Beer Tour of Belgium – Day 2: Grimbergen and Antwerp September 28, 2009
Posted by pinchaque in 101 Things, Adventures in Beer, Beer Tour of Belgium.Tags: antwerp, beer, belgium, grimbergen
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Breakfast in Brussels
We started our morning in Brussels by making our way to the first of many Boulangerie & Patisserie restaurants (basically bakeries). They offer a good selection of baked breads, muffins, croissants, and desserts. Many offer coffee drinks as well, making them excellent places to start off the morning with a light breakfast.
Breakfast of Champions: Butter Croissants
After that we walked over to the nearby St. Michael’s cathedral to explore the inside and take pictures. This was very impressive: a huge, ancient, and beautiful interior space that has been maintained well. The pulpit and pipe organ were particularly remarkable, as were the stained glass windows.
Pipe Organ at St. Michael's Cathedral, Brussels
Ornate pulpit in cathedral
This was probably the most impressive of all the cathedrals we visited on this trip. It was in excellent shape and was gigantic, which is to be expected given its location in the capital city. What struck me as we traveled throughout the country, however, was how even the smallest of towns had a significant church. That the culture has sunk such a significant amount of its resources into these structures (including both construction and maintenance) underscores the importance they have played to the community.
Upon departing Brussels I began to realize that Brussels did not match well with the type of tourist that I am. The Grand Place area is basically a big production for tourists and outsiders. In contrast to cities we would visit later on, I do not think that real Belgians go to the restaurants there or visit those shops. So while it may a great destination for those with a one-day itinerary just looking for a taste of the country, it really doesn’t fairly represent what one can find outside that city.
Grimbergen Abbey
Our departure from Brussels was also plagued by a bit of traffic confusion, but we were able to find our way to Grimbergen without too much difficulty. This is just a few miles north of the city and is a relatively small hamlet dominated by a big abbey that brews beer.
Grimbergen church belltower
The church was well kept up inside; so well that they were shooting a television show there! We stepped inside to snap a few pictures and then walked down to the excellent café that they have on site.
Storm clouds over Grimbergen Abbey
We didn’t appreciate it fully at the time, but this was an abbey that was very tourism-friendly. The café served all the abbey’s beers and had a decent selection of sandwiches and light plates from which to choose.
Gimbergen Optimo Bruno
Ham and cheese sandwich, Grimbergen style
Parmesan creme brulee and salad
The beer and food quality were both excellent. I tried the special release “Bruno Optimo”, a stronger version of their Brune. The parmesan Creme Brule was unlike anything I’d ever tasted. It was cold, which was odd at first, but had a rich parmesan flavor.
In contrast to the abbey itself, the cafe was decorated in a modern-minimalist style. I thought this was strange at the time, but turned out to be something we experienced several times again in the Flanders provinces. There is an interesting mixing of the historic and modern that gives rise to how one experiences the country.
A Failed Visit to Het Anker
After leaving Grimbergen we headed north to Mechelen, home of one of my favorite breweries Het Anker. I’m a big fan of their Gouden Carolus (“Golden Charles”) Blue Grand Cru of the Emperor. Personally, I think more beers should reference emperors. However, our stop was in vain since the brewpub was closed. It was not clear if this was a permanent thing or just for that day—I suspect permanent since it was not mentioned anywhere on the building. Looking at the website now I believe it’s just for 2009, but my Dutch isn’t that great.
Het Anker Brewery from the outside
So instead of trying my favorite beer we circumnavigated the brewery buildings, snapped a few pictures, and headed off to Antwerp.
Me in front of my namesake brewery
Exploring Antwerp
Even though Antwerp is the second biggest city in Belgium (after Brussels), it had a very different feel from the start. The Grote Markt was just as big as Brussels’, but somehow less touristy. The shops lining the streets seemed like locals might actually visit them. Here it felt like we were starting to get a taste of more authentic Belgium life.
Grote Markt in Antwerp
Fountain in Antwerp; note the severed hand
We walked out to the river running next ot the town and around a fortification there that was closed for renovation (the start of another theme). The houses along the river had some interesting architecture: similar to the Grimbergen Abbey there was this mix of the medieval and modern. Brick houses lived next to modern designs that still incorporated some of the ancient materials.
Modern and historic architecture
The Antwerp convention center was impressive with its glass and metal swooped roofs mixed with wooden accents.
Antwerp convention center
For dinner we decided to take the plunge and go with the Belgian café lifestyle: we dined on the Grote Markt. Belgians have an interesting way of live that differs from that of the U.S. a bit. It seems like after work they flock to the cafes along the streets in town and sit outside to drink, talk, and smoke. Then, when they are ready for dinner, they either move inside or to another café altogether. They differentiate between people who are at the establishment solely for this “pre-dinner drinking” phase and those who are truly there for dinner. Often the seating is entirely different, albeit unmarked. Anyway we sat outside in spite of the rapidly decreasing temperature and began to warm ourselves with beer.
Trappist beers: Westmalle and Rochefort
Both the Westmalle and Rochefort were delicous, rich, and satisfying–everything I remember from having them in the U.S. Of course we also ordered food. I could not resist the steak and fries, and Amanda selected a whole fish.
Artfully arranged trout and croquettes
For our second round of beers Amanda chose a Kriek. We had feared the worst: a sour undrinkable Belgian beer. However it was just the opposite; it tasted like cough syrup! I had never had a kriek before, apparently, but they are fairly common in Belgium as low-alcohol and sweeter alternatives to your standard beer. You can think of it as the Belgian equivalent of Smirnoff Ice.
Mystic Kriek! Cherry beer
My second round was a Kaizer Karel / Charles Quint (depending on which language you speak). This brune-style was not really anywhere near the trappist beers we had just finished, but it was new to me so worth a shot. The advice I offer is this: beware of beers that are commercialized enough to sponsor the awnings at your dining establishment.
Another beer named after me: Charles Quint
Our hotel in Antwerp was actually a small one-bedroom apartment called Bristelei. We had our own mini-kitchen, bedroom, living room, and bathroom. Overkill for one night but charming nevertheless and also decorated in this minimalist-modern style.
Kitchenette at Bristelei 37 apartments Antwerp
Overall I ended up liking Antwerp a lot. It has a lot of the big-city infrastructure that Brussels has in terms of the museums, transportation, and restaurants. But it is far less touristy and confusing, cleaner, more modern, and more interesting ultimately to walk around.
Sunset in Antwerp from our hotel
Beers Tasted
Today I tasted:
- Grimbergen Bruno Optimo
- Grimberen Tripel
- Westmalle Brune
- Rochefort 10
- Charles Quint / Kaizer Karel
- Mystik Kriek
Total to date: 11 beers
Beer Tour of Belgium – Day 1: Brussels September 26, 2009
Posted by pinchaque in Beer Tour of Belgium.1 comment so far
Why Belgium?
Belgian Flag above Gravensteen Castle
The seeds of the idea were planted many years ago during my first trip to Belgium when I was just 13. My dad was working in La Hulpe near Brussels, and our family had the opportunity to meet up with him for a couple of weeks in the capital city. I recall enjoying the trip quite a lot in spite of not being old enough to drink. I ate escargot, waffles, chocolate, and luxurious steak with peppercorn sauce. Although we stayed pretty close to the capital city, the history of the place impressed me deeply. Every building you see in the city center is hundreds of years old, something you just don’t experience in the U.S..
As my passion for beer has developed in years since, the Belgian styles have risen to the top and stayed there: dubbels, triples, quadruples, saisons, abbey ales, and trappist ales. Even geuzes and lambics I have a deep appreciation for although sometimes the sourness is shocking to my palette. My favorite beer is Gouden Carolus Grand Cru of the Emperor, brewed by Het Anker just north of Brussels. It’s intriguing to me how these beer traditions can be centuries old, how monks brew and sell beer to make enough money for subsistence, and how spontaneous fermentation can yield products renowned the world over. Can you imagine brewing a beer from spontaneous fermentation in Southern California? Doesn’t sound tasty.
On top of that, the Belgian beer tradition has inspired many of the breweries I love here in North America: Unibroue, Ommegang, and the Lost Abbey. If these breweries are so incredible, then I should also experience the beers and tradition on which they were based.
I heard once that the Belgian beers that get imported to the U.S. are but a fraction of what is available there, and have endured a tough voyage across the sea. If I enjoy the Chimays and Deliriums here, a wonderland awaits a mere 7,000 miles away.
The trip to Belgium was an opportunity to experience new beers, to taste that which is not readily available in the U.S., and to learn about the culture that has given rise to my favorite styles of beer.
Day 1: Brussels
With the 9 hour time difference between San Diego and Brussels, there’s really no way to get there but to lose a day in the process. Our plane left San Diego at 8am on September 10, 2009 and we arrived in Brussels at 8am on the 11th after 12 hours of flying and a 3-hour layover in D.C.. The trip across the Atlantic was miserably turbulent and my mood was worsened by the hunger stemming from my fast. I was trying to reset my internal sleep cycle clock in just one day by not eating for 18 hours. Between a 6:30am banana in San Diego and breakfast as we were landing in Brussels I drank only water. But it worked and I was immediately accustomed to the new time zone and able to sleep and wake at normal Belgium time.
Public Art (?) in Brussels: The Writeable Bull
If you want to start off on the wrong foot with Brussels, the best way to do it is to try to drive in to it during morning rush hour without a map. We thought we were following signs to the center, but we hadn’t seen one for a long time and needed to pull over to get directions once (my first time trying out my French as well). We got back on the right road and then had to fight through construction near our hotel destination to finally find parking. I’m sure part of this frustration was just our initial shock at the differences between signage and street layout logic between the U.S. and Belgium; driving in Liege at the end of our trip was seemingly much simpler once we were more accustomed to driving in the country.
View from our Hotel Le Meridien window
The hotel Le Meridien was kind enough to let us check in early, so we got a chance to shower and change before heading out. Once we started out on foot, the streets were nearly as confusing as driving, actually. We wandered aimlessly around the Grand Place looking for a good place to eat our first Belgian meal and settled on a cozy restaurant with an persistent host. What better way to start off with Belgian specialties: Moules Frites (mussels and French fries) and escargot (snails). The Moules Frites were the “traditional” style, which turned out to be boiled in a large amount of onion and celery. This was actually quite overpowering in flavor and we ended up not liking it much, although the quality of ingredients was excellent. We also ordered a small 0.5L of water which cost us 6 euros and decided to never order water again since beer is only 3 euros.
Moules Frites traditional style
Having filled our bellies we set about exploring the city. We started with the Grand Place, looking at buildings and poking around the shops. There were a couple Belgian beer shops with impressive selections.
Brussels Grand Place
We walked to go see the Mannekin Pis statue, which is a water fountain of a little boy peeing (seriously). We also walked up to the Parc de Bruxelles which is several city blocks of trees, dirt paths, inactive fountains, and park benches. This was a great area with people joging, relaxing, drinking, eating, and running their dogs.
Parc de Bruxelles
Parc de Bruxelles
We were planning on eating dinner at the Delirium Café but it turns out they don’t really have much food, just lots of beer. They claim to have the Guinness Record for number of beers available with over 2000. These are listed in a hefty binder along with descriptions. The vast majority are Belgian with maybe only 100 from elsewhere. Those are spread across a wide number of other countries. The only U.S. craft brewers represented well there were Rogue and Flying Dog. Most beers are in the bottle of course; only about 10 were on draft. Because of the popularity of the place, however, it was rather difficult to get service.
Delirium Nocturnum and St. Idesbald
We went with beers from the bar’s namesake—Delirium Nocturnum and St Idsebald—but it took 10+ minutes to get the bartender’s attention and order them. We enjoyed the beers of course, but I ended up thinking of the place more of a gimmicky tourist trap than a great destination bar.
Enjoying Delirium Nocturnum at Delirium Cafe
For dinner we headed back to a restaurant near the Grande Place and I indulged in a steak with peppercorn sauce, a meal I would repeat several times throughout our journey. The cut of meat is a ribeye I believe, but they call it “entrecote”. One big difference to the U.S. is that it is cut fairly thin, about ½ inch. The flavor, however, is excellent and the sauce divine. We assumed incorrectly that the restaurant would take credit cards, and ended up coughing up most our cash on dinner. Another lesson learned: always make sure that the restaurants take credit cards.
Belgian specialty: Beef carbonnade (with fries!)
We then made a beeline for a destination we had spotted earlier near the Mannekin Pis: a Belgian waffle stand (although in Belgium of course they just call them “waffles”). My waffle with whipped cream and melted chocolate was one of the most delcious desserts I have ever eaten. The waffle was crisp, the chocolate plentiful and dark, the whipped cream thick and rich. I definitely need to try and reproduce that at home but I’m not sure we have room for the big whipped cream dispensing machine they use.
St. Michael's Cathedral in Brussels
Our first day of driving, eating, drinking, and touring complete, we returned to Le Meridien for a well-deserved slumber.
Beers Tasted
Today I tasted:
- Unknown light beer at lunch
- Delirium Nocturnum
- St. Idesbald Blond
- Tongerlo Brune
- Unknown white beer
Total to date: 5 beers
