B is for Belgium B is for Beer

B is for Belgium, B is for beer. There are over 175 breweries in Belgium putting out numerous types of beer. The number one beer in the world which also happens to be the rarest beer in the world is found in Westvleteren Belgium. So, of course we had to get some! What is this beer and how do you get it? The beer is called Westvleteren and is brewed in small quantities by the Cistercian (Trappist) monks of Sint Sixtus Abbey which was founded in 1038. They brew beer in order to meet the expenses of the abbey, no more beer than that is made. In order to get the beer you can do one of two things: visit the abbey on Mondays to Thursdays or Saturday to go the beer shop. There they offer small quantities of beer for sale, when it is gone, it’s gone- the shop closes for the day! Or you can call and make a reservation to pick up a maximum of two cases of beer. Now, that appears to be a simple means to get the product, however, everyone wants this beer and everyone is trying to make the call. I called and got a busy signal, so I kept at it for over three hours. Later I found out that only one person out of twenty actually gets through to make the reservation. So off we went to Westvleteren to rendezvous with the monks. Once there, we kept our appointment and picked up the 2 cases of Westvleteren 12s. The shop was open as well, so we also purchased a few additional styles of the beer. Westvleteren makes a 6%, an 8% and a 12% beer, we are missing the 8’s!

So once we had beer in trunk, we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend. Well, what to do? We decided to stay in an area of Belgium called Poperinge right across the border with France. Watou is a small town located there. Watou happens to be the home of St. Bernardus Brewery. This brewery shares a history with Sint Sixtus. Following WWII Sint Sixtus was looking for a partner to assist with the commercialization of their beer. There was a cheese factory nearby which was founded in the 19th century by monks who left France due to the French Revolution. The French monks had since returned to France and left the cheese factory to Evarist Decoinck to continue making cheese. The monks from Sint Sixtus brought the brewmaster, the recipes and yeast strain from Westvlereten to the cheese factory to start up production. These beers were sold as Trappist Westvlereten, St. Sixtus and Sixtus. For the next 46 years this was the way they brewed, the monks brewed at the monastery to meet their needs and the commercial end was in Watou. In 1992, Belgian beer laws changed to require that the name “Trappist beer” was reserved for those beers that are brewed in a monastery by monks. So the name of the beer in Watou was changed to St. Bernardus, but all else remained the same: the recipes and the yeast. St. Bernardus offers tours in English on Saturdays, which includes a tour of the brewery, warehouse, hop fields and tasting room.

Another highlight of the trip was a visit to the De Struise Browers in Oostvleteren, not far away. This brewery started as an ostrich farm with visitors. The farmers wanted to serve regional beer to their guests, so they began making their own. They rapidly became a microbrewery. Their name is a slang term for ostrich which also happens to mean tough. They feature ostriches on many labels. Currently, many of their beers have been rated in the top 20 beers of the world, and they are in second place to their neighbors, the Sint Sixtus monks! In addition to producing their own beers, the De Struise Browers have collaborated with other microbrewers such as Mikkellers in Denmark-a blog posting to come will be about a trip to Copenhagen.

So a day full of beer touring leaves one with a big appetite! Luckily Watou is home to a Michelin Starred chef and we were able to make a reservation. Chef Stefaan Couttenye the founder of “Cuisine a la Biere” is the first chef to combine beer in cooking and pairing beer to the menu. The restaurant is cozy and comfortable, yet refined enough to reflect the cuisine. We opted for the seasonal tasting menu. Since it was spring in Belgium, there was plenty of asparagus on the menu. The first course featured a lobster terrine with green and white asparagus and marinated asparagus in kriek. My favorite course came next, a stew of eel in a green herb sauce with cream and Belgian Triple, with asparagus. The 3rd course was lamb roasted in a dark abbey beer accompanied by …. Yes…asparagus! The final course was without asparagus, but not without beer, a dessert of chef’s choice. What an end to a perfect day!  

But no trip to Belgium is complete without a visit to Bruges! I love Bruges and so do many others. We went on a sunny Sunday to do a little sightseeing. Bruges is the largest city in West Flanders with over 250,000 in the metropolitan area. What most people come to see it the old city. Romans first built a fortified city in the first century BC, and now what remains are the walls, buildings and canals that were built after the charter of 1128. Bruges was a strategic location for northern and southern European trade. The main trade through the region was cloth, and then later woolen mills started along with weaving, lace and huge trade markets. The volume of trade was large and a great deal of money was exchanged and hence the first Stock Exchange was set up here. All was going great, until the river started silting up and there was no way to get the large ships into the port. So the decline came in the late 1500s. Bruges revival came as the first tourist destination in the second half of the 19th century. Tourists came to marvel at the intact medieval city complete with canals. The city has many things going for it, from a 13th century belfry, one of the tallest brick towers in the world, relics of the blood of Christ brought back by Thierry of Alsace after the 2nd Crusade, sculptures by Michelangelo and a large collection of Flemish Primitive paintings. Come for the art, the architecture, the chocolate or the food and beer. Bruges is delightful, picturesque and completely magical. I’ll be returning soon.