Lambic Digest #0727

Published in
· 7 months ago
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 1995 00:30:07 -0700 
Message-Id: <199511140730.AAA18843 at longs.lance.colostate.edu> 
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Subject: Lambic Digest #727 (November 14, 1995) 

 

 

 
Lambic Digest #727                             Tue 14 November 1995 

 

 
        Forum on Lambic Beers (and other Belgian beer styles) 
                Mike Sharp, Digest Coordinator 

 

 
Contents: 
  Lambic Digest #726 (November 11, 1995) -R ("Coben, Craig B.") 
  Belgian beer-bike tour report (long) (Edward E Harstead) 

 

 
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---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 95 09:19 EST 
From: "Coben, Craig B." <COBENCB+aLONDON%Sullivan_&_Cromwell-NY at mcimail.com> 
Subject: Lambic Digest #726 (November 11, 1995) -R 

 
Daniel -- 

 
I found Rochefort in a Belgian restaurant called (I think) Aux 
Douceurs Belges in the Charlevoix region east of Quebec City. 

 
The restaurant is listed in my Quebec guidebook; unfortunately, 
I'm in the process of moving from New York to London, UK and my 
stuff is at this moment being shipped.  Please remind me in about 
2 weeks and I'll find the exact name and address of restaurant, 
as well as the city in which it is located. My e-mail address is 
742-7255 at MCIMail.com. 

 
I noticed that you are from Montreal. Have you checked out the 
beer bar Futenbulles (located on rue Bernard near Av. du Parc)? 
You might find Rochefort there -- helas, despite (or due to) 
having spent much time there, I can't remember if Futenbulles 
offered Rochefort or not. 

 
Bonne chance, 
Craig 

 

 
------------------------------ 

 
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 1995 12:22:12 +0500 
From: bohack at harpo.wh.att.com (Edward E Harstead) 
Subject: Belgian beer-bike tour report (long) 

 

 
Attached below is a slightly edited version of a report on a beer- 
bike tour of Belgium that I had sent out to some friends.  I hope 
some may find it interesting.  Sorry for the length. 
    -------------------------------------------------- 

 
INTRODUCTION. 

 
Somewhere over the dark Atlantic, at 30,000 feet, the Sabena 
stewardess asked me if I'd like a drink.  I inquired as to the beer 
selection, with muted expectations.  The answer was Stella Artois 
and Alken Maes pilsners.  And this the Belgian national airline.  I 
stoically resigned myself to the tomato juice and a short 
postponement of drinking great Belgian beer. 

 
This beer report describes my trip to Belgium this past September. 
Part 1 covers a six day solo beer-bike tour of the Brabant and East 
Flanders provinces.  Part 2 sums up the following five days in 
Brussels, during which I attended the European Conference on 
Optical Communications, but still managed to do quite a bit of Beer 
Research. 

 

 
PART 1: LINEAR NARRATIVE OF BRABANT AND EAST FLANDERS BIKE TOUR. 

 
Typical of Lowland arrivals, I landed in Brussels at a dim early 
hour, skies overcast and raining.  But this time was different; 
images of commencing a bike tour in the rain, jet-lagged after a 
red-eye flight, had to be countered with deliberate equanimity.  

 
At the airport I retrieved my suitcase and boxed bicycle, 
transported them via train to Brussels Gare Centrale, detrained, 
and dragged them to the baggage room.  There I spread out the tools 
and parts, reassembled the bike, mounted and loaded the front and 
aft panniers, and checked the empty box and suitcase.  By the time 
I was ready to hit the road, the rain had stopped, but the 
temperature was quite cool-- I had landed into full-blown autumn; 
all pedestrians wearing coats. 

 
Following my compass to the west, I found my way out of the city to 
the lambic-brewing Payottenland.  At Wambeek I stopped at the De 
Troch brewery, once known for its excellent traditional lambics, 
now notorious for its astounding assortment of fruit-flavored 
beers, marketed under the Chapeau brand name.  These are the people 
who brought us banana and pineapple lambics.  I was greeted by the 
brewmaster's wife, Mrs. Raes, who led me through a peremptory tour 
of the lambic brewing equipment, all very old and traditional, 
spiderwebs and everything.  But out in the courtyard, you can't 
miss the mountains of fruit juice cases. 

 
In the visitor's tasting room, I was generously served the rarely 
found, traditional De Troch gueuze.  It was abruptly fabulous. 
While sipping this extraordinary drink, I examined their product 
line display, whose recent additions include apricot and mirabelle 
plum beers, both juice-diluted to a paltry 3% ABV.  Through the 
window I saw the crates of juice in the courtyard.  All this while 
enjoying one of the best gueuzes of my life.  A David Lynchian 
moment, I wasn't sure if I was in heaven or hell. 

 
Mrs. Raes explained that there is just not much demand for the 
"sour" beer, maybe 1%.  She suggested that it might be a fashion, 
implying that if demand for traditional lambics improved, they 
would distribute it more widely.  It's not easy to argue with such 
cold-blooded business logic, and I didn't try.  The masses get what 
they deserve, right?  At any rate, a special batch of the 
traditional gueuze and kriek will allegedly be shipped to the 
U.S. this month (November). 

 
The next day, like all to come, were cool and dry.  I cycled by 
workers harvesting hops, past the non-brewing Affligem abbey, and 
along the occasionally scenic Scheldt River to the city of Gent. 
There I slept cheaply for two nights-- in a Youth Hostel, the first 
time since 1982. 

 
The third day I putted around Greater Gent, eventually stopping at 
the wonderful farmhouse-beer-cafe Schipperhuis before urban 
re-entry.  Attired in lycra, I sat by a window, the evening sun 
slanting across my table and illuminating my plate of assorted 
smoked North Sea fish and my glass of the exquisite 9% ABV Het 
Kapittel Prior Tripel.  Satisfaction complete.  Then, after 
additional consumption of equally exquisite Gentse Tripel and 
Westvletern 8 (both 8% ABV), I remounted my bike, headlamp 
attached, and carefully rode into the sunset.   

 
Arriving in Gent after dark, I visited some beer cafes, including 
the Hop Duvel, where instead of running a tab the waitress said 
that I must "pay instantly".  I splurged on the 1973 vintage of the 
now extinct traditional gueuze from De Keersmaeker (makers of Mort 
Subite).  The oldest beer I have ever tasted, it was good but not  
remarkable.  Serendipitously, in the background, was the equally 
venerable hit from Mouth & McNeil, "How Do You Do". 

 
On the fourth day I headed south to the "Flemish Ardennes".  En 
route, during a routine beer stop, I discovered the cidery and 
burnt Pater Lieven ale from the Van Den Bossche brewery in nearby 
Sint-Lievens-Esse.  Intrigued, I rode there and found the >100 year 
old brewery right on the main square.  Without notice, the owner 
and brewmaster, Mr. Van Den Bossche, gave me a wonderful personal 
tour, showing me work-in-progress, telling me old stories and 
future plans.  I'm not sure if it is that he is so nice to 
everyone, or maybe it was the novelty of a bike-helmeted American. 

 
On the penultimate day of my bike tour, I headed back east for the 
Payottenland, and in the afternoon checked into the Centrum Hotel 
du Centre in the center of the town of Beersel.  I immediately 
commenced a lambic-cafe walking tour, culminating in dinner at the 
large and lively Cafe Drie Fonteinen, the lambic blendpub/ 
restaurant.  The gueuze is quite nice and manageably sour, but I 
still cannot handle the intense acidity of the bottled kriek.  Here 
and now I confess to world: I added one of the sugar cubes that are 
served with the kriek.  In a small way I compensated while ordering 
dessert, impressing the waitress with the great Dutch word for 
whipped cream: "slagroom". 

 
The following morning I had an appointment at the small, 
traditional Hanssens gueuze stekerij (blending and ageing only-- no 
brewing).  I met with Mr. Hanssen and his son-in-law (who also 
helped as translator).  While touring the premises, we tapped some 
1 year old lambic from a barrel (flat and sour).  Later we drank 
some gueuze-- Hanssens gueuze is my personal favorite.  We talked, 
and I learned that Hanssen's grandfather started a brewery there 
about 100 years ago, but during WWII the Germans took away all the 
copper equipment.  After the war, it was decided not to purchase 
replacements, and brewing was abandoned.  Wort, purchased from the 
outside, is aged and blended here.  Today he buys from Van den 
Stock (Bellevue).  The future of the blendery is uncertain. 
Hanssen advised his son against taking it over, since "not much of 
a life can be made from the business".  In the meantime, the 
son-in-law expects that Hanssen will stick with it until the end 
since it is his life's work.   

 
I then biked north to Brussels, my center of gravity closer to the 
ground with 7.5 liters of Hanssens, Drie Fonteinen, De Koninck, and 
Oud Beersel gueuze and kriek in my panniers. 

 

 
PART 2: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF STAY IN BRUSSELS. 

 
With the indispensable CAMRA-Brussels' "A selective guide to 
Brussels bars", I was very busy.  By day I got my fill of talks 
about 10 Gb/s optical devices and wavelength division multiplexed 
networks, but at night I marched troops of colleagues to various  
beer destinations.  Highlights include the friendly and 
unpretentious Cafe Les Brassins, serving good food and De Neve 
(black label) gueuze; the tiny and comfortable Cafe Estaminet Le 
Zageman, serving Wets gueuze; and the restaurant L'Etoile d'Or dit 
le "Rotte Planchei", whose waiter was happy to explain the menu at 
length to four monolingual Americans, and where every course that 
each of us ordered was delicious-- the best food I've had in 
Belgium.  One night I led an expedition to the suburban restaurant 
De Heeren van Liedekercke for a great meal and perhaps the best 
beer list I have ever seen.  Every gueuze is here.  Every single 
one.  Including the strong-tasting but easy-drinking Lindemans 
traditional gueuze, allegedly available no where but here.  It's a 
modern family-run place, and we chatted with the young chef, who 
expressed an interest in coming to cook in America. 

 
During lunch break one day I stopped by the Cantillon brewery to 
say "hi".  I asked Mrs. van Roy how the U.S. export business was 
doing, and she replied that it was no more, and that they hadn't 
shipped anything since last year!  (Since my return, my brother and 
I have cleaned out two N.J. retailers of Cantillon, probably enough 
to last us through 1997.)  

 

 
CONCLUSION 

 
Of course I have hit the highlights in this report.  The lowlights 
included trips to closed cafes, truly bad schlock music in the 
cafes outside Brussels (in the center of Halle it was even piped 
into the streets!), and a very long and verbose group tour of the 
Oud Beersel brewery, conducted in Flemish.  But I can highly 
recommend beer-bike touring in the Lowland countries, which excel 
in bike riding infrastructure and the density of beer 
destinations.  Also, beer and cycling naturally complement each 
other, particularly in cool weather (warning: last year in 
Nederland I was careless and got a touch of heat exhaustion on a 
hot, dry day). 

 
Some beer tour statistics:  In 11 days, I consumed 65 beers, mostly 
lambic and Trappist, nearly every one a beer that is not available 
in the U.S.  Lambic highlights include draft lambics: De Neve and 
Girardin; and artisanal gueuzes: Boon, De Keersmaeker 1973, 
Cantillon Hop Duvel recipe, De Koninck, 3 Fonteinen, De Troch, 
Hanssens, Oud Beersel, Vander Linden, Girardin, Cantillon, Wets, 
Timmermans Caveau, De Neve black label, the original Moriau (8 
years old), and the artisanal gueuzes from Bellevue, St. Louis, and 
Lindemans.  I returned to the U.S. with 29 bottles containing 13 
liters of beer packed into my checked and carry-on luggage, which 
must last until the next time. 

 
Ed Harstead 
e.e.harstead at att.com 
tel: 201 386-4837 
fax: 201 386-3083 

 

 
------------------------------ 

 

 
End of Lambic Digest 
************************ 
-------
Lambic Digest #0727

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