Belgian road trip autumn 2013

Every September I attend the great Borefts bier festival in Bodegraven, Netherlands, but in 2013 I added a twist by going on a beer road trip in Belgium after Borefts. I was accompanied by two friends and in the span of seven days, in late September and early October, visited breweries and great beer places across Belgium. I've already posted about the visit to Koningshoeven and the tour of Het Anker, so in this post I'll wrap up the rest of the tour which includes stops in Beersel, Ypres, Poperinge, Watou and Hainaut, visiting great beer bars, a hop museum and the breweries Brouwerij St. Bernadus, Brasserie à Vapeur and Brasserie des Légendes.

Taking a stroll in the Zenne valley with Zenne river on the left

Beersel - the heart of lambic
After picking up the rental car in Utrecht we drove south, towards Belgium, making one beer related stop at Onze Lieve Vrouw van Koningshoeven, outside Tilburg, before entering Belgium. In order to get to Beersel we just followed the main highway towards Antwerp and then Brussels. Near Brussels we took off on the E19 which goes around the western outskirts of the city until we were almost due south of it, there the E19 turns south along the Zenne river valley. After a few kilometer you'll see the exit to Beersel which takes you off the highway and onto a winding country road that leads up the hill to the east of the E19.

The town of Beersel is perched on top of a hill, above the Zenne valley, about 15 km south of central Brussels. It's possible to get there by train from Brussels, but I've always gone by car or even taxi (but the latter can be fairly expensive since most cab drivers in Brussels are unfamiliar outside the city and may take a number of wrong turns on the way!).

The main reason for visiting Beersel is related to the valley mentioned above. Zenne, or Senne in French, is the historical area for brewing the spontaneously fermented beers known as lambic or lambiek. The reason for this is probably the many cherry and fruit farms that used to dot the valley, along the small, meandering river of the same name. Just like wine grapes, many fruits carry yeast cells on their skin - yeast that can become airborne and thus trigger spontaneous fermentation if landing in an open tank of cooled wort.

A hundred years ago, every small village in the Zenne valley would sport a lambic brewery to supply the locals with fresh beer. The larger towns, in particular Beersel, would have many. The largest breweries would often sell unfinished or "jonge" lambic to cafés in Brussels or special blenders who would age the lambic for one, two or even three years before making a blend of several vintages to create one of the most popular beers in Belgium in the early 20th century: Geuze. Such a blending businesses, known as a Geuzestekerij, required a skillful master because you had to age each lambic just right and then know how much to blend from each vintage. Some of the blenders also played around with fruits, most commonly sour cherries or raspberries, creating fruit lambics known as kriek and frambozen in Flemish (the latter is probably better known under its French name framboise).

Today only a handful of lambic breweries and geuze blenders exist in Belgium, two of them in Beersel which has remained at the heart of lambic culture in Belgium. Bezoekerscentrum De Lambiek, the official visitor center and museum for all things lambic, opened up at Alsemberg, just outside Beersel, in May 2011. Here visitors can learn about the history of lambic brewing and geuze blending while also tasting authentic, lambic based, sour ales from all 11 members of HORAL - the "HOge Raad voor Ambachtelijke Lambiekbieren" or "High Council for Artisanal Lambic Beers" - which was founded to protect and propagate the knowledge of traditional lambic beers. Cantillon is the only lambic brewery that is not a member of HORAL.

I've earlier posted about my visits to 3 Fonteinen, both to the brewery and blending business run by Armand Debelder and the excellent café run by his younger brother Guido Debelder. My most recent visit was during Tour de Geuze 2013, so I won't repeat myself in this post just stress that if you're in Beersel you really must visit the brewery and try their lambic and kriek served on tap at the café. And if you're lucky, the café may still have a bottle of Hommage 2007 left in the cellar.

Hommage 2007 at Café 3 Fonteinen, in 2013

The other lambic producer in Beersel is Oud Beersel. As the name implies this is the oldest one in town, founded as early as 1882. However, about a decade ago Oud Beersel almost came to an end. In its 120th year, owner Danny Draps - who had taken over the reins after his uncle, Henri Vandervelden - decided to retire, and with no heir to succeed him he was forced to close the brewery. Fortunately, Henri Vandervelden was still alive and a vigorous 76 year old, and he refused to see the end of Oud Beersel, so when two young fans of the brewery contacted him he was quick to act. Together with Gert Christiaens and Roland de Bus (who has since left), Vandervelden drew up plans for a revival. In 2005 Oud Beersel was relaunched as a pure geuzestekerij, Christiaens brewing his lambic at Brouwerij Boon in Lembeek but still aging and blending it at Oud Beersel. The first "new" Oude Geuze from Oud Beersel was released in 2007 and today the business is thriving under the sole owner Gert Christiaens.

Just like Cantillon in Brussels, Oud Beersel is a working museum that is open to visitors on the first Saturday of every month. In fact, Oud Beersel was the first lambic brewery to establish such a "living" museum, and it was that very same Henri Vandervelden who did so in 1973, five years before Cantillon! So set aside some time for a visit to this historic lambic brewery.

In addition to the two lambic business and the highly rated Café 3 Fonteinen, Beersel has a couple of highly rated pubs that I'd like to say a few words about - but for different reasons.

Centrum Hotel
Centrum Hotel is located just "around the corner" from 3 Fonteinen, at the start of Steenweg op Ukkel, and it was here we decided to stay the night in Beersel. Despite being under heavy restoration works, with parts of the dining room closed, the place turned out really great. Besides being very cheap (€55 for a night) and close to 3 Fonteinen, the bar is by far the best hotel bar I've been to in Belgium. In addition to several decent beers on tap, including Tripel Karmeliet, La Chouffe and Girardin lambic, the bar had an amazing bottle beer menu that would have allowed us to spend many nights there and not exhaust the alternatives. And it didn't hurt that the hotel kitchen served hearty dishes of hot food and that we found the atmosphere of the bar cozy and traditional.

The bar at Centrum Hotel in Beersel

In de Oude Pruim
Located further down Steenweg op Ukkel, In de Oude Pruim was rated very high on RateBeer, second only to Café 3 Fonteinen, when I checked out places to visit. However, it turned out to be anything but great. The old couple running the place had all the time in the world (in itself not a sign of bad quality in Belgium) even if we were alone in the pub. It was so quiet in there that I could hear every raspy cough made by the woman, and the ticking of the old clock seemed so loud it brought back childhood memories from the dentist's waiting room. We didn't care for the pils they had on draught and it took several failed attempts, sending the old man scampering down the cellar - or so it seemed - in an attempt to locate a beer from the menu before we finally ended up with bottles of the regular Rodenbach that I had spotted behind the bar. After quickly finishing the beer we left the place as courteously as circumstances allowed. None of us will ever come back. If you plan to visit Beersel, stick to Café 3 Fonteinen and Centrum Hotel.

If you're staying a night in Beersel I would also recommend a nice morning hike in the Zenne valley, it's about 1 km to walk from the church square down into the valley. Just follow Puttestraat and Lotsestraat downhill, in the direction of the railway station, there you take the pedestrian underpass, below the railway lines, and simply follow the small country road ("Langestraat") through the fields down to the valley floor where you can walk along and even cross the meandering Zenne river. It's a tranquil and fairly scenic walk, with cows grazing along the lush river bank.


Oostvleteren and Ypres - in Flanders fields
After the night in Beersel we followed the highway west towards Ypres in West Flanders, a region that still bears the marks of the bloody battles on the Western Front during World War I. The goal was the small town of Oostvleteren, home to De Struise Brouwers, but we also made a stop in Ypres.

Ypres, usually written Ieper in Dutch, is home to the famous In Flanders Fields war museum which anyone with even the smallest interest in our history should visit. Located in the rebuilt Cloth Hall, right next to Grote Markt, the museum offers visitors a shocking reminder of Europe's recent, violent past. From the museum you can also follow a set of stairs up to the belfry, from 70 meters above ground you'll get a breathtaking view of the city and the surrounding Flanders fields - all the way to Passchendaele.

When we'd had our fill of history and great views it was time to check out a new beer place in Ypres, the Brasserie Kazematten.

Brasserie Kazematten in the old city wall of Ypres

Brasserie Kazematten
Prior to the trip, I had read about a "joint venture" between the breweries Rodenbach and St Bernardus that piqued my interest. Named Brasserie Kazematten and opening up in April 2013, in the Ypres city wall just east of Grote Markt, this was apparently a brewpub, the very first to open up in Ypres.

However, upon our visit in early October 2013, the pub was still very much a work in progress - with construction going on both outside and inside - and there was no brewery to be seen. When I asked the bartender, she told me that the brewing would actually take place a couple of blocks away, so Brasserie Kazematten isn't going to be a traditional brewpub, though it will serve its own, unique beers brewed nearby. But Kazematten is still a nice place to visit, the pub offered 8 beers on draught, all from Brouwerij St Bernardus, including their Abt 12, Tripel, Prior, Wit and Tokyo - the last one is specially brewed for the St Bernardus pub in Tokyo, Japan. The hot food was also nice, I went for a tasty meat and pasta dish. If you're in Ypres, definitively check out this place.

Other than Brasserie Kazematten, Ypres doesn't really have any good beer pubs that I know of, so after this pit stop we left for Oostvleteren - about 15 km north west of Ypres.

The town of Oostvleteren is home to one of the most famous craft breweries in Belgium, De Struise Brouwers. Normally it's possible to visit their small brewery, which I did in July 2011, but this time it was closed because of their Borefts attendance a few days earlier. So instead we visited two of the local pubs and stayed the night at a wonderful bed & breakfast.

Walking along Kasteelweg to Vakantiehoeve Schraevenacker

Vakantiehoeve Schraevenacker
The bed & breakfast in question is called Vakantiehoeve Schraevenacker and is part of a working farm, with goats, sheep and horses grazing around. It offers several large rooms on the ground floor, each individually named and with private bathrooms. The owners also operate a restaurant, where you have your breakfast in the morning, but where you can also have dinner or just enjoy a beer outside in the beer garden. Their bottle beer menu was surprisingly good, offering many different De Struise beers - including some rare gems such as Aardmonnik 2008.

Vakantiehoeve Schraevenacker is located in Kasteelweg, about 15 minutes walk after turning off from the N8 highway through Oostvleteren. The reason for mentioning this fact is that both De Struise and two very nice pubs are located around this intersection, so it's just a short walk back to bed after enjoying some good beers at the pub!

't Molenhof
Located on the opposite side of the intersection from De Struise, Het Molenhof was actually recommended to me by Carlo Grootaert before my first visit to De Struise. It's a charming, old place with a wooden windmill right next to it - hence the name - so you really can't miss it. Het Molenhof doubles as a restaurant, but the kitchen closes early so when we got there at 8 o'clock only the pub section was open. But they take pride in their beer menu and you can't really fault a place where you can do vertical tasting of De Struise Black Damnation!

Restaurant and pub 't Molenhof in Oostvleteren

De Sterre
If you crave food and arrive after the kitchen closes at 't Molenhof you can just cross the street to the neighbor pub, De Sterre, they serve a wicked pasta dish and are on friendly terms with 't Molenhof (I even left my bar tab open at the Molenhof while eating at De Sterre - with no credit cards left behind for security!). The beer selection is also decent though a bit smaller than at Molenhof. The couple running De Sterre are quite something, calling them old hippies would not do them justice, but you will not leave the place without a memory for life - I assure you.

Among my many visits to Belgium, this visit to Oostvleteren stands out spectacularly - the two pubs gave me such a good vibe, followed by that peaceful walk back to the bed & breakfast, under a starry night sky, between fields of tall corn and with various animals still up and grazing on patches of open field along the road. It was such a perfect ending to a day of exploring beer and history in Flanders fields.


Poperinge - hop capital of Belgium
After at hearty breakfast at Vakantiehoeve Schraevenacker we left Oostvleteren and headed south into the heart of Belgian hop country - the municipality of Poperinge. The idea was to make a stop in the town by that name before turning west to our main target, Watou.

The town of Poperinge is known as the hop capital of Belgium, surrounding it you will find many hop farms with those characteristic tall poles erected to hold up a system of trellis, to allow hop bines to grow up in a controlled way and to ease the harvesting. You can spot such farms from far away, thanks to the 6-7 meter tall poles erected in the open fields. Thus, it's only fitting that the first thing greeting a visitor, coming by car from the direction of Ypres, is a large, green painted metal hop cone placed in a roundabout on the outskirts of town.

Bins of fresh hop cones with the new "beer wall" to the left
- at Hopmuseum Poperinge in October 2013

Hopmuseum Poperinge
For a beer tourist, the town of Poperinge may not offer a world class beer bar to visit, but its museum dedicated to the history, farming and use of humulus lupulus - aka hops - is outstanding. The Hopmuseum Poperinge is located in Gaasthuisstraat 71, about 500 meter west of Grote Markt, in a remarkable 4-storey building known as "Stadsschaal" or Municipal Scales. This building was used for weighing, drying and storing hops until the mid 20th century. Visitors can rent a very informative audio tour guide that will guide them through four floors of hop history and culture, from the labor intensive hop farming of yesteryear to the mechanized modern farming methods.

The museum also presents statistics showing that hop farming in Poperinge (and the rest of Belgium) has declined dramatically over the past one hundred years. In 1909, there were 665 hop growers with 1.100 ha land in Poperinge, producing around 50% of the hops in Belgium. In 2010 only 32 hop growers operated on 185 ha land in Poperinge, they produced just 285 tons of hops but that still accounted for 95% of the entire Belgian production! Thus, Poperinge isn't only the hop capital of Belgium it is almost the only remaining hop growing region in the country (the remaining 5% of hop production is in Aalst).

On my most recent visit, the museum had just completed its "beer wall", similar to the one in Bruges, which showcases the regular beers brewed in Belgium - about 1,400! The museum is also host to an annual hop competition, where the best hop farmer in Poperinge is chosen by a jury that sniffs fresh hop cones from every farm in the region. We were so fortunate to visit the day before this competition, so we got to smell the fresh hops, neatly sorted into a hundred different numbered bins. Oh heavens!

In a mild hop induced euphoria we got back into our car and headed west ... to Watou.


Watou - abbey beers
Any person with even the slightest interest in abbey beers should visit Watou, this small village lies at the heart of a great region of full bodied and rich abbey beers; Van Eecke brews the excellent Het Kapittel beers in Watou while Brouwerij St Bernardus is located just 3 km outside Watou, along the appropriately named Trappistenweg. Trappist abbey St. Sixtus, home to the world famous Westvleteren 12 - which is available at Café In de Vrede next to the abbey, is located 14 km east of Watou, just past the town of Poperinge. You get my drift?

Taking a stroll along Trappistenweg in Watou
- notice the hop field in the background?

If you plan to stay in or near Watou, I highly recommend contacting Brouwerij St. Bernardus to ask for a room at their bed & breakfast, right next to the brewery. This 2-storey house complex, hidden from the road by a vine covered wall and gate, offers half a dozen large guest rooms, with private bathrooms, and a large terrace covered by glass so that you stay warm and dry while enjoying breakfast on cold or rainy days. On my October 2013 visit I paid just €35 for my own room, which isn't bad when you get to live next door to one of the best family breweries in Belgium!

The hostess, Jackie, will welcome you with a big smile and can help you get a tour of the St Bernardus brewery. More importantly, Jackie makes sure that the refrigerators in the living room are full of fresh St Bernardus beer, so that guests don't have to worry about the lack of pubs nearby. The closest pubs are in the village of Watou, some 3 km or 30 minutes walk away. Unfortunately, poor business seems to have taken its toll on Watou between my 2011 and 2013 visits, since many of the pubs and restaurants closed early or even stayed closed many days of the week. On my last visit, the village square was virtually deserted after 6 pm on a Wednesday!

Because most restaurants in Watou were closed the two nights we were there in October 2013, we ended up eating at De Strooyen Hen a bit outside Watou. Situated exactly midway between Poperinge and Watou, in Watouseweg 54, this restaurant also functions as the neighborhood pub and festival hall, hosting weddings and parties. The kitchen makes really tasty dishes, I enjoyed a delicious rack of lamb, and the menu offers good local beer from both Van Eecke, located down the road towards Watou, and St Bernardus. But beware that De Strooyen Hen, like many rural establishments in Flanders, is closed on Mondays.

Distances to many interesting places are short from St Bernardus bed & breakfast, which makes it such a great place stay. Places such as Ypres, Poperinge, Watou and Westvleteren are within easy biking distance or 5-10 minutes of driving. You can even borrow bikes for free at the bed & breakfast, if you don't bring your own and would like to ride through the flat landscape of West Flanders.

Brouwerij St Bernardus located on Trappistenweg in Watou

If you feel extra adventurous it's only a couple of kilometers to the French border, from St Bernardus you can actually see the mountain of Mont des Cats, also known as Katzberg, on the opposite side of the border. Going there makes for a nice daytrip on a bike, though the road up the small mountain can be taxing if you don't have a bike with low gears. Near the top you'll find Trappist Abbaye du Mont des Cats, which commands great views of Flanders. The abbey is worth a visit in itself but also for beer historical reasons - it is the mother house of two important Trappist abbeys that still brew Trappistenbier: St Sixtus, founded by monks from Mont des Cats in 1831, and Koningshoeven, founded 1881. The abbey shop sells a Mont des Cats abbey beer, but it's not an authentic Trappist beer since it is brewed at Chimay and not locally - but it's still worth picking up a bottle if you visit the abbey.


Hainaut - old and modern breweries
On the way back from West Flanders to Brussels, at the end of the week, we drove through the province of Hainaut, in the French speaking Walloon region of Belgium. The reason for this small detour was to attempt a couple of brewery visits, even though we had no prior appointment. The two breweries are run very differently, one of them is a steam powered, old style mechanical brewery while the other is a shiny modern brewery, but both are independent and brew high quality, unique beers.

Brasserie à Vapeur
Our first stop was at Rue du Maréchal 1 in the small village of Pipaix, which is about 3 km east of the Dubuisson brewery and 9 km west of Brasserie Dupont, in other words smack in the middle of Waloon beer country! The reason for stopping at this address is that this is where you'll find a small but very old brewery which has changed name and owners several times over the centuries, until acquiring its current name, Brasserie à Vapeur, in 1984.

That year a young couple, Sittelle and Jean-Louis Dits, heard that the Biset brewery was up for sale. This was an old steam powered brewery, founded in 1785. The couple wanted to keep the old brewery and its history alive, so they bought it, renamed it Brasserie à Vapeur which is French for "Steam Brewery", but changed very little else. They've spent the last thirty years maintaining status quo but brewing a great line-up of beers with weird and funny names and often weirder and funnier label artwork. Since 1992, the artwork has been created for them by Belgian cartoonist Louis-Michel Carpentier.

19th century mash tun and malt mill at Brasserie à Vapeur

When we arrived at the brewery on a Thursday afternoon we were initially told that they didn't do tours that day, the small brewery usually allows visitors on Sundays only - to watch the brewing process. But after praising them on the well kept old brick buildings we were allowed inside on a short tour of the old brewery. For those of you who have been to the Cantillon brewery in Brussels, Brasserie à Vapeur will seem similar but even older (which it is, by a hundred years!).

Walking into the Vapeur brewery is like walking back in time; the wet and well worn cobblestone floor looks like it has been there for hundreds of years, the mechanical malt mill, the mash tun below and the old steam engine, connected by belts and steam pipes, gives an impression of early industrial era. Even the smell is old, of damp stones and iron with hints of wort, lingering in the air from the last brewing session. My mind started racing and it struck me that if the brewer from 150 years ago had suddenly woken up and returned to his old brewery he would not have noticed any changes  - this is a genuine, 19th century, steam powered brewery.

After the brief tour we thanked the lady profusely, returned to the bright daylight and started up the car, driving east towards our next and final stop that I'll mention in this post.

Brasserie des Légendes
About 17 km east of Pipaix, on the outskirts of Ath, there's an old castle named Irchonwelz which has given name to the small village nearby. These days the old castle is home to a modern brewery, founded as recently as 2006 when two smaller breweries - Brasserie des Géants and Brasserie Ellezelloise - merged to create Brasserie des Légendes.

Unlike the brewery we had just visited, Brasserie des Légendes is a modern high tech wonder of a brewery with a shiny new brewhouse in the courtyard of the former castle. You enter through the main gate of the castle, from a large gravel covered parking lot outside, facing the brewery straight ahead and the shop / tasting room up the stairs to your left.

There were no brewery tours that day, but the large main door to the brewery was open so I quickly took a peek inside before joining the others for a beer tasting session at the brewery shop which doubles as a tasting room. Because the shop / tasting room has no beers on tap you'll either have to buy some bottles and bring them home or find someone to share the bottles with. Fortunately, I had several people to share with and we managed to get through the entire selection of Goliath beers on offer in the shop.

View inside the modern brewery of Brasserie des Légendes

I appologize if this post seems a bit all over the place, which in a sense it had to be given the nature of the trip through so much of Belgium, but I hope it inspires you to do a beer road trip of your own through this small but still so varied beer country.

For more photos from this trip, check these Flickr sets: Ypres, Oostvleteren, Poperinge and the rest.

Report from Tour de Geuze 2013

As mentioned in a previous post, I had signed up for one of the HORAL buses at the recent Tour de Geuze on April 21, 2013. This is a recount of a long day spent touring back and forth across the river Zenne in the heart of Flemish Brabant, with a brief detour into Wallonia for a visit to the newest geuze blender in Belgium. So buckle up.

Halle
Most of the HORAL buses departed from the south side of the train station in Halle, a city some 15 km south of Brussels, so when staying in Brussels the easiest way of getting there was by train, just a short 15 minutes train ride from Bruxelles-Central at the price of €3,50. I decided on an early train to make sure I made it for the 10 am departure of the tour buses, this gave me a chance to take hike around in the vicinity of the train station, discovering a former malt factory (Malteries Beeckmans) and enjoying the fine view of the Brussels-Charleroi canal.

Banner for Tour de Geuze 2013 at Gueuzerie Tilquin

Gueuzerie Tilquin
My bus left Halle more or less on time and headed south west, out of lambic heartland and across the border into the French speaking federal region of Wallonia. Historically, the Wallon region of Belgium is known for its Saison beers, not for lambic or geuze, but that changed in March 2009 when Pierre Tilquin founded Gueuzerie Tilquin in Bierghes, near Rebecq-Rognon in the north of Wallonia - just 1 km from the border with Flanders. His enterprise is the most recent geuze blending business to open up anywhere in Belgium.

Located in what looks like a large warehouse, Pierre Tilquin established his gueuzerie in Wallonia partly because he felt more comfortable there, as a native French speaker, but probably just as much because of the public funding and tax reductions available for those wanting to establish a business in this poor region. You may be surprised to learn that during the early phases of the industrial revolution Wallonia was second only to England and it remained the industrial and economical powerhouse of Belgium until World War II, when the industry went into decline. Today the Dutch speaking Flanders is the "economical engine" of Belgium.

Only in his late 30s, Pierre Tilquin has built up a very impressive résumé; in addition to a PhD in statistics and genetics he learned the art of brewing at Brouwerij Huyghe, famous for Delirium Tremens, before spending six months apprenticing at 3 Fonteinen, to learn the art of aging and blending geuze from Armand Debelder, and then six months at Cantillon, to learn about lambic brewing from Jean-Pierre van Roy. The latter is the reason why Tilquin, as the only Geuzestekerij ("geuze blender") in Belgium, has been allowed to purchase lambic wort from Cantillon to use in his oude geuze!

After releasing his first oude geuze in May 2011, just in time for the previous Tour de Geuze, Gueuzerie Tilquin has quickly gained popularity and market share, exporting draft geuze to many countries (including my own, Norway) and producing a very good old geuze called Oude Gueuze Tilquin à l’Ancienne. His production has rapidly increased too, after one year he surpassed De Cam and he is now looking at producing 500 hl of geuze and lambics annually, taking him past Hanssens too. And it may not stop there, with his background from brewing there is no reason why Pierre Tilquin shouldn't start his own brewery someday and brew his own lambics.

Like several of the other participating breweries and blenders at this year's Tour de Geuze, Tilquin presented a brand new beer for his visitors, a 6.4% sour ale made with plums: Oude Quetsche Tilquin à l’Ancienne. I picked up a couple of bottles to bring home after tasting the deliciously tart beer in the beer tent. Then it was time to move on to the next stop, as we only had five hours to spend.

Some of the foudres for aging lambic at the Boon Brewery

Brouwerij Boon
The next stop on the tour was just up the road from Tilquin, in the town of Lembeek on the historically "correct" side of the Flanders / Walloon border. If passengers on the highspeed Thalys trains from Brussels to Paris look out on the right side, as the train shoots past Lembeek, they might catch a glimpse of the new brewery building inaugurated just two days before this Tour de Geuze.

Back in the early 1970s the young Frank Boon fell in love with lambic and geuze. He became a good friend of René de Vits who had a small lambic brewery in Lembeek, the last one still in operation. Boon would buy lambic from de Vits and blend his own geuze, first while running a youth club but from 1975 commercially with his own blending business. When René de Vits retired in 1978, without a successor, Frank Boon decided to buy the brewery and found the Boon Brewery. In the 25 years since, Frank Boon has honed his skills as a lambic brewer and blender, making some of the most classic sour ales you'll find in Belgium - in particular the Boon Mariage Parfait series of Oude Geuze, Kriek and Framboise.

When I arrived at Boon, the brewery buildings and surrounding grounds were teaming with visitors, many aiming for the degustation or tasting tent where they could sample most of the Boon beers, both sour and non-sour (Boon also brew the Duivel, an 8% Belgian strong ale). I headed straight for the new brewery, to take the tour, which started with a look at the old coolship, the only piece of equipment still in use after the new brewery opened. A coolship, known as koelschip in Dutch, is a shallow, open metal vessel, the size of a small swimming pool, which is used to cool the lambic wort over night and allow the wild yeast in the ambient air to inoculate the wort to spark the spontaneous fermentation.

When the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, who is a good friend of Frank Boon, cut the ribbon on April 19 he marked the opening of a hightech marvel of a brewery, designed to be highly automated and environmentally friendly. As an example we were told that the hot vapors from the boiling of the wort is collected back in a large 65,000 liter hot water tank and reused for the next mashing. Clever! For the brewing, Boon uses malt from Dingemanns and they hop their lambics with 1 year old whole cone hops, not pellets or extract.

Frank Boon at his brewery in Lembeek

According to our guide, the first batch was brewed at the new brewery in mid March 2013 and with the new brewhouse in operation, Boon can brew three times more lambic than at the old brewery. But their goal for 2013 is a more modest increase - from 20,000 hl in 2012 to about 30,000 hl or 3 million liter this year. The tour ended in the cool storage cellar, where we got to see the impressive array of foudres - large oak barrels of 8,000 liter - in which Boon ages their lambics for up to three years. In all, Boon has 117 large oak foudres, in which about 1 million liter of lambic is aged at any time. In addition to aging their own lambics, Boon also sell lambic wort to geuze blenders such as Tilquin, De Cam, Oud Beersel, Hanssens and 3 Fonteinen who age it for their own oude geuze and oude kriek.

At the end of the brewery tour I caught sight of Frank Boon, beaming with pride as he gave a group of visitors a tour of the brewery. Frank Boon, who will turn 59 years in September, cuts a strapping figure with his graying hair and pair of glasses hanging in a string around his neck, looking more like a distinguished professor than the man who helped preserve traditional geuze, together with Jean-Pierre van Roy of Cantillon and Armand Debelder of 3 Fonteinen. His new brewery will place Boon at the forefront of the ongoing geuze revival in Belgium and the future of the brewery seems to be in good hands after his son, Jos Boon, recently joined his father upon completing a Master degree in Brewing and Malting.

For the inauguration of the new brewery, a special oude geuze had been made. Brewed to a very high gravity on 3-4 December 2008, it was aged in a single foudre (Vat 44) before being bottled in August 2010. These bottles were then aged for almost three more years before release in April 2013 as Oude Geuze Boon VAT 44. Only 20,520 bottles of 375 ml were made, so this is a rare treat indeed.

I would have loved to check out some of the many beers sold at the tasting stand, but the huge crowd and my own restricted time schedule forced me back on the tour bus.

Geuzestekerij De Cam
Next the bus headed north to the small town of Gooik, about 20 km south west of Brussels. Historically, Gooik has had many lambic brewers and geuze blenders but they were all gone by the time Gooik local and Palm Brewery production manager Willem van Herreweghen got the idea to start up a geuze blending business. When it opened in June 1997, Geuzestekerij De Cam became the first new geuze blender to open in Belgium in several decades.

Karel Goddeau with a glass of kriek at De cam

Because of the workload at Palm, in 1998 van Herreweghen enlisted the help of another local, the 25 year old brewer Karel Goddeau. Llike Pierre Tilquin, Goddeau spent some time with Armand Debelder at 3 Fonteinen to learn the art of aging lambic and blending geuze, and he has since become a well respected and experienced lambic blender. Since the year 2000 Goddeau has been in full charge of De Cam, but this is actually a part time business for him - his regular job is as a brewer at the Slaghmuylder brewery. Thus, Goddeau basically works nightshifts and weekends to keep De Cam running!

Geuzestekerij De Cam is located in an impressive, old brick building right next to Volkscafé De Cam on Dorpstraat in Gooik, so naturally the café oftens serves De Cam lambics on draft and the bottled geuze as well. When I arrived, the café and the small geuzestekerij were crowded with visitors so I barely managed to get inside for a peek of the barrel storage. Together with 3 Fonteinen, Goddeau has bought his oak barrels from the famous Pilsner Urquell brewery in the Czech Republic. With a total of 45 barrels of 1,000 liter capacity, he can age up to 450 hl lambic, resulting in an annual production of just 150 hl - 15,000 liter - sour ales, which makes De Cam the smallest geuze blender in Belgium. Goddeau currently buys his lambic wort from Boon, Lindemans and Girardin, but I would think that once 3 Fonteinen get started he'll also buy lambic wort from them.

While checking out the barrel storage I spotted the master himself, right next to a stainless steel maceration tank, in the midst of a photo session with the American beer blogger Chuck Cook. I fired up my own camera before moving on, the small place was filling up quickly so I made my escape to In De Groene Poort, just up the street, for a quiet lunch and a glass of fresh Boon Kriek on draft. And then it was time to move on, now to one of the biggest lambic breweries.

Entrance to the 230 year old Timmermans brewery in Itterbeek

Brouwerij Timmermans
Located in the village of Itterbeek, on the western outskirts of Brussels, Brouwerij Timmermans is the oldest and one of the largest lambic breweries in Belgium. The brewery has been part of the John Martin Group since 1993 and is probably best known for its sweet fruit beers though they have recently re-introduced some traditional sour ales. Anyhow, my expectations were not that high when the bus arrived in Kirkstraat in the heart of Itterbeek, but boy was I in for a surprise!

The first thing that impressed me was how well they've kept the old brewery buildings, where Timmermans, or Brasserie de la Taupe as it was known until 1961, has been brewing since 1781. It's a white painted brick building with beautiful murals on the front, showing typical lambic inspired scenes. Once inside, the impression of an old, traditional brewery was strengthened by the fact that Timmermans have kept much of their old brewing equipment and, like Cantillon and Oud Beersel, have turned parts of the brewery into a museum, showing old brewing equipment, mechanical stirring vats, simple bottling machines and an old grain mill with a massive and well worn mill stone.

What impressed me most of all though was that Timmermans were actually brewing a batch of lambic that day, which gave me the opportunity to finally see a coolship in action, with the hot vapors drifting across the surface like banks of sea mist. If I read the thermometer correct, the wort was about 90 degrees Celsius hot so it had a lot of cooling to do before it could get inoculated by wild yeast from the air. The coolship at Timmermans was huge, almost like an Olympic swimming pool, with a capacity of 220 hl (22,000 liter). I could barely see across it through the hot vapors, and the smell of wort was just mesmerizing - I had to force myself to move on to see the rest of the brewery.

Hot lambic wort in the 220 hl coolship at Timmermans

Like Boon, Timmermans have a big, cool cellar for aging lambic in oak barrels. Some of them had obviously just been filled with lambic wort and were still undergoing primary fermentation, because foam was covering the bunghole at the top of the barrel and could often be seen running in streams down the sides. During this phase, the fermentation is so violent that the brewer can't close the barrel or else it might explode from the pressure! However, there is no need to worry about infections since the thick foam turns fairly solid and acts like a cap, stopping particles and infections from entering the barrel. Only when the violent primary fermentation ends is the barrel capped with a plastic or wooden bung (a type of cork), to seal the barrel and allow the lambic to go through the slower secondary fermentation, during which lactic bacteria takes center stage and adds sourness to the beer.

Though Timmermans is part of a large company and is best known for sweet fruit beers, they have realized that traditional lambic is making a comeback, so in 2009 they re-introduced an Oude Geuze and the year after an Oude Kriek. Both were well received by lambic fans. The brewery also make a very decent sour ale called Bourgogne des Flandres, I spotted some oak barrels in the cellar where this beer was aging. Though sour, it is not a pure lambic but a mix of 50% lambic and 50% Scotch ale. Bourgogne des Flandres is not an original Timmermans beer but was taken over when Brouwerij De Os in Bruges closed in 1985. A couple of days after Tour de Geuze, while visiting Bruges, I learned that a new brewery is being built in Bruges to allow Bourgogne des Flandres to "return home" in September this year.

After the tour of the brewery and cellar, I made a quick stop at the pub located inside the brewery, which looked very cozy except that it was so full of visitors I could forget about ordering a beer. Besides, my tour bus had a tight schedule to follow, there was still one more lambic brewery to visit. My favorite. So I left.

Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
The last stop on my tour was the one I had looked most forward to visit, Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen on Hoogstraat in Beersel, about 10 km south of Brussels. And I was not alone with this sentiment, as the small brewery and its brewery shop was thronging with visitors, eager to see the shiny, new coolships and purchase some bottles of the exclusive, new beer: Intense Red Oude Kriek.

This was not my first visit to 3 Fonteinen (see this post) so I focused mainly on the changes that they had made over the last year, ripping out the old brewery shop, closing the wonderful Lambikodroom tasting room and installing the brand new brewery. The old tasting room has now been turned into the brewery shop, while the old brewery shop houses brewing kettles and the coolships.

In the sea of people, while stubbornly holding on to my bottles of Intense Red, I caught a brief glimpse of Armand Debelder, smiling from ear to ear, as he waded through the brewery shop. On that day of Tour de Geuze, his brewery shop must have sold more 3 Fonteinen beer than during a regular month, it was wild! And the tour of the brewery was equally chaotic with people speaking a multitude of languages waiting for the appropriate guide.

Michaël Blanckaert as tour guide at 3 Fonteinen

I joined an English speaking tour, headed by none other than Michaël Blanckaert, the future master of 3 Fonteinen but still learning the trade of brewing lambic and blending geuze from his mentor, Armand Debelder. Michaël showed us the new 4,000 liter boiling kettle and the new stainless steel coolships of which there are four, all of 1,000 liter capacity to match the batch size of 4,000 liter. Built in Germany, the four coolships are assembled in a rack, because of floor space limitations, with two coolships at the bottom and two at the top. A large fan is used to blow away the hot vapor from the lower coolships, so as to avoid heating the upper ones.

With the new coolships in place, 3 Fonteinen can now brew four times more beer than at the old brewery so the limiting factor is not the brewery anymore but the number of oak barrels and storage space available for aging lambic. The latter is a serious problem because the lambic must age for 1-3 years before use, so in order to follow up the expanded brewing capacity 3 Fonteinen will need four times as many barrels as they currently have and a lot more storage space. According to Armand Debelder, this is an issue for the future, in the next couple of years they will just brew what they need to fill up their current generation of 1,000 liter oak barrels.

After almost a year of constructions the new brewery went into operation in March 2013, almost to the day four years after the last batch was brewed at the old brewery. To celebrate the opening of the new brewery, 3 Fonteinen released a brand new beer - a 5% oude kriek named Intense Red that was made with 40% sour cherries (i.e. 400 g cherries per liter lambic).

Two of the four German built 1,000 liter coolships at 3 Fonteinen

Despite having celebrated his 60th birthday, Armand Debelder can feel more confident about the future of 3 Fonteinen than in many years. Not only has he managed to construct a new lambic brewery but a successor has been appointed, Michaël Blanckaert, who is still in his 20s but well under way in his apprenticeship to become a traditional lambic brewer and blender, ready to take over 3 Fonteinen the day Armand Debelder retires.

Tour de Geuze after-party
Tour de Geuze officially ended at 5 pm and the HORAL buses returned to the starting point by Halle railway station. However, the fun was not over yet, because I had signed up for an after-party BBQ event held at the famous lambic café In de Verzekering tegen de Grote Dorst in the small village of Eizeringen, about 15 km west of Brussels.

Together with three fellow Tour de Geuze participants I took a taxi the almost 20 km from the railway station in Halle to the church square in Eizeringen, both to save time and to get there before it became too crowded. The café is located on the church square and is usually only open on Sundays, from 10 am to 1:30 pm, or during funerals. The reason for this is that the current owners, the brothers Yves and Kurt Panneels, have regular daytime jobs and only run the café in their sparetime.

In 1999 the previous owner, a remarkable woman named Marguerite, decided to retire, at the ripe old age of 85. To preserve her lambic café, the two Panneels brothers, both longtime fans of lambic, decided to take over the business from Marguerite. They renovated the place keeping it in the style of a 1940s Flemish café and moved their amazing sour ales collection, gathered over many years, to the cool cellar underneath.

Inside lambic café In de Verzekering tegen de Grote Dorst

Today, it feels like traveling back in time when you walk in through the front door; the walls are plastered with old lambic and geuze signs, there are no TV-screens or loudspeakers tucked away in the corners and there is no electronic cash register or computer at the bar, all tabs are calculated by hand on a piece of paper! The beer menu is the most impressive I've seen when it comes to lambic, ranging from 30 year old bottles of geuze to rare lambics from long gone breweries, such as Eylenbosch or Belle Vue (the old one!). For special events the café may also serve lambic on cask, at the Tour de Geuze after-party the lambic on cask was a blend of 12 and 18 months old lambic from Oud Beersel.

The BBQ focused on local specialities, such as Flemish blood sausages, pork ribs and chicken, served with hot mustard, mayo and various sauces. The food was hearty and tasty and went surprisingly well with geuze. Despite two busloads arriving, the small café managed to handle the crowd and I had a great evening, talking with locals as well as people from far away countries, while enjoying some amazing sour ales. To clinch the evening, when I failed to get a cab (none were available in the area!), the butcher responsible for the meat at the BBQ offered to drive my friends and me back to Brussels!

All in all, Tour de Geuze 2013 was a great experience for me and I must thank HORAL, the Hoge raad voor Ambachtelijke Lambikbieren, for arranging this wonderful event every two years. I must also thank the breweries and blenders for opening their businesses to outsiders, curious to see how each ply their trade and tasting their sour ales, and café In de Verzekering tegen de Grote Dorst for hosting the great BBQ at the end of the day.

Though at times very crowded, I would love to return for the next Tour de Geuze, in 2015, but I will probably rent my own car in order to be more flexible with regards to the time schedule and not be limited by that of a tour bus.

Yves Panneels opening a bottle of geuze

More photos from Tour de Geuze 2013 can be found at this Flickr set.

Attending Sour & Bitter 2012

In November 2011 word got out that Danish beer importer Drikkeriget was planning their own, very exclusive, beer festival in May 2012. Only 250 tickets would be sold for an event that would include the appearance of 3 Fonteinen from Belgium, one of my favorite lambic breweries.

To obtain a ticket people had to email Drikkeriget and make a money transfer within a given date, I was fortunate enough to obtain a ticket for myself and spent the next five months counting down to May 10, 2012.

3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze Armand & Tommy
- one of the new releases at Sour & Bitter.

Drikkeriget

Before continuing this saga, a few words should be said about Drikkeriget. This company, owned by Henrik Boes Brølling and Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, has become one of the most important craft beer importers in Europe with a good network in both America, Asia and Europe. These two also own a beer shop, the world famous Ølbutikken in Copenhagen, which for long was their main outlet for the imported beers. While Ølbutikken is still ranked among the best beer shops in the world, Drikkeriget now distributes beer much wider than just Copenhagen or even Denmark.

For a number of years now Drikkeriget and Ølbutikken have been associated with great sour ales, in particular with lambics from Belgium. Ølbutikken has got an exclusive deal with Cantillon in Brussels who receives fresh blueberries from Denmark twice a year and brews the rare Blåbær Lambik exclusively for Ølbutikken. Drikkeriget, on the other hand, has bought up large stocks of geuze and krieks from 3 Fonteinen, helping this lambic brewery survive financially. It was this latter brewery that had been invited as the guest of honors at Sour & Bitter 2012.

By the way, Jeppe is the twin brother of gypsy brewer Mikkel Borg-Bjergsø aka Mikkeller and recently started brewing professionally too - as Evil Twin Brewing - in case you wondered.

The venue

As their venue of choice, Drikkeriget had rented a warehouse-like building at Refshalevej 163A on the Refshaleøen island in the north east of Copenhagen. This warehouse is the home of Zonen for Madkultur ("zone for food culture") and features a big, industrial sized kitchen that would be put to good use during the festival.

Not being that familiar in Copenhagen and knowing that the venue wasn't that centrally located I opted to go by cab to get there. Arriving at Refshaleøen I would have been hard pressed to locate the festival, but fortunately I saw other beer geeks walking into a certain warehouse so I followed suit.

Bean bags used as chairs at Sour & Bitter.

Inside, Drikkeriget had erected two stands along one of the walls - one for serving draft beer from Pizza Port and one for serving bottled beers from Port Brewing, Lost Abbey, The Bruery and 3 Fonteinen.

Along another wall, some tables had been put up but not sufficiently many to cater for all 250 guests so a number of blue bean bags were stacked up in the middle of the room to be used as chairs. I personally preferred tables and regular chairs, in order to write notes and take photos, and fortunately I arrived early enough to secure space at a table. For next year, I hope Drikkeriget will set up more tables, because so many of the guests were forced to stand or sit on the soft bean bags, causing beers to be spilled and notes impossible to write down.

The star factor

Because of the exclusiveness and small size of Sour & Bitter 2012, the brewer-to-guest ratio was very high and I actually became a little star struck - walking among so many famous brewers from Europe and America! 

Some of the brewers at Sour & Bitter were off duty, just chilling out before Copenhagen Beer Celebration the next day. I recognized the guys from Brouwerij de Molen, always with a new beer in their hands, as well as Hoppin' Frog and Three Floyds from America. Others were there to look after their beer, such as Jeff Bagby from Pizza Port.

In black cap Armand Debelder of 3 Fonteinen
- guest of honor at Sour & Bitter 2012.

Despite all the great beers from Pizza Port, Port Brewing / Lost Abbey and The Bruery, the guests of honor at Sour & Bitter 2012 were two unassuming Belgian brewers - Armand Debelder and Michaël Blanckaert from 3 Fonteinen in Beersel, Pajottenland. They used this opportunity to promote several new sour ales and some rare, old beers that few have been able to taste. Naturally, Armand and Michaël were constantly being surrounded by a flock of people, ranging from beer geeks to brewers, so I never got the chance to pay my respects and congratulate them on the new brewery being constructed at 3 Fonteinen.

The food 

Like all good beer festivals Sour & Bitter made food availble to its guests, but unlike all other festivals I've been to it was done in such a manner that I basically gave up the idea. It felt more like an art concept than food for a hungry beer drinker. 

Instead of selling food at dedicated stalls, the host had servants carry food around on big serving plates. One food item at a time, be it ribs, cheese or a salad. While doing so, the light was dimmed so that small lights on the serving plates could be seen by the guests, who would flock to each and help themselves with food. No guests had plates, so the food had to be placed on napkins and eaten by hand. Which turned out really messy when the food item was a greasy piece of ribs!

I personally gave up the idea of eating there, as I didn't want my notebook and beer glass to become stained in grease. What irked me even more was that it was next to impossible to take down further beer notes while the light was dimmed, I barely saw the color of the beer in my glass and much less the letters in my notebook! Fortunately, the light was turned back on after a few complaints had been made.

For next year I hope Sour & Bitter will either provide a food stall selling regular pub grub or at least provide their guests with plates and silverware to eat their food from, this was too artsy and really messy.

The Lost Abbey Veritas Ale 008
- a personal favorite at Sour & Bitter

The beer selection

When it came to the beer selection, Sour & Bitter 2012 sounded really promising when I first heard about it 6 months ago. And when I finally arrived at the festival and walked along the stands of Pizza Port, Port Brewing / Lost Abbey, The Bruery and 3 Fonteinen I knew the festival would live up to the high expectations.

Where else in the world can you find sixteen - 16 - Pizza Port beers on draft!? And where can you find rare bottles of Cuvee de Tomme, Isabelle Proximus, Veritas and Sinners from Lost Abbey / Port Brewing? And how about the 14 year old Millennium Geuze made by De Cam and 3 Fonteinen back in 1998 or the rare 3 Fonteinen Oude Lambiek or their Framboos 2010?

Thus, I knew I had to plan well to get through it all so I started out carefully with the 10 cl samples from Pizza Port who came with a good range of imperial porters and stouts. To obtain a sample you had to buy a small slip of paper with the numbers 1 to 4 on it for DKK 100, allowing you four samples of Pizza Port. 

Pouring a Pizza Port Coffee Monster at Sour & Bitter

Starting out with the 9.3% abv Coffee Monster from Pizza Port Carlsbad, a rich espresso beer with a massive dose of  chocolate, I tried a number of good imperial stouts and porters - in particular enjoying the 8.5% abv Jules Winfield imperial stout, creamy and smooth, from Pizza Port Solana Beach. I worried that the more hoppy beers would ruin my taste buds, so I mostly stayed with the dark beers.

A bottle of Isabell Proximus at Sour & Bitter

After tasting a number of Pizza Ports it was time to try out the sour beers, in particular the rare ones from The Lost Abbey / Port Brewing. First one out, The Lost Abbey Sinners 08 didn't quite live up to my expectations, as it felt a bit watery and oxidized, but the next one, Veritas 008, was a beauty of fresh apricot and nice sourness, almost like a really young Cantillon Fou'Founes! Cuvee de Tomme 2008 also went down well, though less fresh than Veritas. Isabelle Proximus, brewed at Port Brewing in 2006, had a good lactic acid character combined with some lemon sourness and a funky brett note, reminding me of a Rodenbach Grand Cru on steroids - nice.

The Bruery also had a number of beers with them, and I did try their Sour in the Rye (very decent), Oude Tart (a bit mild and ordinary) and Trois Poules Francais (refreshing and drinkable), but at this point I was ready for the master of geuze blending - Armand Debelder of 3 Fonteinen - and the beers he had brought to Sour & Bitter.

3 Fonteinen Framboos 2010 is the first framboise (raspberry) lambic made at 3 Fonteinen in more than ten years, so it was an obvious beer to start with. It was rich in raspberries with a good fruit sourness but still a bit young in my view, lacking the vinous and funk character of older lambics. Next out was the blend made with Tomme Arthur of The Lost Abbey, the Oude Geuze Armand & Tommy, which had a lovely sourness, mild barnyard notes and a tart finish.

3 Fonteinen / De Cam Millennium Geuze
- a 14 year old sour ale masterpiece.

The 4 year old Oude Lambiek, bottled in May 2011, was another exciting beer to try and though it didn't reach all the way up for me, it lacked the carbonation to bring out the flavors, it was a nice and drinkable sour ale.

The highlight from 3 Fonteinen, at least for me, was the 14 year old Millennium Geuze that geuze blender De Cam had made together with Armand Debelder at 3 Fonteinen in the autumn of 1998. It was still amazingly fresh, with a good, fizzy carbonation, nice fruitiness and a rounded sourness. An ageless masterpiece!

Because the bottles from 3 Fonteinen was large 75 cl and cost a good deal, the Millennium Geuze a hefty DKK 600, it was nice to be able to share with friends around the table, so those who came alone to Sour & Bitter may have missed out on some of the beers because of the size and price of some beers.

At the end of the festival, it was announced that beers from 3 Fonteinen would be sold from two vans parked outside, so the guests lined to buy their share of Framboos 2010 (just 3 bottles per person), Armand'4 Oude Geuze (all four seasons) and other sour ale gems from the festival.

3 Fonteinen Framboos 2010 at Sour & Bitter
- one of the most sought after beers in the world

Conclusion

For a first time festival, Sour & Bitter really was a success story. The atmosphere was great and the beer selection world class. But there were things to improve, such as the number of tables and not to forget the way they provide food for their guests. Remember, this is a beer festival not an art event. Good luck in 2013!

Photos from Sour & Bitter 2012 can be found at: Flickr.