As of yesterday I'm just about the happiest kid on earth as I just learned that I'm going to be going to belgium for 3 nights and 3 days in the first week of March as part of a trip through Europe I've been planning for awhile. Will be passing through London, Paris, Greece and Turkey as well.
I'm starting to plan my itinerary for belgium and which breweries to visit.
I know this has been discussed before but if anyone wants to help with personal experiences they have had let me know.
Colin
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Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
National Lampoons Belgian Vacation
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Colin @ Canada
- Posts: 220
- Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2003 7:00 pm
- Location: Kingston, Ontario
I was there in September. I would say the highlights of our trip were:
De Dolle Brouwers (Esen - near Bruges) - amazing beers and the brewer Kris was really nice. We were there the morning of the mashing of his first batch of 2004 Stille Nacht winter brew. Very tasty wort.
Brouwerij Kerkom (St. Truiden near Hasset) - again really unique beers and a brewer who really wanted to show the place off. We were the first Canadians (rah, rah) to ever visit his brewery. We had a nice lunch of pate, bread, cheese and beer all made by him (or with his beer).
If you're in Brussels go to Cantillon, but also make the trip to Beersel for Drie Fontienen. A very good guide is Tim Webb's "Beer Drinkers guide to Belgiam and Holland". You can get it on Amazon.ca I think.
Eat a Brutje for us!
De Dolle Brouwers (Esen - near Bruges) - amazing beers and the brewer Kris was really nice. We were there the morning of the mashing of his first batch of 2004 Stille Nacht winter brew. Very tasty wort.
Brouwerij Kerkom (St. Truiden near Hasset) - again really unique beers and a brewer who really wanted to show the place off. We were the first Canadians (rah, rah) to ever visit his brewery. We had a nice lunch of pate, bread, cheese and beer all made by him (or with his beer).
If you're in Brussels go to Cantillon, but also make the trip to Beersel for Drie Fontienen. A very good guide is Tim Webb's "Beer Drinkers guide to Belgiam and Holland". You can get it on Amazon.ca I think.
Eat a Brutje for us!
I was in Belgium in November 2003 and had a fabulous time. You should definitely get Stephen D'Arcy's "A Selective Guide to Brussels Bars" if he still maintains it.
The only brewery I went to was Cantillon. It was a fantastic experience - they offer self-guided tours so they allow you to just walk around on your own, which I loved. As odd as this sounds, I would recommend going as early in the morning as you can, so there's nobody else there.
Let me know if you'd like any bar recommendations.
The only brewery I went to was Cantillon. It was a fantastic experience - they offer self-guided tours so they allow you to just walk around on your own, which I loved. As odd as this sounds, I would recommend going as early in the morning as you can, so there's nobody else there.
Let me know if you'd like any bar recommendations.
That's great advice for of all Europe - find the early market, the midnight Cathedral, the far side of Montmartre in spring - places and times where you "have it all to yourself." An underrated tip!Cass wrote:.As odd as this sounds, I would recommend going as early in the morning as you can, so there's nobody else there..
In Beerum Veritas
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Colin @ Canada
- Posts: 220
- Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2003 7:00 pm
- Location: Kingston, Ontario
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esprit
- Seasoned Drinker
- Posts: 1677
- Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2001 8:00 pm
- Location: Esprit Agencies-Toronto
Colin, we're putting together a Rogue order but we're trying to finalize it next week so I don't know whether you and the Academymight be interested. If so, let me know.
Peter
esprit@primus.ca
Peter
esprit@primus.ca
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Colin @ Canada
- Posts: 220
- Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2003 7:00 pm
- Location: Kingston, Ontario
Let me start by saying that I had the time of my life while visiting Belgium. We went to Brussels for 4 days as part of a trip through Europe. We stayed in Grand Place, which is kind of the center for tourism and spent 4 complete days exploring the area and its many pubs and restaurants and beer retail stores.
Two bars that really stand out and I would highly recommend visiting are Delirium Tremens Café and Le Bier Circus. Delirium Tremens blew me away. This place has 2400 beers from 60 different countries. I thought we had a pretty big list at the Academy until I saw their beer list, which I could barely hold with one hand. The really cool part was that you could look into one of their beer fridges from inside the bar through glass windows and Check out all of the hundreds of beers on the shelves aswell all of their glassware was predominantly displayed throughout the place. They had all the Delirium beers on tap as well as the Floris Fruit beers and a few other guest taps.
www.deliriumcafe.be
Bier Circus was located just outside of Grand Place. They had a great beer list as well with over 200 Belgian Beers. This is the place where I had the Liefmans Goudenband on Draught. Much smaller and cozier than Delirium, also had homemade snacks to offer and also had all of the Westvleteren Trappist beers available in Bottles.
www.biercircus.com
We went to one brewery on our trip, The Cantillon Brewery. We had planned to visit Chimay and Orval as well but due to the amount of fun we were having in Grand Place we decided to instead just visit Cantillon. The brewery tour was awesome. Saw the room where the beer gets exposed to the natural yeasts in the air, the bottling line and the highlight was seeing the site where all the barrels are stored filled with the ageing beer. Must have been hundreds of large barrels that were almost as big as I was. The second best part was getting to sample all of the Beers at the end of the tour.
www.cantillon.be
Another really fun thing was to visit the retail beer shops. The best shop that I saw was called Le Bier Tempel. Dozens of beer gift packs, hundreds of rare beers, books, t-shirts, posters, glassware, you name it, it was there. We purchased three beers to bring back with us: one Westvleteren 12, one Liefmans Gluhkriek 750ml corked bottle, and one Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus 375ml corked bottle. I wish they had stores like that in Toronto, as I wanted to buy dozens of beers to take home. There was one store I went into which was trying to start a shipping service. Delices & Caprices: Thebelgianbeershop@netcourrier.com
Sorry I'm rambling on. Lastly I want to list all of the beers that I can remember trying over the four days.
ON TAP: Delirium Tremens, Delirium Nocturnum, Tuborg Green, Ramee Blonde, Floris Apple, Grimbergen Bruin, Jupiler, Affligem Bruin, Mort Subite Kriek, Mort Subite Framboise, Mort Subite Peche, Westmalle Double, Liefmans Goudenband, Chimay Blonde, Tuborg Lager, Efes Pilsner (in Turkey)
BOTTLE: Bellevue Framboise, Gordon X-Mas, Cantillon Lambic, Cantillon Gueuze, Cantillon Kriek, Cantillon Vignerone, Cantillon Faro, Westvleteran 6, Westvleteran 8, Saison Voisin (Brasserie des Geants), Lindemans Framboise, Kriek Boon, Saison Dupont Biologique, Mexicana Revolution, Trappist Rochefort 6, Bellevue Gueuze, Lindemans Cassis, Pelforth Bruin (in France), Desperados, Leffe Radieuse.
Aside from the beer we enjoyed our fair share of Chimay Cheese, Floreffe Butter and now I'm really rambling. Hope you all enjoy reading my post. Colin.
Two bars that really stand out and I would highly recommend visiting are Delirium Tremens Café and Le Bier Circus. Delirium Tremens blew me away. This place has 2400 beers from 60 different countries. I thought we had a pretty big list at the Academy until I saw their beer list, which I could barely hold with one hand. The really cool part was that you could look into one of their beer fridges from inside the bar through glass windows and Check out all of the hundreds of beers on the shelves aswell all of their glassware was predominantly displayed throughout the place. They had all the Delirium beers on tap as well as the Floris Fruit beers and a few other guest taps.
www.deliriumcafe.be
Bier Circus was located just outside of Grand Place. They had a great beer list as well with over 200 Belgian Beers. This is the place where I had the Liefmans Goudenband on Draught. Much smaller and cozier than Delirium, also had homemade snacks to offer and also had all of the Westvleteren Trappist beers available in Bottles.
www.biercircus.com
We went to one brewery on our trip, The Cantillon Brewery. We had planned to visit Chimay and Orval as well but due to the amount of fun we were having in Grand Place we decided to instead just visit Cantillon. The brewery tour was awesome. Saw the room where the beer gets exposed to the natural yeasts in the air, the bottling line and the highlight was seeing the site where all the barrels are stored filled with the ageing beer. Must have been hundreds of large barrels that were almost as big as I was. The second best part was getting to sample all of the Beers at the end of the tour.
www.cantillon.be
Another really fun thing was to visit the retail beer shops. The best shop that I saw was called Le Bier Tempel. Dozens of beer gift packs, hundreds of rare beers, books, t-shirts, posters, glassware, you name it, it was there. We purchased three beers to bring back with us: one Westvleteren 12, one Liefmans Gluhkriek 750ml corked bottle, and one Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus 375ml corked bottle. I wish they had stores like that in Toronto, as I wanted to buy dozens of beers to take home. There was one store I went into which was trying to start a shipping service. Delices & Caprices: Thebelgianbeershop@netcourrier.com
Sorry I'm rambling on. Lastly I want to list all of the beers that I can remember trying over the four days.
ON TAP: Delirium Tremens, Delirium Nocturnum, Tuborg Green, Ramee Blonde, Floris Apple, Grimbergen Bruin, Jupiler, Affligem Bruin, Mort Subite Kriek, Mort Subite Framboise, Mort Subite Peche, Westmalle Double, Liefmans Goudenband, Chimay Blonde, Tuborg Lager, Efes Pilsner (in Turkey)
BOTTLE: Bellevue Framboise, Gordon X-Mas, Cantillon Lambic, Cantillon Gueuze, Cantillon Kriek, Cantillon Vignerone, Cantillon Faro, Westvleteran 6, Westvleteran 8, Saison Voisin (Brasserie des Geants), Lindemans Framboise, Kriek Boon, Saison Dupont Biologique, Mexicana Revolution, Trappist Rochefort 6, Bellevue Gueuze, Lindemans Cassis, Pelforth Bruin (in France), Desperados, Leffe Radieuse.
Aside from the beer we enjoyed our fair share of Chimay Cheese, Floreffe Butter and now I'm really rambling. Hope you all enjoy reading my post. Colin.