Brussels....Cantillon Open Brewing...Moeder Lambic oh my!

As if the Pre-ZBF was not enough on Thursday and Friday, were trekked on to Brussels for a Saturday of fun starting off with a visit to De Heeren van Liederkercke, our favorite resturant in Belgium, for lunch and a few beers. Usually a stop at De Heeren could be a full day itself with the gourmet food and extensive current and vintage beer listing they have but we had a full day ahead.

When we entered Brussels, after dropping bags at the hotel, Keith and I were off to Cantillon and Paula was off to some last trip to Brussels shopping for goodies.

The trip to Cantillon was to see what we could see for their bi-annual open brewing day where you can wander around the brewery while they are doing everything in the brewing process from boiling, to pumping the wort in the koelchip which is really cool to see. They also clean barrel, kegs and everything in between. Although we got there later in the day, we were able to jump on an English tour and got to roam around the brewery, sample some beer at the end and buy a few items on the way out. We also chatted for a few minutes with the brewer Jean who is a really nice guy and a guy that is passionate about authentic lambic brewing.

After Cantillon, our next stop was to the new location of Moeder Lambic right in the heart of Brussels and conveiniently right across the road from our hotel. Great planning by our travel agent I must say. A trip to Moeder Lambic is a must on any visit to Brussels but this Saturday trip was extra special as it turns out.

First, Moeder Lambic having a mini-Cantillon festival with 12 of their beers on tap which is just unheard of but not for a bar that is about 2 miles from the brewery. In addition to several rare beer you usually only get in the U.S. in bottles (Iris, Saint Lamvinus, Fou Foune, Vigneronne) we were also lucky enough to try Zwanze 2008 with rhubarb and Zwanze 2009 with elderflowers. Both beers were wonderful on tap...in fact all the beers were wonderful on tap but the Zwanze 2009 really stuck out to me.

After being there for a good hour or more, the Cantillon family arrived as the guests of honor for the night. It actually seemed to be a bit of a beer industry party as Rob Tod from Allagash was there, Tom Peters from Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia was there and several other Americans that looked familiar but I did not know were there. We had a great night of Cantillon's, fantastic cheese and we even had a bit more conversation with Jean from Cantillon.

All in all it was a great night and a great cap to a beery weekend in Belgium that was also a sort of beer bachelor party for Keith!

Check out our fun.

Pre-ZBF 2010 Edition

The Pre-ZBF festival 2010 edition could not get here soon enough.....and now it is sadly over and I am already looking forward to 2011. Now I just have to figure out how to get back to Belgium next year...

This is a wonderful festival that is put on by the great folks at Picobrouwerij Alvinne (Glenn, Davy and several others) in Heule, Belgium. Pre-ZBF is held a day or so before the much larger and more mundane Zythos Beer Festival that is held each year around the first weekend of March. Pre-ZBF is in my mind the festival of the year in Belgium as it is much smaller that the big boys but pound for pound the quality of the brewers and the beers served is second to none.

Paula and I took in our first Pre-ZBF in 2009 when it was held at the Alvinne brewery which is housed in a sort of farm house in a residential neighborhood and is very charming. The 2009 fest was packing with fellow beer geeks from all over the world and certainly packed with fantastic and rare beers.

Although I thought it would be hard to top the quality of 2009, the 2010 did indeed top the prior year. Firstly, the festival was moved to a larger location just outside of Brugge, Kasteel der Lakebusschen. We had to get transportation out to the kasteel from our hotel in Brugge but Glenn and Davy at Alvinne helped to arrange all of that so things ran smoothly on that front.

The actual Pre-ZBF festival was held on a Friday from 10am to 8pm. This part of the festival was open to the public so you could have ordered a ticket ahead of time or just showed up that day and got in for a reasonable entrance fee which included a tasting glass and some tokens. As with most beer fests in Belgium, you typically pay a small upfront fee and then each beer sample costs you a token or more and each token usually has a value of €1 or €1.50.

For a lucky few (about 50 or so which included Paula, my cousin Keith and myself) there was also a special beer and whisky night on Thursday. This included a meet and greet tasting which each brewer for about 2 hours where we were allowed to sample one special beer from each brewer but it ended up being that we were able to sample several different beers from each brewer...and all this before dinner! Dinner was served inside the castle in a fantastic space that is hard to describe but the setting was perfect for the damn fine food that was cooked up by Glenn from Alvinne and paired with 5/6 beers and whiskys.

During dinner we were lucky enough to sit at a table with some fellow beer lovers from the U.S. so the conversation was flowing all night. Sometime during the dinner we were suprised when Glenn from Alvinne annouced that there was a person in the crowd that could not drink because she was pregnant ant that just happened to be Paula. Glenn was so kind to present Paula with a nice set of baby bibs. It was a wonderful gesture from a wonderful friend, something we will always remember. In addition to the gift for our baby, Glenn also presented my cousin Keith and I with a huge 1.5 litre bottle of a new Alvinne creation, Cuvee de Freddy, as a sort of congrats on the baby present for me and a congrats on getting married for Keith! Now I just have to figure out how to transport the big bottle home to Paoli.....

After a wonderful night at the beer and whisky tasting...we were back to our hotel in Brugge and after a few drinks out in the city at the Bruge Beertje for Keith and I, it was off to bed to get ready for an early rise for the actual Pre-ZBF fest on Friday.

The brewery listed was expanded in 2010 to include Alvinne, Struise, De Molen (all of which were there in 2009) and there were the additions of Brewdog, Thornbridge and Urthel which were much appreciated.

The listing of beers was expanded to something outrageous like 70 beers, several of them collaberations between the various brewers, several of them draft only and only for the festival and every beer I tried was a winner and worth the few tokens they cost.

I could not say enough about the quality of Pre-ZBF and about how much I will miss it if we are not able to make it in 2011 since we will be living back in the U.S. by then. If we don't get back next year or for several years...at least I these pictures to bring back fond memories...

Brassigaume Beer Festival in Belgium

The weekend of 17 and 18 October was the 9th edition of the Brassigaume beer festival, a great gathering of some regional brewers from the Luxembourg province of Belgium but also beyond this area including some UK beers and a good number of craft beers from Italy. Paula and I attended the festival last year and had to go back this year.

The festival is held each year in Marbehan, Belgium which is conveiniently located only 5 minutes walk from a train stop less then 30 minutes from Luxembourg!

We arrived late in the afternoon on Saturday the 17th and quickly had a beer glass in our hands and some wooden tokens to purchase samples. The entrance fee was only €3 per person including your glass and samples (about 15 cl each) were only €1.40 each.

Over the course of the next 4 hours or so we had several nice samples including some from Belgium (La Rulles, Sainte Hélène, Val Dieu, Brasserie de Cazeau), some from the UK (Brasserie Great Heck and Tiger Top) and some from Italy (Birra del Borgo, Brasserie Panil and Birra Orso Verde). I think our favorites of the night were a few from Birra del Borgo as they had an interesting porter with tobacco, an ale blended with Cantillon Lambic (how can you go wrong there?) and another lambic-ish beer with peaches.

We also spend a good deal of time chatting with old friends and new friends. I ran into 3 Belgian friends from work, a few beer friends from the UK, another American living in Luxembourg that I met at Mi-Orge Mi-Houblon just a few weeks earlier, a few American G.I.'s stationed in Italy that just happened to be Phillies fans. We also spent a bit of time talking to our friend Chris that is the owner of the great beer store Mi-Orge Mi-Houblon. Chris is a man of many hats. In addition to running a beer shop, he is also a school teacher, a sometime brewer and he also is heavily involved in the planning for Brassigaume it seems. Chris has a min-store setup at this festival so between selling beer, we talked about beer and tasted beer! He was kind enough to invite Paula and I to try a few very interesting lambic blends made by a Germany guy who attended the festival. All of his blends were very interesting and gave me some thoughts for my own lambic blending project that is in process.

All in all, another successful beer festival in Belgium and we were home before midnight to boot.

Check out a few pictures from the festival

A Visit From Paula's Mom and Cousin

Near my birthday in June (June 22nd for those that don't know) we got a visit from Paula's Mom and her cousin Melissa and we made the most of it by traveling to Brugge, Belgium and throughout Luxembourg and neighboring Trier, Germany.

Weekend in Brugge

Pictures of our Saturday and Sunday in Brugge with Andrew and Tracy and a ton of tourists!

After our time in the Netherlands, we headed up Saturday morning to Brugge. No trip to Belgium or the BeNeLux is complete without a trip to Brugge, the Venice of the North as they say. We roamed around Brugge, along with masses of other tourists, on the hunt for great beer and food and some sites as well. Paula and I just spent the night in Brugge and then part of Sunday afternoon before returning to Luxembourg later on Sunday.

Ten Hours in Brussels

What to do on a nice Spring Saturday? How about a day trip to Brussels. It is only a 3 hour train ride and the weather was going to be pretty nice so we decided to taken an 8:20am train that got us into the center of town at 11:23. We had planned to take a 9:37 pm train back to Luxembourg so that gave us just about 10 hours to roam the streets of Brussels, shopping, eating and have a few nice Belgian beers. We had a nice train ride up including a couple that got on with a beautiful golden retreiver that was very friendly and came up to us a few times to lick us and let us pet her. She eventually went to sleep in the middle of isle and didn't get up much, even when people entered the car and were stepping over her. That is what I love about Europe, the friendliness to pets. Even the train conducter that came to check tickets stepped over the dog and didn't make a big deal about it. We would see a bunch of dogs of varying sizes on our travels through Brussels on this day.

Here is how our day unfolded:

As we had just arrived on time from a 3 hour train ride, we were in need of some refreshments so we headed right down to Morte Subite which was already opened. We entered this huge bar and were greeted by a nearly empty place which was nice, less smokey. We were very pleased to also be greeted by our favorite waiter who was featured on an episode of Three Sheets with Zame Lamprey so we knew it would be a good day. Paula ordered a Mort Subite white lambic and I ordered a MS Gueuze. Both were very nice and refreshing. We later ordered a mixte of cheese and salami...yum. At the same time I ordered another drink, a Mort Subite Faro. Yum as well. While sipping on our drinks and doing some people watching on the street, it was amusing to see a few groups of people come inside the bar to take pictures and just leave..without having a drink. Although we enjoy Mort Subite, we had too many other places to visit so off we were....

..to Delirium Cafe. Delirium is a beer destination as they have reportedly over 2,400 different beers, many from countries or breweries you may have never heard of or would not want to ever try but it is still worth a visit. This bar can get really really busy, noisy and smokey but I really enjoy their selection and checking out all the old beer signs and beer trays throughout the place. When we arrived there were only about 15 or so people in the whole bar so we were able to get a nice table (which is a huge wine barrel standing up) and we quickly dug into the massive been menu and order a 75 cl bottle of Fantome Pissenlit to share. I was very happy to find this beer as it is not usually available and was very fresh tasting for a beer from 2003. A nice afernoon treat. Although there were many more beers to drink, we had to move on....

Our next stop was for a quick lunch at Fritland for some Belgian Frites and some sort of burger hoagie thing. Good food none the less. And then we were on...

...to De la Décasse, a well hidden and more local bar that serves mostly lambic beers from Timmerman's. I had heard good things about this place but have never visited so we gave it a try. It is off a very busy restaurant area but down a non-descript alley that is easy to miss. Upon entering, we realized it was mainly a local spot as there were several families in there enjoying some jugs of lambic and everyone turn their hends when we talked in but we still felt very welcome. There are a good number of old wood tables with a mix of different chairs throughout the place and then a tiny bar in the corner where they serve 3 different lambics from tap and then a few more in bottles. They offer the beers in about 6 different jug sizes from a single serving up to a jug that seems to be about 2 litres or more in size! we order a jug of the Timmerman's Doux lambic from about a 75cl jug which was enough for 2. The beers were served in little tumbler glasses which fit in with the atmosphere of this place. The beer was refreshing and worth a try and the bar was definitely a good visit and we will come back on future trips but we only stayed for this one drink and then we were off again...

...this time to Toone, the bar and marionette theatre right off one of the main shopping streets and not far from Delirium a stretch of touristy restaurants where the waiters stand out from and beg you to come in to eat their cheap food. We always pass up on the offer and head to Toone. Paula was lucky enough to see a marionette show when our friends Heather and Ray came to visit in 2008 but I have yet to see a show. Someday. Toone is down a long alley that opens into a courtyard where there are 5 or so tables but it was a bit chilly so we went inside to one of the 3 or 4 rooms on the ground floor. It was fairly empty so we had no trouble finding a seat and took up the menu to decide what to drink. At about 4:08 pm we got our drinks, a Mort Submite Kriek for Paula and a Vieux Temps for me. Both decent beers. In addition to having some old marionettes hanging on the walls and various posters from some of their shows, we were also in a room that served as the old stage and seating areas for shows but apparently they now have the nightly shows at the top floor of the building which is several flights of stairs up, almost in the attic! Toone also has 2 cats that roam around the place and last time we were here, one came crawled onto Paula's lap and slept there for awhile. This time we saw one of the cats licking itself in the distance but he or she didn't come to talk. We did get a chance to pet the other cat, a black one, on our way out and onto the next destination....

...Delirium Taphouse. I know what you are thinking...back to Delirium again..in the same day? Well this is not exactly the same thing as Delirium Cafe although they are in the same building and owned by the same folks. The Taphouse is on the first floor and the Cafe is in the basement. We were visiting the Taphouse for one reason...they had De Dolle Cosmos Porter on tap. A very special new beers from De Dolle that is not in bottles, only on draft at select locations. We had it at the Zythos beer fest last month and when I found out from a bartender at the Cafe that it was upstairs, we had to come back when the Taphouse was open. Although it was a bit smokey when we got there, we found nice seats at the back of the bar in a new area that was opened up since our last visit. I of course had the Cosmos Porter and Paula had a nice glass of Houblon Chouffe which is one of her favorites. After one drink each we were off for more shopping and then to....

....the Poechenellekelder, a really nice bar right across from the Manneken Pis statue that draws so many crowds of tourists and gawkers. Because of the proximity to one of the most popular destinations in Brussels, the bar gets very busy with folks stopping in to take a look around and have an innocent beer so it is ofen hard to find a seat but since they had the tables out at the terrace in the front, I thought it would be easier to find a seat. When we entered the first floor was completely packed so I quickly headed downstairs where not everyone knows there is seating. I had a couple right on my heels but I was able to find us a cool little table in the basement with a nice view of some beer signs on the walls and a cabinet full of beer books. We each ordered a beer from the draft special list: Paula ordered the Gouden Carolous Hopsinjoor and I ordered an Easter beer, the Slaghmuylder Passbier which was ok but nothing special. Paula's beer is very good and another of her favorites. After that we ordered a treat, a 75 cl bottle to share of the De La Senne Jambe de Bois which is a hoppy tripel beer and one I have been trying to find for several months. It proved to be worth the search for this one! After the Jambe de Bois we moved across to the street to...

....Taverne Manneken Pis which is also busy due to the proximity to the Manneken Pis statue but not as busy and it has a less extensive beer list but still is a charming corner bar. We easily found a table and each had one beer before hitting the road. Paula had a Tripel Karmeliet and I had a new beer, a Hopus, which was a nice hoppy pale ale served in a nice flip top bottle and in a huge glass with a huge head to match!

After these last drinks, we headed to get a waffle for the road, a real waffle, not one with all the creat and chocolate and strawberries on them. just a plain sugar Liege waffle. We packed that away for the train ride home and headed over the Greek area for a chicken pita each for the walk back to the train station for dinner. This is an odd street with a guy standing out in front of each trying to entice you into their restaurants. We went to the least offensive one and got some tastey pitas for the walk! Our train left Brussels at 9:37pm and got us back into Luxembourg at 12:40 am and we were back to the apartment with Molly at about 1am and then off to bed!

Pre-ZBF Days at Alvinne Brewery

On Thursday and Friday, 5 and 6 March, there was a great little beer festival being held at Picobrouwerij Alvinne that included just under 40 beers from Alvinne, Struise, De Molen and some collaberation beers between then.

A Weekend in Gent, Belgium

This past weekend we made the short 2 and 1/2 trip back to Gent for another weekend (we had previously visited in March of 2008) to visit with friends from the U.S. and England while attending 2 fantastic beer festivals outside of Gent.

A Saturday Afternoon Visit to Lambic Country

Since it turned out to be a nice Saturday, we took a little drive Northwest to just outside of Brussels to the heart of lambic country known as Payottenland. Our specific destination was to the Girardin lambic brewer and gueuze blender. Girardin is a family run operation on a farm that is really in the countryside down a bunch of roads that are two way roads but can barely take one car at a time!

Although we were not able to take a tour of the brewery as they are usually closed to the public unless you have a prior arrangement or a large group, we were able to visit their brewery store where they sell all their beers in bottles and they also sell 10 litre jugs of several different beers including jonge (young) lambic, oud (old lambic, kriek ( lambic with cherries) and faro (lambic with sugar). We were in line behind a couple who were purchasing about 3 cases worth of various Girardin beers.

I was on a mission to get a 10 litre jug of lambic and then a few bottles of beer as well. We were going over to a friends house that evening for dinner so a large jug of freshly made beer would be just perfect! Plus I can't drink such a large jug all myself.....

We were helped by a very nice older man who filled a jug up for us with jonge lambic straight from the barrel! We also bought 12 bottles in total of 4 different beers including faro, 2 different kinds of gueuze and some framboise (lambic with raspberries). Each bottle was about €1.50 ( a real steal of a price!) and the jug was €16 for 10 litres which works out to €1.60 a litre which is larger than an average wine bottle. The price was a fantastic deal but besides the price, getting a fantastic lambic beer right at the brewery and straight from the barrel can't be beat!

After our lambic haul, we took about a 20 minute drive to Liederkercke, Belgium to have lunch at De Heeren Van Liederkercke. Paula and I were here once together with my brother and Kelli came to visit and I also went once myself a few months back to lunch. They have wonderful Flemish food and a fantastic selection of Belgium beers, heavy on lambics and gueuze and vintage beers as well. The restaurant was empty when we got there but quickly filled up with locals that all seemed to know the owners. For lunch Paula had coq au beer (instead of coq au vin as this was a beer restaurant) and I had stoofvlees which is a nice beer stew type dish with frites! The highlight of the lunch for me was a 1992 bottle of Alexander Rodenbach which tasted fresh despite its age in the bottle.

Overall is was a nice afternoon in Belgium and we were back in Luxembourg before 5pm.

A Daytrip to Brussels for the Cantillon Quintessence

I got an email a few weeks ago from the Cantillon brewery in Brussels noting that they were having a cool open house tasting event on Saturday, 22 November that included about a dozen of their fine lambic beers, paired with local and regional foods and the kicker of it all was that it was only €15 per person! With todays exchange rates that is only about $20 to taste a full lineup of some of the best beers in the world and beers that are fairly expensive if, or should I say when, you can find them in the U.S. I emailed the brewery a few days later and made a reservation.

We debated about going up Friday night to stay 1 or 2 nights in Brussels but this would be our fifth trip to Brussels in less than 1 year so we opted to take a 8:24 am train from Luxembourg to Brussels which is so convenient and reasonably priced at €58 roundtrip for 2 people at a special weekend rate. We arrived in Brussels about 11:30 am and had only a 5 minute walk to the brewery. When we got there we were greeted by a bit of a line at the door but we were able to pay and have a tasting glass in hand in 5 minutes. The tasting was one from 10 am to 4 pm and for your money you got 10 tickets that were good at each of 10 different stations throughout the entire brewery. At each you got a nice sample of a Cantillon beer and a finger food items, mostly on bread. At a few stations you got to sample 2 beers. In these instances we were able to try to standard fruit lambic like their Kriek and then the premium version with more fruit added like the Lou Pepe Kriek. In most cases we got a little story about the beer we were sampling.

During the tasting we ran into our friend Chris that owns a great bottle shop in Arlon, Belgium, Mi-Orge Mi-Houblon. He was at the Cantillon tasting with about 20 members of his tasting group which meets each month at his shop for different beer tastings. We also got recognized by the Cantillon brewer which was pouring their gueuze so that was cool. We last saw him at Mi-Orge Mi-Houblon a month or so ago doing a tasting at the shop and then we were at Cantillon in September with Ed and Kelli. I guess from seeing a few times in the last 2 months he remembered us which was cool. At the 9th of 10 stands we started talking with the guy pouring Cantillon Iris which was matched with a fantastic peacan tart! When we started to speak English he asked where we were from, we said Philly and he got all happy when we said that. He talked very highly about Tom Peters, one of the owners of Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia. This fellow, named Lorenzo, also mentioned that he is good friends with Sam Calagione, the owner of Dogfish Head in Delaware. It was a nice end to a great day of tasting.

We left the Cantillon brewery a little after 2pm and walked into town and stopped at the Mannekin Pis frite stand for some lunch. After that we did a little shopping and then stopped at the Delirium Cafe for a drink or 2. Even at this early part of the afternoon the bar was packed but we were lucky to find a table in the back. We sat in the section clearly marked "NO SMOKING" but there were a good 15 people or so smoking in that section so it was pretty much a joke. We left and did more shopping and got caught up in some snow but nothing big. We then hit 1 or 2 more bars before stopping in the evening for a pita in the Greek area of town and then we were on a 8:37 pm train back to Luxembourg and in our apartment by 10 minutes after midnight. It is nice that Brussels is so close and we can do a day trip from there. It was nice to sleep in our own bed and wake up in our own apartment the next morning.

Check out the pictures we took of this cool tasting day!

Ed and Kelli's European Visit - Part 1

We had our first family visitors to Luxembourg and the surrounding countries when my brother Ed and his fiance Kelli came to visit from 5 September through 15 September. We first met up with Ed and Kelli when they arrived in Brussels. We spent the first 2 days in Brussels, then moved on for 2 days in Brugge. After playing around in Brugge and the surrounding countryside, we moved on to a day in Antwerp and then to Luxembourg for the remaining time.

Brussels - On 5 and 6 of September we cruised around Brussels. On Friday the 5th we started with a beer and lunch at Poechnellekelder right across from the Manniken Pis. We then wandered over to the Cantillon brewery for a tour and some extended tastings. In addition to the 2 samples you get in the tour at Cantillon, we also got to try their draft faro, straight lambik and also Broucsella straight from a bottle coming off the bottling line from the brewer. We also got to talk with the brewer a bit which was cool. We mentioned that we were from the Philadelphia area and they said they had some good friends in Philly including Tom Peters from Monk's Cafe. It just so happened that Tom was at the Cantillon brewery the day before to choose the barrel for their next Monk's Cafe Gueuze. Darn, we missed him by one day!

On the 6th we started our the day with a trip to the Brussels city museum and then off to the lambik countryside and lunch at Drie Fonteinen. Aside from really good food, they had their draft faro, kriek and a few others. After lunch we walked around the corner to the brewery and brewery shop to pick up a few bottles. When ready to leave Ed mentioned that we were from Philly and that he had seen the brewer Armand at a few events in Philly in March with my cousin Keith. Much to our surpise that was enough to get us a great tour of the brewery and their newly opened Lambik Droom tasting cafe. Lydie, partner at the brewery with Armand started by giving us a great tour of the brewery and then the barrel room down below in the cellar. Not only did we get a vip tour but Lydie grabbed a pitcher and cracked open a barrel of lambik and gave us several sample straight from the barrel. There is really no other place on earth to have their beer as pure as this as it would not travel well or and it is not bottled in this state. We moved on from the barrel room, after many pictures, over to the Lambik Vroom for more tasting, this time with Lydie and Armand the brewer! We were treated to gratis samples of their oude gueuze, oude kriek and kriek straight from the barrel. Side by side with the bottled kriek, the kriek straight from the barrel was hard to beat!

After about 2 hours with Lydie and Armand, we said our goodbyes and headed further into the countryside to take in a beerfest at De Heeren Van Liederkercke, a great restaurant outside of Brussels. We wanted to visit anyway as I have heard they have a great beer cellar and excellent beer cuisine but they were also having a beer fest that included a good deal of the beers they had on their menu. We were able to try some stellar beers for only a few euros each including the rare Drie Fonteinen Hommage and their J & J Blauw! We also stayed for dinner and had a great time listening to a band play music and watching kids in spiderman outfits running around while their parents drank great beer. Overall a great day.

We headed back to Brussels in the early evening and hit a few more bars for good measure including Morte Subite and Porte Noire. Brussels is one great beer city.

Brugge - After 2 days in Brussels, we headed off to Brugge about an hour away. We spent Sunday and Monday (7th and 8th of September) in this walled and watered town. I was stoked because our B&B we were staying in was on the outside of town, outside of all the crazy one way cobblestoned streets and all the people. When we arrived I was delighted to find I had my very own garage to park in and at the cheapest rates of the whole trip! The owner of our B&B was very nice, had several cats and knew alot about beer. When we told her that we were visiting Westvleteren on Monday to pick up some beer, she knew all about it and said she had a few crates at home and really liked the 8.

On Sunday and again on Monday evening we visisted a good deal of the Brugge beer bars including 't Brugs Beertje, Cambrinus Restaurant, Staminee de Garre, Brasserie Erasmus and De Zolder Keldercafe. Check out some pictures from these great stops.

On Monday the 8th we headed started the day off with a great sightseeing tour on the canals of Brugge. Check it out.

Later in the morning we all piled into the car and headed west to the Abbey at Westvleteren for lunch at the In De Vrede cafe next to the Abbey and then we had an appointment at 2:45 to pick up 2 crates of Westy 12, one of the best and some sought after beers in the world. We were not sure how we would fit 2 crates of beer in the car after we loaded in all the luggage and other things we purchased along the way but it all worked out.

After the great stop at Westvleteren we headed over to the Struise Farm for a visit and some sampling of the great beers they produce. Although the brewer, Urbain, was hard at work doing some bottling, he was gracious enough to spend time with us sampling about 5 beers including Fedeltà, a slightly sour blonde beer that Urbain said he had recently brewed at Allagash in the U.S. Next up was the Tsjeeses Reserva from a 750ml, a beer that is not even released to the public but that Urbain keeps on hand for samplings. After that we moved on to Dirty Horse, a fantastic beer that I had been waiting to try for some time. The beer was 5 years old and served from a really cool wine decantor. This the Struise take on a lambik style beer and it also has some flemish sour characters. The next beer was Pannepot Grand Reserva from a 750 ml bottle which I have never seen before. Another great beer. With some of the PGR left in Paula's glass, Urbain talked about a new beer he had recently brewed for a group in Sweden. This new beer, Black Jack is billed as an imperial porter with a special coffee used in fermentation. I think the coffee is Columbian. Urbain pulled some of the beer from the barrel and mixed it into Paula's PGR and it was a fantastic beer. The coffee aroma from the Black Jack was noticable once you got your nose just close to the glass and it was wonderful in the taste as well. Even after letting the last 1/2 ounce of the beer sit in the glass for 10 minutes or more, the coffee quality was still strong. I will surely be searching out this beer in Sweden if need be! After another great visit to Struise we were off to Brugge for the evening and a great dinner and some drinks at 't Brugs Beertje and the Garre, two great bars.

Antwerp - On Tuesday the 9th we headed off to a brewery tour at Rodenbach. Although the tour was only in Dutch, the brewery was good enough to let us join along with about 30 Dutch senior citizens and it was a great time. In addition to wandering around rooms full of huge wood foeders aging wonderful Rodenbach beer, we also got some nice samples at the end of the tour. After the tour we were on to Antwerp and a mission to spend a few hours at the Kulminator, one of the best beer bars in th world and they probably have the best aged beer cellar in the WORLD!

I could go on for days about the Kulminator but I can only type so much before I have to go to bed so I will hit some of the highlights. On two trips to the Kulminator that night, we had several great beers including Struise Earthmonk and Struise Pannepot Grand Reserva and we did a little blending experiment and it was damn fine. In addition to that we cracked into their vintage collection and pulled out a 750 ml bottle of Felix Oudenaards Kriekbier from 1975, a beer as old as me! Despite being as old as dirt, it tasted damn fine also. The cherry taste was very present and there was also some carbonation. One fine beer and served in a cool basket so it was all good. We also had a 1995 De Neve Gueuze that also had a fresh character to it and was another excellent aged beer. After sharing those 2 beers from breweries no longer in business, I moved on to a 1979 Oud Hoegaards Bier Blanche which is basically an early version of Hoegaarden and aside from no carbonation, this beer also held up very well. Between all of this Paula had a bottle of Kwelchouffe from 2000 which is no longer made. At the end of the night Ed and I shared a bottle of 1982 Thomas Hardy's and it was a great way to end the night.

Brussels Flower Carpet

Once every 2 years (.... 2004, 2006, 2008) the Grand Place in Brussels is completely filled with a huge flowercarpet made of begonia flowers that is put on public display. The total size is larger than an American football field. The flowercarpet this year was on display from 15 through 17 of August. Paula and I took the train from Luxembourg to Brussels on Saturday morning to check it out for the day and to take in the sites of Brussels again. For €3 you can go into the City Hall building and view the carpet from the 2nd floor to get some pictures. Viewing from the street level is free and you can stand all around if you like, you just have to watch out for crazy picture taking tourists from all over the world!

Follow this link for more details on the history of the flower carpet in Brussels

Check out pictures from our visit, some from today!

While snapping some pictures of the flowercarpet, we also visited some of the best beer bars in Brussels, again. Check out some pictures

A Visit to Brasserie Achouffe

Today, Saturday 19 July, Paula and I took a day trip about 100kms or 1 hour North to the Brasserie Achouffe for a tour and some drinks and bits to eat. I can't believe that after nearly 10 months in Luxembourg this was our first visit to Achouffe but it certainly won't be our last.

We arrived for a tour that was in French but we figured we could understand most of it. The tour turned out to be in Dutch and French but the tour guide, Carine, did some of it in English for Paula and I. The tour starts right outside the giftshop and works into the brewhouse and then you get to peer into the fermentation room but were not allowed in as they were cleaning or it was too hot or something like that...

From there we took a few minute drive to the bottling facility for Achouffe. Upon entering this facility, you are greeted by 2 huge tanker trucks. They take the fermented beer from the brewery and fill the tanker trucks and drive the few minutes up to the road to the filling lines. The inside of this building is massive with many many rows of kegs and bottles and all the bottling and kegging equipment.

After hanging out in the bottling facility for awhile, we were directed to the end of our tour which was to a bar where we were able to use 2 tokens each for Achouffe beers and we took advantage of these tokens by each ordering up some wonderful Achouffe brews. All this for €7.50 each which is not bad.

Take a look at pictures from our visit with the secretive gnomes of Achouffe...

A Visit to Brasserie Fantome

Today, Saturday 19 July, Paula and I took a little day trip to visit Brasserie Achouffe and Brasserie Fantome. Fantome was the second stop on our trip and about 30 minutes further North than Achouffe. Although not very far, we did have to travel on some tiny farm roads. So tiny that if a car was coming in the other direction, we would have had a very hard time to move forward or to pull over. Luckily we didn't come across any other vehicles on such roads.

We didn't make it for a brewery tour although we probably could have gone on one. We decided to stop into the bar for a few drinks. We were lucky to get there when we did at 5 minutes after we entered is started to rain cats and dogs and cows even! When we got into the bar, there were only 3 or 4 others including the brewer and I think his mother. At one point the brewer left to get some food from home for his mom which was very nice. From time to time they looked at us as we were out of place but we still were welcomed there. We had a few of the wonderful and odd Fantome beers. Before leaving I purchased a few bottles to go. I asked if there were any other bottles for sale and the brewer led me to the bottling room which was just behind the bar. The bottling room and the brewery is very old looking which just adds to the mystique of Fantome. A few of the beers I purchased were hand labeled by the brewer right in front of me. Too funny.

We will definitely come back in the future for a tour eventhough the brewer speaks little English. That should not be a problem at beer is a universal language.

A few pictures from our visit...

Beer Passion Weekend in Antwerp, Belgium

This past weekend (20 - 22 of June) the Bierpassie or Beer Passion beer festival is being held in Antwerp. I decided that since Paula had to work at the Sacred Heart graduation on Saturday I would take an early train from Luxembourg to Antwerp to take in this festival and also to visit the Kulminator as no trip to Antwerp would be completed without a trip to this fine beer institution.

Open House at Brasserie Artisanale de Rulles

Today Paula and I visited the La Rulles brewery in Rulles (province of Luxembourg in Belgium). Yes, there is a Luxembourg area in Belgium, right across the border from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. This area was given to Belgium many, many years ago from the Grand Duke in Luxembourg but back to the beer.

La Rulles was started in June 2000 and each year in June (7th and 8th this year) they have an open house at the brewery where can take a tour of the brewery and sample all of their current beers at very reasonable prices. They had their blonde, brune, estivale, triple and Jean Chris. We sampled all of them. We also got a little serving of Orval cheese and some local meat.

Check out our pictures from our little visit

My Visit to the Struise Farm Brewery

Since it was such a beautiful day today, I decided to take a little 3 plus hour trip to the Belgian coast. Well about 15 minutes from the coast actually to the town of Lo to visit the Struise Farm. The farm is basically the headquarters for one of the best breweries in Belgium. In addition to being an ostrich farm and a bed & breakfast, the Struise Farm also has a small brewery where they brew certain of their beers and other test beers.

It turns out Struise is about 10 minutes from the Abbey at Westvleteren so I decided to make an afternoon of visiting Struise for a few beers and then heading to the Westvleteren cafe for lunch.

I arrived in the town of Lo at about 13:00 and found myself on a bunch of very small farm roads. As I found out quickly, these roads are really only passable by 1 vehicle at a time when I came upon a huge farm tractor and had to pull off the side of the road and partially into a field to let him go by. Thankfully I didn't come head on with any others before I arrived at Struise. I got to Struise about 15 minutes later and was first unsure about heading down the private driveway but after reading on Ratebeer.com that the brewer Urbain was going to have a keg of their new and rare stout, Black Albert, on tap and open to the public for free, I knew it would be ok to visit.

When I got out of my car I was greeted by a very friendly woman, that I found out was Urbain's sister, and a large dog. When I annouced why I was there, I was led up to an office where Urbain was talking on the phone. His sister offered me coffee and water and let me sit down to wait. After taking a few sips of a water, I got to to meet Urbain and as a thank you for letting me visit, I gave him a few American craft beers which he seemed to really enjoy. In return he gave me a bottle of beer from a brewery friend of his. After talking for a few minutes we headed down to the farms bar.

In talking to Urbain, the bar is in an old farmhouse that he and his family has refurbished over the past 10 years or so. Although the bar looks private, it would be a really cool bar to hang out at as it is rustic and full of charm. After taking a few minutes to setup the sinks to wash our glasses properly, Urbain poured us each a glass of Black Albert which they have termed a Belgian Royal Stout. I think it lives up to the name. It rings in at 13% abv and poured a very deep black hole color with a thick bubbly tan head.

While sipping on this fine brew, Urbain showed me the keg system that they are testing with this beer. Instead of using stainless steel, they had this beer in a keg that comprised of a cardboard outer system with a foil type bladder on the inside that holds the beer. It would of course be a much cheaper and lighter way to keg beer and based on what he said and I tasted, there is no impact on the quality of the beer in such a system.

Since there was no one else around at the time, we went outside on the patio to enjoy the days sun and to chat a bit about various thinks including of course, beer and other things like the environment. He mentioned that about an hour before I arrived, a large group of folks stopped by to try the Black Albert and he envisioned that a good number of people would show up later in the day as well so I was lucky to try the beer while it was still available. It won't be bottled and available in Belgium for a few more weeks and will eventually make it to the U.S. but may not be very soon.

After filling our glasses again with Black Albert, we wandered around the farm a bit. First to take a look inside a large military tent that was currently holding all of the brewing equipment while they were renovating the brewing building. We then walked down to the brewing building and got to see where the equipment will be reinstalled and will allow Struise to brew on an 8 barrel system and to play around with different yeast, sugar, and other combinations that can only lead to good beer. Urbain then opened up the cold room and was kind enough to give me to bottles as a gift for visiting the brewery. A 750ml bottle of their Struiselensis and a 750ml bottle of Tsjeeses Reserva which is a beer not really released to the public. I Can't wait to try both beers but will probably sit on them for the right time to try.

Urbain mentioned a few beer projects upcoming that were interesting. They are going to brew another batch of Struiselensis in the coming months and about 1/6 of the batch will be laid down with kriek to form a nice lambic which I can't wait for. He also mentioned that they will be brewing an imperial porter in the near future that will mainly be for a private group but it will also be available at the farm brewery at times. I smell another trip to the farm in my future....

While we were wandering around the farm I saw a handful of farm cats roaming the grounds and protecting the beer! The large doggy was also roaming around but behind a fence which was good because a group staying in the B&B arrived and with a dog that could only be described as a large black bear! This dog jumped out from the back of their van and ran over to the farm dog and they did some looking and sniffing and barking but no fighting.

Not far from the brewery building is where the ostrichs live. We got close enough to look eye to eye with these interesting creatures. They seemed to be interested in people, at least the females did. The males apparently are not very friendly and held back in the pack.

Overall my visit to Struise was a great day. The beer was great, Urbain was a great host and is very generous with his time and his beer. Since there is a B&B on the Struise Farm, I am thinking that this would be a great place to stay on future trips to Belgium as it is a great place to have a beer, it is very close to Westvleteren and the Belgian coast.

After leaving Struise, I drove the few minutes to the cafe at Westvleteren but was dissapointed to find out that they were closed. Maybe for the upcoming holiday in Europe. Needing a lunch after having 2 glasses of Black Albert, an Royal Belgian Stout of 13%, I found a cool looking cafe not far from Westvleteren. I knew it was a good place to stop as a beer truck had just pulled up to unload a bunch of kegs and crates of beer...and water. I stopped at 't Vleterhof for some food and maybe another drink. There were already a few locals sitting outside having drinks. I think they were all in their 70's but they looked like they were having a good time so I thought I would also. I sat outside and ordered a Struise Pannepot, why not, and a coke and a croque monseuir, basically a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. While I was there two older ladies stopped by for some drinks. Their drink of choice, Pannepot, just like me. Those Belgian ladies can really have a drink as this beer rings in at 10%. There were also a handful of bikers that stopped by for some refreshments. No Harley bikers but the biking that is typical of this part of the country, the peddle powered type bikes.

After a good quick lunch, I was back on the road and made another quick stop, this time at the Deca Brewery where Struise sells their beers. I picked up a few large bottles of Pannepot for home and some 33cl bottles of Pannepeut which is a slightly different version of Pannepot, made for the Danish beer market.

After that last stop, I was back in the car for another 3 and half hours to Luxembourg. Overall it was about 7 hours in the car and 3 or so out of it but it was still worth it. I think the temp hit about 80 so it was the warmest day since we arrived in Europe!

I hope you enjoy these pictures of my trip....

Also, check out this short video I took while driving down some of the tiny farm roads leading up to the Struise Farm. If a car was coming at me I would have been in some trouble but luckily it was just me while I was shooting the video.

Our Second Visit to the Kulminator in Antwerp

It seemed like it had been a year since the first time we visisted the Kulminator in Antwerp. The last time that we visited we spent about 4 hours at the bar. I mostly drooled at the 2 inch thick menu and tried to identify every bottle they had behind the bar.

Paula and I drove to Antwerp on Saturday the 26th of April to meet up with David and Sarah who had been making their way through Belgium and were ending their trip in Antwerp. David and I tried to visit the Kulminator while the girls went shopping but we were disapointed to learn that they didn't open until 5pm on Saturday. No worries, we walked a few more minutes and unded up at Oud Arsenaal for some great lambics.

After a few drinks and a walk back to the hotel, we arrived at the Kulminator at about 4:55pm just in time to see the owner Dirk opening the door and putting out the draft beer signs. We also saw one of the house cats sitting in the front window at about eye level, eating its dinner before the rush of tourists entered to order beers they may never have again. We were about 2nd group of people to enter the bar and were the first to walk to the back patio area. The patio area is covered by a clear room that lets you look up to the sky above and it also serves as a walkway for the cats. More on that later. The patio had about 5 tables and we picked the "large" 4 person table right at the entrance of the patio. The main advantage of this area was the fact that it was not smokey although with not many people in the whole bar yet, it didn't get smokey, even inside. Sitting in the patio you also get to see a huge stockpile of kegs, most likely empty.

Within only a few moments of sitting down, we were greeted by Leen, the other owner of this fine establishment. She handed us the huge menu and as with our first visit, I was lost with where to start. Luckily they have a draft list of about 10 beers that included a few Christmas beer leftovers and a Gouden Carolous tripel that I wanted to try, so I did.

While drinking my Gouden Carolous I had to walk the few steps to the glass windowed beer cellar. I imagine if someone saw me staring into this window it would look like a new parent starting through the glass into the maternity ward. There are just rows and rows of new and old beer. I spyed things from a newly released 2008 Gouden Carolous Cuvee Van de Keizer to bottles of La Trappe from the late 1970's. What almost immediately caught my attention were 33cl bottles of De Stuise Pannepot Grand Reserva! I had been waiting to find a bottle of this rare brew since arriving in Europe so this helped me to decide what to order. It shows that is pays off to roam around bars to see what new bottles they may have to offer as the menu at the Kulminator is not really up to date although they tend to have alot from the menu in stock.

After finishing my first beer, it was with a smile on my face that I ordered a Pannepot GR. Leen was quick to point out that the beer was €8 and wanted to make sure I was ok with that before ordering. I obviously had no problems with that. Within a few minutes I was greeted with the bottle and a De Struise glass to top it off. The beer was fantastic and worth the wait. I really should have tried this next to a regular Pannepot and a Pannepot Reserva. Next time.

While enjoying the beers and studying the menu, it was amusing to see at least 3 cats running from over the "cat crossing" tree at the back of the patio. Somehow the cats would get up on the branch and then walk along the roof of the patio, over our heads and then back into the building. They would somehow end up coming back into the front of the bar and then walked around us to get to the start of their play area again.

Some of the other beers we ordered, some we shared, including a Malheur 12, a Malheur Brut served in a Malheur champagne bucket and 4 Malheur glasses. We also ordered a very interesting bottle from 1987, a Fruitig Fris Framboosjes which Leen said was from Achouffe. She said that it had probably lost most of the raspberry taste but would still have aged well. The bottled arrived in a nice wicker basket used for serving lambics to help in not disturbing the yeast and other interest material at the bottom of the bottle. They must have an amazing beer catologing system at the Kulminator to remember where everything is at. This bottle was bare except for a shard of a label the size of a postage stamp that had the image of a few raspberries. The beer was actually very good and the raspberry taste was very present.

While we were there, from about 5pm to 9:30pm or so, several tables came and went and the patio area cleared out a bit but we kept on going. The service was fairly quick, eventhough the whole bar was just run by Dirk and Leen.

Check out some pictures from this trip to the Kulminator....

Also check out our pictures from the first trip we made to the Kulminator.....

Adbij der Trappisten van Westmalle

On our way home from a weekend in Antwerp, we stopped off for some sight seeing and lunch at Westmalle. As it is only about 20km East of Antwerp, it was well worth the time to get there. Plus, we were able to knock off another Trappist abbey (Orval, Westvleteren and now Westmalle).

The cafe is open 7 days a week from 9am to midnight which is good to know. The abbey itself was not really open for tours but the grounds of the abbey were huge and they let you walk all over the place.

Check out some pictures from our walking around the abbey and lunch at the cafe.

Antwerp, Belgium Part 2

We had originally planned to join our friends David and Sarah in Antwerp on Friday night but ended up not leaving until Saturday morning. What a wonderful day to be there, the weather was amazing. While Paula and Sarah did some shopping, David and I did some shopping of our own, for beer at the Oud Arsenaal.

We also visited a number of other bars and restaurants in Antwerp that we had not visited in our last trip.

Since we didn't take alot of pictures of the town on this trip...check out pictures from our first time to Antwerp...

First time in Antwerp

Beer bars from our first time in Antwerp

Beer stores in Antwerp