BELGIUM

What can I say, we had an eventful holiday last week. I'll start with the part of the trip I planned...Belgium. Belgium makes some of the most amazing and unique beer in the world and my goal was to visit some of the legendary beer sites and of course try their product. But along the way we also found out that Belgium has great people, amazing history, and awesome food (the waffles are awesome). We where able to spend time in both Brussels and Brugge, both are highly recommended. Brussels is big and full of amazing sights (old stuff). Brugge is small unique and our favorite place of the trip. The old part of town is ringed by a canal which has caused all expansion to happen outside the canal. Inside it has remained largely undeveloped and somewhat isolated. It is hard to explain but there was just a great old time vibe about the place.


Of course while in Belgium we had to try the waffles and the chocolate. Yummy, but it was just a speed bump on the road to amazing beer.


I have been reading a book that mentions a brewer in Belgium who is keeping the old time traditions alive and of course brewing amazing beer...so we headed to the little town of Esen to see the De Dolle Brewery. The brewer was around talking to people and serving beer while his mother guided the tour. She was the funniest old lady I have ever meet and a true asset to the brewery. In addition to having great information on brewing, she kept cracking us up with hilarious stories about things like prostitutes and by hearing an elderly lady repeatedly say “Mad Bitch” (one of their beers).


We also made it to the Cantillon Brewery where they brew the lambic beer style. This is one of the most unique styles of beer as they expose it to the wild bacteria and yeast only found in Belgium. The beer is also aged in oak barrels and bottled for many years. Other beer adventures included a couple of famous pubs, one of which claims to have 1000 different beers (I did my best but only tried 4, after all Belgium beer are often over 10%)



But after all that beer we saved the highlight for the last day. It was a trip to The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren. It is one of the six monasteries that still brew beer and the most infamous. A few years ago it beer was rated the "best in the world" and since then it has been very hard to get. This truly is the holy grail of beer and it was awesome.