talent, and sharing a talent tends to improve it. It is time for the best to leave home.

Labels: Belgium, Bierhandel Willems, Brasserie La 42ème, De Glazen Toren, home brewing, Verhuisbrouwerij, Vilvordia beer festival

Gold, incense and myrrh were the gifts of choice some two thousand years ago. Whilst gold may still be a great gift, the La Binchoise brewery claims it has brewed a superior replacement for both incense and myrrh.

Their Christmas beer, La Binchoise Speciale Noël, pours cloudy and copper with a big, beige head. For the nose there are liquorice, caramel, spicy yeast aromas with a hint of pear. In the mouth fruity and caramel flavours mix with coriander and some other dry spices. The finish is dry and yeasty, and the beer provides warming alcohol appropriate for this cold, festive season.

When it comes to festivities, the brewery should know what it is talking about. It is situated in the small Hainaut town of Binche, which comes to life once a year with some wild celebrations, that have given rise to the English word "binge". Not well-known outside Belgium their Mardi Gras carnival is a must-see. During the procession, the Gille Character wears his impressive hat covered with ostrich feather and throws hundreds of oranges to (or more often, at) the public.

The Christmas celebration may be rather more subdued and peaceful, but the golden fruit remains one of its countless treats. Another and one highly recommended, is La Binchoise Speciale Noël. Indeed, I see the whole range of Chrsistmas beers as the brewers' annual gifts to the craft beer enthusiasts, as a thank-you for another year of drinking their beer. I, for one, do not miss the incense and myrrh. A merry, beery Christmas to all!

Labels: Belgium, Binche, Christmas beers, La Binchoise, Mardi Gras