Franco-Belgian Beer Festival

Another weekend, another Belgian Beer Festival. This time around we stopped at the Franco-Belgian Beer Festival. I didn't even know there is such a thing as a Franco-Belgian beer festival in Belgium.

Of course we tasted French beers as well. Yet for the purpose of the Belgian Beer Blog I will only focus on the Belgian Beers (new ones !!!) tried with this occasion. There were an equal number of French and Belgian brewers.

What was interesting to discover though is that given the location of the festival (south of Belgium) we came across Belgian breweries I never heard of ... so more beer, coming close to 100 Belgian Beers!

Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels

Belgian Beer no.94 and no.95: Taras Boulba and Stouterik

Staying with the Zinnebir Brewery, two more beers brewed by them - which we got to taste at the Bruxellensis Festival: the Taras Boulba and the Stouterik.

The first an extra bitter ale, the second a stout.

Other Zinnebir beers include the signature beer, Belgian Beer no.34 and the Japanese Owa- Belgian Beer no. 93.
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Belgian Beer no.93: Owa

I can hear you say 'oh, a Japanese beer on a Belgian Beer site. She got it all wrong'. Well, ahem, actually I didn't :). Although I have to admit my first reaction was the same: they got it all wrong at the Bruxellensis Festival if now they are bringing Japanese beers to the Belgian Beer festivals.

What to do? We went to take a closer look, of course. And surprise, surprise Owa Japanese Beer is brewed in Belgium by Zinnebir. I mentioned Zinnebir when writing about Belgian Beer no.34. Now we got to try their exotic Japanese beer as well. All you expect from a Japanese beer: light, refreshing, Japanese.

Now this was a nice discovery indeed. I doubt you can find the beer in the shops though. So a visit to Zinnebir is in order!

2009-04-27

Update: as you can see in the comments, the Owa beer has slightly progressed from its unknown little status. It is now a regular on specialist beer shop/ beer bars lists and indeed plenty of Japanese restaurants offer it. I even received a while ago a request from a quite unique and high end Spanish restaurant who wanted to put this beer on its menu. I understand that is the case in the meantime, so all good in Owa-Land.

Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels

Bier-Mania and Beer Tourism

During the Bruxellensis Festival, we met Andy. You will wonder Andy who? Andy was present at the Bruxellensis Festival representing Bier-Mania. At first I thought that might be a beer bar somewhere. Yet, as we were to discover, Bier-Mania is a all about beer tours in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.

I live in Belgium for over 9 years now. And I never came across anyone or any tour operator organizing beer tours. Finally a good initiative long missed in Belgium. It still remains a mystery to me how a country with SO much beer and SO many breweries (list on the right) doesn't have organized beer tours. France lives off wine tours ... Belgium could easily live off beer tours.

So Andy and Bier-Mania will offer you 6 custom made beer tours across Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, and on the way offer their expertise and enthusiasm on the beers on offer. As a Belgian Beer lover, I would of course advise at first the 'Tour 2 - Ardennes Special'. But then there is also the Pick'n'Mix tour ... so everyone is happy. Cheers!

Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels

Belgian Beer no.92: Bink

Just look at that happy chap! It's Bink, Bink, Bink. I didn't take a picture of the beer as I think this one speaks so much better of the Bink beer and the Kerkom Brewery.

Bink is a beer with tradition, dating back to 1878. The first beer brewed by the Kerkdom Brewery was the Bink Blonde 5.5%. A very fresh beer indeed, I liked its hoppy taste. You should have seen my smile after tasting Bink :)

The Kerkdom Brewery (one in 6 of the 127 breweries in Limburg to be still active today) also produces the Bink Brown 5.5%, the best known of the Bink series; the Bloesem Bink (blossom) 7.1% - sorry but I don't get the 0.1 here ...; the Winterkoninkse (winter) 8.3%; and finally the Aderladus 7%.

Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels

Belgian Beer no.91: Darbyste

During the Bruxellensis Festival, we got the chance to enlarge our Belgian Beer knowledge and taste some more of the beer available in this country. Coming close to 100 Belgian Beers I wonder if the journey was not too ambitious.

At the Bruxellensis Festival we started with a Darbyste beer, brewed by the Brasserie de Blaugies.

And I thought I knew most of the Belgian Beers. Never heard of this one! At the Bruxellensis Festival I tried the traditional Darbyste beer, a 5.8% blonde made by adding figs juice. Nice, fruity, interesting.

Other beers brewed by the Brasserie de Blaugies are the Moneuse 8%, the Saison d'Epeautre 6% (a lager type beer) and the Special Noel 8% (the Christmas beer).

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Bruxellensis Festival

The last beer festival we went to was Bruxellensis. A must for every real Belgian Beer lover. The concept of Bruxellensis is to make smaller, artisan breweries known . The main aim of Bruxellensis (as stated on their website) is to support ‘those who have turned their back to the easy commercial gain’, and thus produce lesser known, specialized beers. You can read more on Bruxellensis, beer and food here.

Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels

Belgian Beer no.88, no.89, no.90: Keyte, Wittoen, Dikke Mathile

Three Belgian Beers in one go. All brewed by the same brewery, the Brouwerij Strubbe. First one in the picture (from left to right) is the Keyte. This beer was brewed by the Brouwerij Strubbe to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the end of the siege of Ostende (1601 - 1604). Especially ordered for that occasion, the brewery continues to produce Keyte and we got to try it at the Belgian Beer Weekend. At 7.5% quite a strong beer.

On to the second one, the Wittoen. Again some history lesson to lear: the name comes from the Knight Jan Wittoen (1417). This is an amber, tripler beer at 8%, slight yeasty and herby taste.

The last one, the Dikke Mathile (aka Fat Mathile). the name comes form a statue to be found on the Belgian coast, the Dikke Mathile. They are still legally debating the copyright issues here! Back to the beer, an amber beer at 6%, fermentation in the bottle.
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Belgian Beer no.87: Sloeber

The last in the series of Belgian Beers tried from the Roman Brewery, the Sloeber beer. It does look slightly pink, and fruity, yet it is a blonde beer. A high yeast content, fermentation still takes place in the bottle. 7.5%.

Other Belgian Beers from the Roman Brewery include the Romy Pils, the Adriaen Brouwer (beer no. 86), the Mater Blanche (beer no. 81), the Special Roman, the Ename, and the Black Hole (beer no.79).
Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels

Belgian Beer no.86: Adriaen Brouwer

Another one of the Belgian Beers tried at the Belgian Beer Weekend was the Adriaen Brouwer. Brewed by the Roman Brewery, it was a dark, quite bitter and slight caramel flavored beer. At just 5% a light Belgian Beer, yet quite rich so the sensation is that of drinking a heavy beer.

The name is that of Adriaen Brouwer, a Flemish painter.
Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels