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Take a luxury bus, mix in 20 or so Grade A human beings, blend gradually with the best of Belgium beer, include frequent refueling stops at brewery sources and beer festivals, sprinkle in some great cuisine and what do you have? ASN’s Belgium Tour 2004.
As usual, the group, for what has become an annual spring tradition, comprised roughly a 50-50 mix of seasoned Belgium travelers and first timers eager for their first taste of Beer Paradise. This year’s itinerary, put together by yours truly and trusted tour operator Greg Dennis of Short Hills Tours, was a little different: by backing the trip up a month, we were able to take advantage of the famed 24 Hours of Beer Festival, revamped with new organizers and a new venue. We also lucked out with what looks to become a new tradition: De Nacht Van De Grote Dorst — Flemish for The Night of Great Thirst — a festival featuring Lambic beers exclusively.
The tour’s first day was itself like a week — or a death march as one tour veteran put it. We arrived at the Westmalle’s Cafe Trappisten soon after its 10 a.m. opening, a little bleary-eyed from the night flight and with a serious thirst to quench.
We were welcomed by Mark De Saedeleir, righthand man of Manu deLandtsheer, the export agent for the Trappist monastery. I had met Manu in Seattle in January of this year at the launch of the Westmalle products by importer Merchant du Vin; later on the tour we were scheduled to visit his own family-revived brewery.
As a thirst-quencher Mark offered us a glass of the single or "Special," a brew which is reserved for the monks and for occasional samplings at the cafe. Brewed with the same yeast as the other products, it had a similar spicy character but more bitterness. Some of our tour members were so enamored they overcame their American reserve and asked for seconds. We also tasted the better-known Dubbel and stellar Tripel before proceeding to lunch and a constitutional amble to the gates of the monastery.
For the second year in a row, we went directly from a Trappist monastery (La Trappe in 2003) to the home of the devil or Duvel. At the brewery in Moortgat, a regular stop for us, we eschewed the full tour in favor of some tastes of the classic blonde beer, a look at the impressively huge bottling line, and a visit with international director Daniel Krug who mined us for insights on the American market.
There was barely time to check in at our hotel in Antwerp before we were back on the bus heading for the Lambic festival in Lennik, a small town west of Brussels. Lambic lovers packed the tavern and parking lot tent making what appeared to be a not inconsiderable dent in the world’s lambic reserves. (see Beaumont, Page 16).
After a couple of hours, jet lag forced us to trade in remaining tasting tokens for bottles to take on the bus. Back in Antwerp, a few of the hardest core made it to Cafe Kulminator for a nightcap and the company of Philadelphia restaurateur Tom Peters, whom we would find already seated it seemed in every cafe we entered.
Americans were running amok. We ran into brewers, bar owners, beer writers and general afficionados at the 24 Hours festival and at various brewery stops along our route. Organized by Zythos, an international beer advocacy group, the festival was spacious, well-organized, and, yes, heaven to our people (see Zythos, Page 18).
My first beer was Trois Fourquets, brewed at Chris Bauweraert’s new brewpub in the Ardennes. "You are the first American to taste it," said Chris, who is the owner of the D’Achouffe brewery.
My second taste was the Extra Foreign Stout from De Dolle (the Mad Brewers), whose brewery is another regular stop on our itinerary. The line-up of beers was so impressive, it was impossible to get to all of the must-taste beers, although, by team tasting, our tour’s tasting dynamo Dave Gilbert had made it halfway through the list of 180+plus beers in the first two hours. Nonetheless, he and a few others were not ready to depart when the bus call went out at 8 p.m. Like other festival goers they took an easy train back to Antwerp later on.
Leaving Antwerp behind, we nosed into Ghent, loading the beer with liquid goodies from the store/warehouse Hop Duvel. A couple of us stopped into the cafe of the same name where the owner showed a prized bottle of Victory HopDevil he keeps behind the bar. Lunch in the medieval town center on the banks of the Scheldt was followed by the obligatory stop at the Drupelkot Cafe to sample fantastically flavored Genevers. The 40 proof gin derivative became a digestif on the bus instead of the normal appetizer as we cruised through the farmlands to Diksmuide, home of the Mad Brewers (De Dolle).
Owners Kris and Else were still at the 24 Hours Festival, but Kris’ mother, Moes, as she is known, was as always, in good form and the taps were flowing. We sampled the rich Oerbier and the hoppy Arabier from the source; Stille Nacht, unfortunately, was hidden far from our reach this day.
In Bruges, the Brugs Beertje (Little Bruges Bear), where rosy-cheeked Bridget presides behind the bar, drew us like a magnet. As the tour continued, some elected to wander the spires and canals of beautiful Bruges, while the majority boarded the bus for a day touring through the flatland of north Flanders. Jef Versele hosted us at the Van Steenbeerge Brewery. A young giant of a man, Jef is the only one of his generation to keep up the family tradition, helping his uncle run this mid-size 300-hectoliter brewery. We tasted several of their impressive portfolio, Piraat, Gulden Draak and Augustijn as well as other lesser known labels. Jef let us pick single bottles out of warehouse crates for one Euro each for the next bus degustation: Mosselbier, a beer to drink with mussels, brownish and light; Wilson Mild Stout, also surprisingly good for a relatively low-alcohol beer. Van Steenbeerge is very active in the contract-brewing market and currently brews the Celis line, which has branched into several fruit flavors based on the Witbier.
A jaunt up close to the Dutch border for lunch at an appealing cafe named the Little Red Mouse put us behind schedule for a visit to another contract brewer, Huyghe, brewers of Duinen abbey ales and the infamous Delirium Tremens. V-P Alain De Laet accommodated our tardiness with the quickest tour and tasting known to beer hunters, including the Artvelde line, Floris fruit beers and, of course, the pink elephant. The brewery appears to be putting more marketing muscle behind this beer, including the licensing of a new bar/cafe in Brussels named Delirium which boasts 2004 beers and where we were destined to have our final beer. Also of interest at Huyghe is an impressive museum of brewing artifacts.
The road to Brussels afforded us two stops — De Smedt in Opwijk, brewers of Affligem Abbey ales and DeLandtsheer in Buggenhout, brewers of Malheur. De Smedt was bought three years ago by Heineken, but president Theo Vervloet assured us that the brewery has an agreement with the monks of Affligem to keep recipes intact. Expansion is the order of the day, though, as De Smedt has to keep up with sales generated by Heineken’s marketing muscle, especially in France where Affligem Blond is going through the roof. As did other brewers, Vervloet commented on the recent merger between Ambev of South America and the Belgian giant Interbrew. Interbrew is not well liked by brewers in Belgium because of its stranglehold on distribution. On the other hand, most brewers admit they are doing a great job for the name of Belgian beers worldwide. We tasted the three regulars, Blond, Dubbel and Tripel, as well as the winter seasonal Paters Vat.
DeLandtsheer was a jewel. Manu himself welcomed us in his brewery’s newly appointed tasting room overlooking the brewhouse. Malheur is a revelation. Brewed in the methode champenois, even down to the disgorgement of yeast, it is half champagne and half beer. We tasted the "champagne" blond and dark, alongside the regular versions. The difference in the champagne beers, which at 11.5% are only about one percent stronger than the regular versions was impressive.
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