Brussels Part 1 - In the Insurance Against Great Thirst

Staying only 750 metres from the world's best sour brewery (maybe?), there's only one place to begin your stay in Brussels.  Cantillon.

A quick tour of the brewery (quick because of what is promised at the end of the tour), it was time for a few bevs.  You can see how excited Matt was about the tour.

We started off with our freebies, the straight lambic, framboise, kriek and gueuze.  All great but not what we were here for.

We followed up with Zwanze 2012, a rhubarb lambic, Zwanze 2013, an abbey style beer blended with lambic, and finished off with 50°N-4°E, a cognac barrel aged gueuze.  Nix liked the increased tartness provided by the addition of rhubarb to Zwanze 2012, I thought 50°N-4°E was a beer highlight of our trip and Matt, well he's just there to "enjoy the ride", he just "rides the waves", as does Todd the Mental Beaver (that poor bastard).

MY F UPS - PART 2

In a little town on the outskirts of Brussels there's a pub called In de Verzekering tegen de Grote Dorst, which is quite possibly the best sour beer pub in the world.  Its selection of cellared sour beers is unparallelled.  The only problem being that it's only open from 10am 'til 130pm every Sunday. 

So clearly you would want to be there before it opens at 10am.

However, when you're sat on the couch at 930am eating breakfast and buses only come on the 55 of the hour and it clicks that you've taken down bus times to get you there an hour later than you'd wanted to, you can tend to lose your shit.  Nicola, Matt and the couch felt my wrath.  Maybe I should stop working out directions, bus times and the opening times of establishments the night before, after a few too many. 

Anyway, we made it, albeit 40 minutes after Grote Dorst had opened.  We pretty much had to race a bus full of oldies from the main road to ensure we got decent seats.  I believe we managed drag the mean age of Grote Dorst down to about 60.

The rage, the rush and the tension between us all was worth it though, this place is bloody amazing.

We started off with a few "standard" sours from the vat and then got into the vintage list.

A 2005, 2003 and 2002 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze were good places to start.  The 2003 the first of the beers that was literally "liked nothing you've ever tasted".

2003 and 2005

2002

We then followed up with a 1988 Eylenbosch Lambic, which had gone beyond lambic and become an entirely new beer.  F*cking amazing and genuinely like nothing we'd ever tasted.  However, we agreed there's probably no need to try it again.

The good thing about drinking sours is the ability to jump between different types within the category, so it was time for a couple of old krieks.  We began with a 2004 3 Fonteinen Schaerbeekse Kriek.  Tasty, yet not amazing.

The 2004 De Cam Kriek though, f'ing amazing.  So much overriding sour cherry-ness still remains and it was a true treat to end on.  We walked down the road at 4ish (flexible opening hours clearly) feeling well and truly satisfied.

Grote Dorst is where you go to pay your dues to sour beer.  WOW.

A couple more at Moeder Lambic and it was home time.  A great day it was.

The Beers

Cantillon Lambic, Kriek, Rose de Gambrinus, Gueuze, Zwanze 2012 and 2013, 50°N-4°E, Fou' Foune, Mamouche, Lou Pepe Pure Kriek, Faro
3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze 2002, 2003 and 2005, Schaerbeekse Kriek 2004
Boon Vat 44
Eylenbosch Lambic 1988
De Cam Oude Kriek
Allagash Open Cask
Gouden Carolus Classic
Rulles La Grande 10
De Ranke Cuvée, Guldenberg
Brasserie de la Senne Tripel
Val Dieu Grand Cru, Tripel
Dupont Monk's Stout

Horsing Around in Gent

What are these tasty treats you ask?

If you guessed horse sausage, horse salami, pig bits in jelly and veal tongues in orange sauce, then you really know your meats.  All are eastern Flanders specialities and were very interesting.  However, we were a bit disappointed that the horse wasn't horsier.

Gent ended up being all about food and beer (for something different) so I'm just going to run through what we had.

Cuberdons

A Gent speciality that are a raspberry flavoured soft centred jelly.  We went back for more after trying these the first time.

Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant

A cool old bar (an institution if you will) that sits right on the canal that provided us our first beers of Gent. As you can see it didn't take long for Matt to settle in.

The box on the wall with all the slots in it is a system for locals whereby they deposit, say, five euros a week and the bar deposits the money with a bank after each week.  Then at the end of the year the bar puts on some kind of beer themed event that the interest earned over the year pays for and they each get their money back.  Why don't we have this back in Oz??

Frites and Escargot at Frituur Bij Filip

We had the best frites of our trip (twice over) at a tiny unsuspecting place tucked behind the Groentenmarkt.  So crunchy on the outside but pillowy soft on the inside.  We also shared a pot of escargot in a briney sauce.  Beautiful.

Waffles at Mokabon

These were the only waffles we had in Belgium because after these it was hard to see them being bettered.  We had the classic with just sugar, one with chocolate sauce and another with fruit.  All were great but the star of the show here is the amazing waffles themselves.  Om nom nom.

Cheese and Mustard

We picked up three different cheeses from a regional producer and a pot of spicey mustard from Tierenteyn where you choose your pot size and they scoop your mustard from a big open vat.  The cheeses were decent but the mustard, brilliant.

Chocolates from YUZU

When you choose ten chocolates that include flavours such as salt and pepper, rum and tobacco, and Szechuan pepper, you know you're in for a treat.  The flavours maybe weren't as full on as we would've liked but still disappeared very quickly.

Vego Dinner at De Appelier

Thursdays in Gent are vego days so after a day of food that included frites cooked in vegetable fat (not good!), we headed to De Appelier for dinner.  I must admit I was pleasantly surprised.  The plate above is only a medium and was loaded with rice, different veggies and a veggie pattie, amongst other things.  Not bad.

Beers from De Hopduvel

We picked up a nice little selection of beers from De Hopduvel, which included the highly sought after Rodenbach Caractère Rouge which is a sour red ale brewed with cranberries, cherries and rasberries.  Nice.

Some Street Art

Cassowary Sightings - daily

The Beers

Gandavum Dry Hopping
Augustijn Blonde, Donker
Gulden Draak 9000
Koddestamper Tripel
Klokke Roeland
De Struise Tjeeses, Ypres
Rodenbach Caractère Rouge
Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge
Dupont Bio Saison
Gruut Wit, Bruin

Pickle Balls, Food Domes and Beer Cribs in Bruges

We arrived in Bruges to the shittiest weather we've had so far.  Seven or eight degrees, peeing down with rain and a three kilometre walk to our hostel ahead.  We'd prefer to spend 3.9 euros on our next beer than get the bus for 1.3 euros each that would've dropped us out the front of the hostel.

We quickly dropped our bags and obviously needed a few warming ales to put the walk behind us.

Walking down a tiny little alley we made it to De Garre and squeezed into a gap between the upstairs balustrade and window, the windowsill was our table.  It didn't bother us though and after those few warming ales, bowls of complimentary cheese and recitals of a Russian marines motivational song by a table of Russians we were on our way, back out into the elements.

To get to the next bar of course.  Which was Poatersgat, an underground sort of cellar whose door you have to squeeze under to get in and is like sitting in someone's living room selecting from a pretty solid beer list of around 100 beers.  A very, very cool place to lose a few hours.

After a hot tip from the barman we ended up at Estaminet for a cheap but decent late night dinner.  As you can see, by this point of the night Todd the Mental Beaver was having a hard time holding back the floods.

MY F UPS - PART 1

The next morning over breakfast I talked up how good our lunch at De Bistronoom was going to be.  A five course meal, prepared using ingredients that had been sourced fresh that morning, paired with great beers at a restaurant in a little seaside town called Oostende. 

We got the train on time and I got us to 22 Vindictivelaan by 12 (the time of our reservation).  The only problem being that a Thai restaurant now exists at 22 Vindictivelaan and De Bistronoom is no more. God knows where I'd made a reservation for. 

So by this point I was pretty popular with Nix and Matt and as any good travellers should we thought we'd make the most of a bad situation and check out Oostende itself.  Unfortunately, Oostende is where all good seaside towns go to die.  A v average place.  The best Oostende has to offer is some random crumpled red boxes (take that Perth's cactus). 

We quickly got the train back to Bruges and headed to Cambrinus for our beer themed lunch.  We destroyed a meat and cheese board and then devoured wild rabbit (the only kind of rabbit worth eating) cooked in dark ale, a fish stew and beef skewer with an incredible sauce made with Cambrinus' house beer.  All very good but average service let this place down big time.

After lunch we headed off to 't Brugs Beertje, the highest rating beer bar in the world.  A very cool place, tucked down a little alley and with an impressive beer list.  However, given that it appears in every guide book regarding Bruges, Belgium or anything remotely related, it was jam packed with tourists (yes I get the irony) who come in for one beer just so they can say "oh, well I've been to the best beer bar in the world".  I understand the rating because this place is your quintessential Belgian beer bar in every single way and would've been amazing 20 years ago but now it just feels like a tourist attraction and another box for people to tick.

Next stop was De Kelk where we consumed round after round of Duchesse de Bourgogne off tap - amazing, and Matt's beer highlight up to that point.  We also got treated to a bottle of Hansenns Oudbeitje.  So much sour and so many strawberries - also amazing!

It was then home to bed as we tried to sleep through two guys trying to undress their p*ssed mate before they poured him into bed.  Why???

On our final morning in Bruges we headed to Cafe Rose Red for a nice little palate awakener and a few other treats - which included cheese of course.

And then headed back to our hostel for a few cheap La Chouffes before returning to Poatersgat for our final beers of Bruges, a very enjoyable way to finish off a very enjoyable few days.

The Barrie-ometer of "Feel" - rejoice-full merriment

Pug Sightings - 12

The Beers

Garre Tripel
Gulden Draak
Achel Extra Bruin, Bruin
Duvel Triple Hop Sorachi
Westmalle Dubbel, Tripel
De Dolle Dulle Teve, Oerbier
St Bernardus Wit, ABT 12
Rochefort 8, 10
Silly Saison
Hanssens Oude Gueuze, Oudbeitje
Girardin Black Label, Kriek
Delerium Deliria
3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze
Duchesse de Bourgogne
Rodenbach Vintage 2011
Bosteels Deus ("the champagne of Flanders")
Chimay Bleue
La Chouffe
Carolus Christmas
De Ranke Père Noel
Malheur 6
Brouwerij The Musketeers Troubadour Obscura
Dupont Moinette Brune
Gauloise Brune

Struise Almighty, Westies with the Besties

Could what was otherwise going to be a phenomenal day regardless, start any better than meeting this guy?  NO.

All of the puzzle pieces were falling into place, Matty Brim had made it from Vic Park to our camp ground in Ieper (albeit he got hit by a car 50 metres from the Ieper train station), we'd made it to Ieper from northern France by 930am, the bikes that we'd hired were ready to go and we knew exactly where we needed to ride to.  That's all of the puzzles pieces, yes?  Wrong.

The most insignificant seeming puzzle piece, a cycling map of the very region that we were in, was sold out at the tourist office and the book shop across the road.  Both normally stock it and had countless copies of every other surrounding map.  F*CK!!

The Options
  - Just taking off on the bikes and hoping for the best?  Probably not the greatest idea
  - Walking the 40 kilometres?  Hmm...
  - Taxi company 1, 90-100 euros return - too much
  - Taxi company 2, 80 euros return - still too much

We were in trouble.  Enter the camping ground owner's daughter.  She would drive us to In De Vreder for 30 euros and we'd work out the rest when we got there.  Sold!

Every drop of the world's highest rating beer made the 30 euros and the fact that we were a long way from our camp ground with no way home insignificant.  An absolute masterpiece of brewing.  And walking away with a six pack for 20 euros that we will slowly consume over the next 15 years felt wrong.  You could name your price for this six pack back in Oz.

So without transport between the two, we started the 5 kilometre walk between In De Vrede and De Struise Brouwers, six pack in tow.  And the weather wasn't bad either.

We squeezed in a quick lunch (cat food terrine) on someone's windowsill and in we went.

The best tap list we have ever seen somehow got progressively better as the afternoon went on.  This is beer geek heaven.

In an old classroom, in a tiny Belgian town, at a brewery that is only open for four hours per week, we slowly worked through as much of the tap list as we could.  For four fleeting hours of our life, and on Matt's first ever day in Europe, we consumed a set of beers that are just absolutely flawless.  If you lived anywhere near Oostvleteren you would be here every week.

We had 13 beers, left with a couple more take-aways (a Tjeeses was thrown in for good measure) and only paid 29.75 euros - the head brewer insisted on giving us our 25 euro cents change.

To cap off one of the great days of our lives Nix managed to thumb us a lift back to Ieper (apparently I wasn't selling it) and we met angry cat.

And this was our home for the night.  We all snuggled.

Brilliant.  Look out Bruges.  Ho ho ho.

Pug Sightings - 10!

The Barrie-ometer of "Feel" - this is whale country, bitches

The Beers

Westvleteren 6, 12
De Struise Imperialist Lager, Weltmerz, Eliot, Riporter, T.H.R.E.E., Pannepot Reserva 2010, Tjeeses Reserva, Rio Reserva 2009, Black Berry Albert
De Struise/Three Floyds Shark Pants

Getting our Fill in Lille

As any good stay in a French city should begin it was pastry time.  A pistachio palmier and pain chocolat at Meert later, and we'd started off on the right foot.

Which was just reward after I turned a 20 minute walk to our hostel into an hour long walk as the directions I'd written disintegrated in the pouring rain.

Following our pastry fill we picked up a few take-aways from a very good bottle shop, L'abbaye des Saveurs, which stocks an impressive collection of local brews.  The Vielle Brune in particular was exceptionally "drinkable" - a lovely amount of tartness to it.

And that night we hit up La Capsule for more local brews, the Black Kaou 't from Brasserie du Caou being a wonderfully satisfying night cap.  The cosyness of the bar and its diverse clientele meant a few hours passed by very quickly.

The next morning we were off again on the hunt for more pastries.  We splurged on the two creations below from Patrick Hermand that actually blew our minds - this is baking perfection embodied.

On the way back to our hostel we dropped into La Petite Cour for the meal of our trip so far.  Half a dozen creamy, garlic escargot with a bloody great steak tatar paired with some French wine - mind blowingly good.  The best steak tatar we've ever had.  Our French experience was complete.

To celebrate we headed to Hop's Cafe and Nix proceeded to get herself extremely merry on 8.5% Delirium Rouges.  My ears were well and truly chewed by time we got home.

I also had the beer highlight of my beer life - De Dolle's Still Nacht.  I've waited a long time to have this and it surpassed all expectations.  So much figs, prunes and stonefruits.  The perfect winter beer.  I just hope that's not the last one that I have.

So, Lille was great but the following day, the best so far!

The Barrie-ometer of Feel - exceptionally "drinkable"

Pug Sightings -

The Beers

Brasserie Thiriez Vielle Brune
La Charlotte Ambrée
LaBelle Série Noire, Super Power
Mascott Ambrée
La Chope Belgian Style Ale
Chimay Rouge
Cagliari Bon Secours Myrtille
Brasserie du Caou Black Kaou 't
Brewdog Punk IPA
Delirium Rouge
Akio T Préambule
Les 3 Four quels Lupulus
De Dolle Still Nacht

Not a lot to say about Tournai

Tournai - not a bad little city but not where I'd be recommending a weekend away.

It did however provide us our first frites of Belgium - in serving size grande!!  So so crispy, even the final frites that had been sat in the bottom the whole time.

The main reason we were staying in Tournai was for a day trip to Dupont and to have fresh Saison Dupont at Les Caves across the road.  However, in true Belgian fashion, the brewery tap is closed indefinitely.

Luckily the locals' haunt La Forge was open, is just 100 metres down the road and serves fresh Saison Dupont so we had a few and a Moinette Blonde and started the five kilometre trek back to the train station, most of it along the main road, eating green walnuts and kicking stray potatoes at each other.

And that's pretty much all Tournai had to offer us.

Pug Sightings - ...

The Beers

Bush Ambrée, Cuvée de Trolls
Dupont Saison, Moinette

An Orvally Good Time in Namur

After a complete waste of a few hours stopping in Luxembourg City* to check it out, a 45 minute trek with our packs to our hostel from Namur's central station and a further two hour wait to check in as reception had decided not to open until four, we were absolutely hanging out for our first beers of Belgium.  However, the Beer Gods had other ideas.

We walked the thirty minutes back into town only to find that Le Chapitre was closed, when it should've opened 90 minutes prior.  So following some aimless wandering for half an hour (and after being chased out of the park by the guys below) we headed back with fingers crossed.

As we walked up the alley we heard music, we saw chairs outside, success!

Everything about this place is shambolic and I think that will be a common theme over the next few weeks.  After a Caracole Blanche, Blonde and Ambrée and a Witkap Pater Tripel we thought it was time to call it quits, knowing that I had to be on my game the following morning.

The reason being was this - my first time driving on European roads, and we had a lot of ground to cover too.

We had a few (quite a few) hairy moments to begin with, and I spent the first hour thinking that the third gear was actually the first and drifted too far right a few too many times for Nicola's sanity.

We made it to Orval though and after wandering around the grounds of the monastery for an hour (we were here for the beer brewed by monks) we sat down at the brewery tap so Nix could try the unaged, very bitter Orval while I was limited to a 150ml serving of Orval Vert - the brewery's watered down "table beer" - designated driver sucks.  Nix seemed to take great pleasure in switching our glasses after the waiter placed the full strength Orval in front of me.

We were then back on the road and off to Brasserie D'Achouffe,  which was a decidedly less stressful experience - Nix actually loosened her grip on the door handle by time we got there.  It also meant that we could enjoy some of the beautiful Ardennes scenery on the way to the brewery.

Given that Chouffe's logo is a gnome, this place is gnome central and straddles a very precarious line between naff and good taste.  Nevertheless the beers were great and after McChouffe, Chouffe Bok and Chouffe Houblon, we were off again, time was of the essence.

Note the cappuccino, for some reason I felt an urge to have one after seeing the table next to ours all order them.  I shouldn't have bothered.

We zipped through countless tiny Belgian villages to end up at a truly obscure and unique brewery - Brasserie Fantôme - only to find great disappointment.  The cafe was closed, as were all the doors to the brewery itself and as Nix began to walk back to the car disappointedly (I'd talked this place up a lot), as a last ditch effort I pushed open a door to a room full of bottles and yelled out "bonjour" to which I got a "oui" back, from deep inside another room.

Before we knew it the brewer had placed two full glasses in front of us and sat us down for a chat saying that he was sorry that he only had a few minutes to spare.  We tried his "Classique" which had the most amazing and distinct aroma of strawberries and his "Summer Beer" which was out of this world, a slightly sour, acidic fruit beer that we would love cartons and cartons of.  A few minutes quickly turned into twenty and after showing us though his brewery (which takes shambolic to an entirely new level), he sent us on our way with a bottle of his "Classique" and one of his Fantôme de Noël - both of which went down very nicely that night.

Walking down the road we knew that we'd had an experience that we will remember extremely vividly for the rest of our lives.

We successfully navigated our way back to Namur and after a couple of roadies, some beautiful scenery and a 5km walk we were back at our hostel, exhausted but rewarded.

During the day we were also offered joint head brewing roles at Orval but had to knock them back, there's still too much travelling to be done...

*the best thing about Luxembourg City is the train station, so you can leave

Pug Sightings - a thing of the past

The Barrie-ometer of "Feel" - relieved satisfaction

The Beers

Caracole Troublette, Ambrée, Saxo
Witkap Pater Tripel
Orval (Young), Vert
Chouffe McChouffe, Bok, Houblon
Fantôme "Classique", "Summer Beer", de Noël