Tag Archives: belgium

My First Zwanze Day

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We were down in Orlando this weekend to visit the new Harry Potter Diagon Alley part of the Universal Studios theme park with the kids.  I snuck off for a couple of hours to head up to Redlight Redlight for my first Zwanze Day (Cantillon’s annual release where about 50 bars around the world get a single keg of a special beer brewed for the occasion).

I dithered a bit about whether it was worth the hassle.  I first heard about Zwanze day a couple years ago, and Redlight Redlight has been the only site in Florida.  It’s on the other side of town from where we usually go for the theme parks, so I always balked the logistics of driving there and having to sober up before heading back, or the price of taking a taxi back and forth across Orlando.  But this year I decided it was worth the hassle, and I tried Uber for the first time for the trip there (which worked out much better than a taxi, and was a lot cheaper).  In fact, Uber went so well that it took me about 35 minutes to get from the middle of Universal Studios to Redlight Redlight, instead of the hour-plus I expected.

When I got there about 2½ hours before opening time, I was a little surprised that there was no line yet.  Cantillon is one of the most-loved-by-beer-geeks breweries in the world, and the annual Zwanze release is their most sought-after.  So I killed a little time walking around the neighborhood and started standing in line when a few other people showed up.  I’m lucky that I was at the front of the line, because the tickets for the Zwanze beer itself were sold out before I decided I would go, and I got a ticket only because there had been a cancellation.

The wait went quickly since I was chatting with a group of guys from Ocala, and we quickly grabbed a table when the event started and proceeded to share glasses of almost everything on the impressive taplist.  Some highlights:

  • Zwanze 2014 (Cuvée Florian): of course this was the main event, and lived up to my expectations.  This year’s beer was a cross between Iris and a kriek.  Iris is much hoppier than typical Belgian beers, but the hops were very gentle here, and the cherries were also toned down.  The result was a delightful sour beer, with just a beautiful ruby color, and a little earthy cherry flavor.
  • Redlight Redlight also had Cantillon’s Iris, Gueuze, and Mamouche on tap.  I’d had the Gueuze several times when we lived in the Netherlands, and it was fantastic as always.  Iris and Mamouche were both new to me: Iris I liked immediately and especially since it’s one part of the Zwanze blend, it was nice to compare them side-by-side.  Mamouche at first seemed too herbal and bitter to me, but it grew on me as I sipped at.
  • I was disappointed this summer that I didn’t get up to Hill Farmstead in Vermont.  So I was doubly glad to have their collaboration with Blaugies, La Vermontoise.  I had somehow gotten it into my head that this was a sour, so I was surprised when it turned out to be a saison, and a mild and smooth one at that.  But once I adjusted to that, I found this to be a very nice, sweet, floral beer.  So now I’m really irritated that I didn’t get up there to get a case of it…
  • Angry Chair’s 3 Little Birds was a very nice Berliner Weisse, with a very subtle tropical fruit character.  It especially benefited from a direct comparison to Cigar City’s Passion Guava Grove, which is a much bolder beer that seemed overbearing in contrast.
  • The only stout we tried was Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch Weasel, which was fantastic, and the perfect contrast to the saisons and sours.
  • I finished out the afternoon with The Bruery’s Oude Tart.  This is a wonderful sour I’ve had several times before and always enjoyed.  It has more body and sweetness than the Cantillon sours, and felt like a perfectly-balanced way to end.

Not only did I have some wonderful beers, I also met some nice people and had a great time sharing and talking about the beers with them.  This really ties into a few posts (e.g., this one from Boak & Bailey) that I’ve seen in the last few days about the marketing strategy for Shock Top, which boils down to positioning it as a simpler, more approachable craft beer to people who think Shock Top is made by a small/independent brewery (instead of AB-InBev).  I guess I see the parallel with overcomplicated, mystique-shrouded wine snobbery, but beer is a lot cheaper, and I’ve consistently seen bartenders hand out a bunch of samples and do their best to find the best beer for anyone who walks in the door.

It’s Westy Day, But I’m Not Buying…

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So today is the big day: the first (and maybe only) official commercial release of Westvleteren beer in the United States.  When I heard about the release earlier this year, I expected to find myself at the head of the line today.  But that’s not the way it turned out.

As someone who has driven across two countries to buy Westvleteren beer, driving 90 minutes to the closest beer shop to get any Westy 12 didn’t seem like a big problem.  But a couple of factors conspired to make it just not worth it.  First of all, we’ve had Westy 12 before.  In fact, we’ve still have a couple bottles that we brought home with us from the Netherlands.  Second, it’s a great beer (and worth the $15/bottle you pay on the gray market), but that’s what they are selling it for retail, so I’m not sure why I should go to so much trouble to pay extortionate prices.  Third, Wind has this pesky thing called work that won’t let her drop everything and spend the day buying beer three counties away.  If I go by myself, I only get to buy one six-pack.  I did the math, and when I drove to Belgium to buy two cases, I was driving about 8 miles per bottle (which is totally reasonable, right? Right?).  But driving 85 miles (each way) to buy a six-pack comes out to more than 28 miles per bottle.  And that’s completely ridiculous…

So what am I doing instead?  Brewing my own, of course.  I’ll be stopping by the homebrew shop pick up some supplies for bottling the Westy 12 clone we’ve got in tertiary fermentation, and to make some cider and mead.

Trappist breweries are irritated about US “Trappist” brews

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Apparently the Trappists are irritated that there are a lot of American beers with the word “Trappist” in their names:

The fact that a number of breweries in the USA are using the word Trappist to describe beers that are clearly not produced by Trappist monks has drawn the attention of the International Trappist Association, or I.T.A. The Association considers it a growing problem. For one thing, they don’t like the idea that a consumer might mistake a commercially brewed American beer for an Authentic Trappist brew.

Though I have some sympathy for their frustration, I think the bigger problem is that Americans don’t know what “Trappist” means.  Forget getting confused about whether a beer is made by Trappist monks or not, before I started researching Belgian beer for my trip I didn’t know that there were monks making beer for public consumption, much less associate that with “Trappist”.

Via BeerPulse.

If at first you don’t succeed…

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So I wasn’t having much luck calling Westvleteren — I’d be embarrassed to tally up all the time I spent dialing over and over, getting a variety of busy signals.  But finally, I got through.  The process of making a reservation was very quick and easy — you tell them your license plate number, and pick one of three days available to come pickup.  I’d read online that they will sometimes be flexible for out-of-country visitors, but that wasn’t the case for me.  So the call was over in about a minute.  Only then did it really hit me that I had pretty much given up on getting through, and was now very excited to finally have a reservation.

The drive out to Westvleteren went very smoothly.  I’d made the drive before, so I knew pretty much where I was going (and I had a GPS to help me once I got off the highway and had to navigate the last few crazy miles of twisty, narrow roads right around the abbey).  The flat, green fields rolled by, punctuated with windmills both ancient and modern.  My route took me through historic towns I’d heard about in school, like Antwerp, Ghent, and Ypres.

I got to Westvleteren around noon and had a small lunch at the abbey’s cafe, In De Vrede. It was still more than an hour until my pickup time, so I decided that I’d do the recommended 7km walk around the abbey, even though it was a little windy and overcast.  We’d done the first part of the walk last time, down a nice tree-lined lane to a little grotto shrine at the corner of the abbey property.  Then the path led through some woods and out to the fields beyond.  Of course by now the wind had picked up and it had started to rain.  But I pressed on, and the wind blew harder and harder until it was literally blowing my hat off my head and down the street.  Nobody else was in sight, except a large black dog (looked like an American bulldog, but I’m really not up on my Belgian dog breeds).  I fought back a brief moment of panic when I thought about what would happen if he attacked me out here in the middle of nowhere with no one around, and just ignored him and walked past.

After completing the circuit, the Westvleteren beer shop was open and a few cars had already pulled in.  I asked if I had to wait for my scheduled time, and they told me I could come right then.  So I pulled up and found a stack of empties and a couple stacks of Westy 8, all in their traditional wooden crates.  I tossed my two crates in my trunk, and headed inside to the counter to pay my €96.  That’s obviously pretty expensive, but it’s about 1/7th the price you see in shops (and I’ve never seen a whole case, let alone two, in a shop).  And 10 minutes later, I was on my way home.

The trip back was a lot less fun.  It rained most of the way, and there was a gnarly accident two cars ahead of me.  I didn’t see how it happened, I just saw a little hatchback slide out from around the front of a semi, completely sideways, still zooming down the freeway at 120kph (75mph).  Luckily, everybody was able to stop and I don’t think there were any secondary accidents.  And the little hatchback was able to drive off.  The traffic was heavy pretty much the rest of the way home, but luckily just in the ordinary, boring way.

So, we are now the proud owners of two crates of Westy 8.  I look forward to getting the crates and as many of the bottles as possible home.  On a purely objective level, I have to admit it’s a little ridiculous to drive to the next country and spend almost €100 on a couple cases of beer.  But I have to admit it was a pretty entertaining experience.  And the beer really is quite good.

Poechenellekelder

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This was a cute little place right across the street from the world famous statue of a boy peeing into a fountain in the center of Brussels.  There was a big crowd of people milling around outside taking pictures and despite its nice appearance, I would have dismissed it as a tourist trap if it hadn’t been recommended by a friend who’d visited this winter.

Inside, the place is crazy with beer paraphernalia stacked on, and glued to, anything that doesn’t move, including the ceiling.  I understand there’s a puppet show downstairs, but we got there right before the show was going to start and there was no room.  So we had to content ourselves with lunch.  The menu was simple, with the usual cafe staples, but also had a lot of local cheese, and I was glad to get a chance to try some.  So I probably wouldn’t go there just for the food, but we didn’t have any trouble getting lunch for the kids.  If we planned ahead a little better and came in time to get seats for the puppet show, I imagine the kids would love it.

The beer menu was very impressive, with the best selection of lambic I’ve seen.  So we both had new Gueuze (Drie Fonteinen for me, Gueuze Tilquin a l’Ancienne for Wind).  They also had a good selection of Trappist and abbey beer, German beer, etc.  They even had the last beer on the list I made last year, that I hadn’t seen anywhere else.  So we might have to come back if we’re passing through Brussels again.

The last thing I’d mention is the service.  One of the things that struck me when looking at reviews of cafes and restaurants in Brussels is how often people complained about poor service.  So I was already thinking about this, and found our waitress very competent, but not friendly.  No smiles or chit-chat (did I mention the place was packed?).  But she patiently let me order in barely-passable French, even though it would have probably been easier for both of us if we’d switched to English.  Everything came as we ordered it, the beer was poured perfectly, and there were no other issues of any kind.  So I chalk up the service complaints to the standard cross-cultural problem of Europeans not smiling all the time and chumming it up with their patrons the way many Americans expect.

Cantillon

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This weekend, we visited Brasserie Cantillon in Brussels. This is a small, family-owned brewery that’s been in business since 1900 (and is still brewing beer pretty much the same way as when they started).

Cantillon is not far from the center of town, just a couple of blocks off a major boulevard near the main train station.  The neighborhood is pretty nondescript, none of the shops were open at 10am on a Saturday.  But once you open their big wooden door, it’s a completely different story.  Right away you see the brewery is not like other breweries.  It’s much more cozy, with a small tasting room and gift shop right as you enter, with aging bottles stacked all along the corridor leading back to the brewery proper.

The self-guided tour takes you through the brewery, where you can see their wood-clad mash tun, their beautiful copper kettles, their kegging and bottling lines, and fermentation tanks for the fruit beers.  There is an endless array of barrels and bottles aging:

The real difference comes when you get to the attic, where you see their coolship — a giant shallow copper dish where the wort cools, and begins fermentation from wild yeast brought in on the wind.

Of course, no brewery tour is complete without a tasting.  We tasted their gueuze and frambozen.  We’d had their gueuze before and liked it quite a bit, but the frambozen was really fantastic.  Unlike other frambozen we’d had before, it wasn’t overly sweet or cloying.  Instead, it had more of an earthy, raspberry-leaf flavor that blended well with the lambic tartness.

Of the breweries I’ve seen, Cantillon has the most character, by far.  Every other brewery I’ve seen, from a giant mega-brewery like Guinness to the tiny Swamp Head, is basically the same: a variety of stainless steel cylinders in a warehouse, connected by a crazy assortment of pipes.  But Cantillon is completely different.  Their equipment is from a completely different era, and is truly beautiful.  The open fermentation runs completely counter to the sterilized and controlled fermentation standard everywhere else.  They have some modern equipment too (including some modern cylindrical fermentation tanks for aging their fruit beers).  But the core brewing operations are a living antique.

Quad Tasting Notes, Part 2

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After our first round of quads, we wanted to try a few less popular versions, with mixed success:

  • Kasteel Donker: Neither Wind nor I cared for this at all — it has an overwhelming black cherry flavor, and not much else going on.
  • Malheur 12°: This was very nice, with a lot of spicy, almost peppery notes.  Definitely taking the typical abbey complexity and spiciness to an extreme, and I think it works well.
  • Gulden Draak 9000: My favorite of the new brews, with a co2 bite and a boozy kick.  Uncharacteristically medium amber color.  Very smooth, clean flavor, in sharp contrast to the Malheur.  As with the tripels, these two are a very good example in contrasting takes on the style that both work well.

We also had a couple of favorites (including another bottle of St. Bernardus to replace a spoiled bottle from the first round):

  • St. Bernardus Abt 12: An unspoiled bottle showed a wonderful complexity, with raisiny sweetness, spiciness, and earthiness.
  • Rochefort 10: A clear favorite of this batch for both of us, with a big boozy kick, but blended perfectly with sweet malt and spiciness.

Overall, I think I found the quads to be a little less varied than the tripels, but still differing quite a bit (and differing in the same way as the tripels — with some being very boozy but otherwise mild, and others being more spicy and earthy).  The Kasteel Donker was the only beer in this group that I’d say was disappointing.  I still haven’t had them side-by-side, so I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite among the Westy 12, St. Bernardus 12 and Rochefort 10.  I’d happily drink any of them any time.

Quad Tasting Notes, Part 1

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We’ve had quite enough tripel for now, so we decided to move on to quads.  These are heavy enough that we’ll just do a few at a time.  So we started with a few of our favorites:

  • La Trappe Quadrupel: The most commercial of the Trappist breweries (and the only one in the Netherlands).  This quad was actually on sale at our local grocery store last week (no Guinness here, even for St. Paddy’s).  It’s got a good CO2 bite up front, yielding to a nice malty sweetness.  A little toffee.  A very nice, well-rounded quad, with a lighter color than most.

  • Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel: This beer was first brewed by De Haalve Maan in the early 80’s for the inauguration of a statue of St. Arnold (patron saint of brewers) in Bruges.  Sweet and creamy, with an herbal note that is almost like licorice (but not overpowering).  Reminds me of some of the sweeter Russian Imperial Stouts I’ve tasted.

  • Westvleteren 12: Widely regarded as the best beer in the world.  It’s got a ton of sweetness with malt, candi sugar, and some fig. Also spicy, earthy, and a definite boozy kick. Packs the usual abbey aromatics. Since it’s such a pain to come by, I keep hoping this beer will disappoint me, but it hasn’t yet.

  • St. Bernardus Abt 12: The former contract brewer of Westvleteren’s beers (before they brought them back in-house in ’92). I was definitely looking forward to trying this side-by-side with the Westy 12. Alas, our bottle was chipped, and the beer poured totally flat. Though I have to say this was the best spoiled beer I’ve ever had — with the candi sugar, caramel and a hint of vanilla. Really brings out how much of the beer experience depends on carbonation, since this was drinkable, but completely unrecognizable as a quad. We’ll definitely have to get another bottle for the next round.

Café Olivier

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Although Kafé België is our favorite place to go in Utrecht, with its unmatched bottle list, we find ourselves going more frequently to Café Olivier.  They have a good selection of Belgian beer, with 50+ bottles and a dozen taps (including 4 rotating taps with new stuff coming on all the time).    So their beer selection isn’t quite as good, but in every other area they are vastly superior:

  • Instead of a limited menu of mostly snacky food, Olivier has a full menu — and everything we’ve had has been good.
  • Their location is impossible to beat: right next to the train station, so it’s on the way no matter where we’re going.
  • It’s housed in a converted church, complete with soaring vaulted ceilings and a pipe organ in the choir loft.

These all add up to Café Olivier being a place where we are completely comfortable taking the kids.  In fact, we’ve seen groups of moms with toddlers in strollers there before.

Tripel Tasting Notes, Round 2

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We had enough disagreement over some of the tripels from our first round, that we did wind up doing a second round of tasting.  Just for fun, we got the top seven and did them all side-by-side.

Upon further reflection, a few interesting tidbits came out:

  • We didn’t agree on an exact ordering, but we did wind up agreeing on the best three tripels (Westmalle, Chimay and St. Bernardus).  These are all slightly different takes on the style, and all very good.
  • I didn’t like the Tripel Karmeliet as much in the side-by-side comparison.  It is much sweeter than the Westmalle and Chimay.  Especially as it warmed up, this didn’t hold up very well.
  • Brouwerij ‘t IJ’s Zatte also did not stand up well to the side-by-side treatment.  Wind and I had almost diametrically-opposed impressions in the first round, and I came around to her way of thinking, as I found the herby, rosy flavor very grating.

Though these last two items really amount to the stronger-tasting beers not doing as well.  This might be because drinking seven beers at once just takes longer and they have time to warm up.  Regardless of the reason, the Westmalle really stood out as the clear favorite.