100 Belgian Beers, 100 Belgian Beers, 100 Belgian Beers

Do I need to say more? Here is to 100 more!
Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels

Belgian Beer no.100: Queue de Charrue

Another new Belgian Beer: the Queue de Charrue. Brewed by the Brasserie Vanuxeem this beer belongs to what looks like a very big, important brewery. Funny I never heard of it ...

At the Franco-Belgian Beer Festival I tried the Queue de Charrue blonde, a very strong beer at 9%. a very nice blonde beer, fermentation still taking place in the bottle. The brewery also produces the Queue de Charrue brown 5.4%, and amber 5.6%.

And please note it is the Belgian Beer no.100! To celebrate, additionally a recipe: quail with Queue de Charrue blonde.

Quail with Queue de Charrue (serves 4)
4 quails
1 bottle of Queue de Charrue blonde
1/4l chicken stock
1/8l cream
150gr wild mushroom
125gr minced meat
salt and pepper

Brown the quails and the minced mint in a little oil.
Pour the beer over.
Leave to cook for 35min, then add the wild mushrooms.
Add the cream. Reduce.
Season. Serve with potato croquettes

(recipe from the Vanuxeem website)

Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels

Belgian Beer no.99: Charmette

Oh la la ... how better to celebrate 100-1 Belgian Beers than with a Charmette? A charming Belgian Beer. Brewed by the Silenrieux Brasserie this is a new beer, sporting a very girly new label. Not to put guys off the beer, no worries. At 7% it is more than a strong beer, both blond and amber. I had the amber one, didn't like it so much (quite herby for my taste) ... still have to try the blonde one out.

Corrections: after reading some of the comments made on TBX, corrections are in order. Indeed it was the blond Charmette. The amber beer is expected end of this year. Very interesting as well, the name 'Charmette' was given based on the freedom to vote given to women in 1960.
Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels

Belgian Beer no.96, no.97 and no.98: La Joseph, Le Pavé de l'Ours, La Sara

We enter the world of the Franco-Belgian Beer Festival. A new brewery, new beers. The first one we stopped at was the Silenrieux Brasserie.

As I never heard of this one before, it was also the first brewery we went to. All Belgian Beers we didn't know: the Joseph 5.4%, the Pavé de l'Ours 8.9%, the Sara 6% and four others I didn't take pictures of. They are the Pagoda beer, the 150th (the actual name of the beer), the Georgina, the Lions, and the Kolendienne. Oh and there is one more, to follow as Belgian Beer no.99.

At the Franco-Belgian Beer Festival I tried the Sara - a girly beer for a girl. A buckwheat beer. I should have tried the Pavé de l'Ours as it is a honey beer, but so many beers ... so little time.

Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels

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.
Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels

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).

Tagged with: Beer Belgian Beer Bier Biere Brussels