Beertender’s Tour of Belgium - Find. Eat. Drink.
Belgium, Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Beer, Where to drink, What to drink, Belgian Beer, Best Beers in Belgium, Lambic, Geuze, Where to drink in Belgium, Cafe, Restaurant, Brewery, Bars, Where bartenders Drink in Belgium, Where Chefs Eat, Chefs Feed, Belgium Travel Guide, Shops, Drinks, Bars, Restaurants, Local’s Guide to Belgium, Favorite Drinking Spots, Insider Recommendations, Travel Guide, City Guides, F.E.D. City Guides, FED Guides, Travel Guide
September 30, 2014
Kevin Floyd is the beer director, beertender, and co-owner at The Hay Merchant, Anvil, and Underbelly in Houston, TX. His craft beer program is one of the most prolific cask programs in the country. He frequently travels to Belgium on research trips visiting breweries and exploring the beer scene. Let Kevin be your expert beer guide around Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, and further afield.
October 30, 2014
A Beertender’s Tour of Belgium
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Beer Director Kevin Floyd on Where to drink in Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, & Antwerp
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‘t Brugs Beertje | Photo Credit: TravelingOtter [Flickr]
A fresh bottle of Orval, which is hard to find in the US, is really hoppy. It’s a dry, slightly funky Belgian pale ale. My favorite thing is that it changes over time and is good at every stage. Six months to a year old Orval starts to develop more of its farmy characteristics so its going to be a completely different experience over five years.
Brewery
Orval is a traditional Trappist brewery overseen by the monastery, but the brewery staff are actually secular and not members of the monastery. It’s small production and they only one beer.
Orval
Duvel is a classic Belgian golden ale. It’s a light, easy drinking, crisp, clean beer. It’s high in alcohol, so you’ve got to be careful.
Brewery
Duvel Moortgat is one of the larger brewing companies in Belgium and they still only brew Duvel.
Duvel
It’s Flemish for Golden Dragon and made by a brewery called Van Steenberge. It’s readily available in the US in draft and bottles.
When it first came to the US they were calling it a Dark Triple and now they call it a Belgian Strong Dark. I consider it a classic example of a Belgian abbey style ale. It’s high in alcohol at about 10.5%. They use dark Belgian candy sugar, so it’s a little bit sticky, a little bit sweet and fruity. It is very Belgian in its characteristic.
Brewery
Van Steenberge is a 6th generation family-owned brewery in Ghent.
Gulden Draak
“Délirium Café is on a lot of peoples’ lists and it should be. They have one of the largest draft beer lists in the world. It’s a 70-page book. It’s located in the heart of Brussels, not too far from the tourist spots like the Manneken-Pis and the Grand Place. It is not a traditional Belgian bar and it’s definitely more geared towards the American craft beer enthusiast. But it’s a unique experience and if you’ve never been to Brussels before, you have to come here.”
Délirium Café
Photo Credit: David Duran [Flickr]
“There are two locations and the newer one is in the city center. It’s a nice bar and they offer a little bit of food and are rotating their beer lists seasonally. It’s one of the few places I’ve seen tap beer in Belgium and they usually have some interesting beers on cask.”
A La Mort Subite
Rue Montagne aux Herbes Potagères 7, 1000 Brussels
T: +32.2.513.13.18 | www.alamortsubite.com
“It’s just around the corner from the Cathedral. It is a fairly old bar /café. They have several house beers. Many years ago, they used to brew their own beer and now they have one of the small breweries in Brussels who brew beer for them. They have a lambic, a douze, a faro, and a kriek. There are a lot of locals here, but since it is around the corner from a pretty big hotel, there’s also a lot of tourists here too. The people here are super friendly. It is very old school inside.”
A La Mort Subite
Photograph courtesy of A La More Subite
“If you’re a beer enthusiast the one place you have to go to is a brewery called Cantillon. It’s one of the older Lambic breweries in Flanders. All of the big lambic breweries are either in Brussels or around Brussels, so lambic and gueuze are probably the most traditional style of beer in the city of Brussels.
Lambic beers have been described as the Champagne of Flanders. They are very unique to this part of the world and have a slightly to very sour taste which comes from the wild yeast fermentation. They are usually low in alcohol (4.5% to 5%) and it takes many years to produce some of those lambics. When bottled, they are a blend of different ages from 6 months to 3 years.”
Cantillon Brewery
Photograph courtesy of Cantillon
Het Waterhius aan de Bierkant
Groentenmarkt 9, 9000 Ghent
T: +32.9.225.06.80 | www.waterhuisaandebierkant.be
“It’s right on one of the canals in Ghent and their house beer is called Klokke Roeland, which is a Belgian strong dark ale. You can find it in the US, but there is something special about drinking a Klokke Roeland at the Water House Tavern.
The tavern has a really nice little bar with a great beer menu and all kinds of different beers, as well as some pretty good wine. They also have a little patio.”
Het Waterhius
Photograph courtesy of Het Waterhius
Van Steenberge Brewery
Lindenlaan 25, 9940 Ertvelde, Oost-Vlaanderen
T: +32.9.344.54.20 | www.vansteenberge.com
“They brew Gulden Draak and you can tour the brewery. It’s kind of the home of the beer, so there is a Golden Dragon on top of one of the towers in the center of Ghent.”
Brouwerij Van Steenberge
Photograph courtesy of Brouwerij Van Steenberge
“This is a very small bar with just seven seats. The whole place probably seats like 30 or 40 people. They have a really nice bottled beer list with a lot of small Belgian producers. The staff is really friendly and the crowd is a mix of locals and tourists. Since Bruges is such a tourist town, this bar is a cool spot to run into different people from different countries and talk to the locals.”
Brugs Beertje
Photo Credit: Russel Trow [Flickr]
“It’s just off of the main square in Bruges and down a tiny alleyway. The first time I came here, I had my phone with the GPS on and I still walked by the entrance of the alleyway about 3 times. Everything here is small and reminds me of a medieval European tavern. You could imagine some guy with a horse in a suit of armor hanging out outside. I’ve only ever had coffee and De Garre here. De Garre is the house beer and a Belgian strong dark ale. At 10% ABV, they will only allow you to drink three of them. It’s on draft and I don’t think they ever bottle it.”
The entrance to De Garre
Photo Credit: Bernt Rostad [Flickr]
The alley leading to De Garre
Photo Credit: thegrekle [Flickr]
“This is a brewery in Bruges that’s called the Half Moon. They offer tours everyday and it’s a cool place to visit. There’s a full cafe too. They brew a couple of different types of beers. One is called Brugse Zot which is made in Blond and Dubbel. The other is called Straffe Hendrik which is a little bit bigger and they make in a Tripel and Quadrupel. On the tour, they take you all the way to the top of the brewery where you get one of the better views of Bruges.”
The view of Bruges from De Halve Maan
Photo Credit: yad.craby [Flickr]
Bierhuis Kulminator
Vleminckveld 32, 2000 Antwerp
T: +32.3.232.45.38
“Just imagine Bilbo Baggins’ mother’s house. It’s a strange bar on a random street. I’ve been here a couple of times and I still don’t know how to get here. You walk into the bar and there is an incredibly old lady with crazy white hair and her old husband. They must be in their eighties. They have a big fluffy white cat, a sewing machine on a table with someone actually sewing on it. My experience has changed every time I’ve come here. They have a massive beer list that is four inches thick. It has to be hundreds of pages, all in Flemish. They have a really crazy collection of old cellar beer going back twenty years and some of it is beer that should never have been kept that long. There are some awesome little jewels from tiny breweries that have been out of business for years. They have old little lambics, Orval going back 20 years, and rare bottles of Cantillon. It is such an experience.”
Kulminator
Photo Credit: Elizabeth [Flickr]
“De Roste Muis mean Red Mouse. It is one of the most northern points in North Flanders and it’s beautiful. There’s a restaurant up front that is very locally food-driven. They have an amazing back area that overlooks these beautiful green Belgian fields. The people here are very nice. They have two house beers called the Red Mouse, a blond and a dark style Belgian ales that are very good.”
“At the Abbey of Saint-Sixtus is Brouwerij Westvleteren. Anybody who’s into craft beer has heard of Westvleteren. It’s a trappist brewery and if you Google it, their beer is consistently rated one of the best beers in the world. It’s on everybody’s top 10 list. They make three beers: a blonde, a brown and a dark. They are very good and beautiful, but part of the reason they are so highly rated is because the beer is only sold at the abbey. They have a limit on how much you can buy and you must call ahead to reserve your beer. It’s in northern Flanders in beautiful farmland, especially if you visit in August and September. They’ve done an amazing marketing job, the beer is very good and it’s a cool experience.”
Trappist Westvleteren
Photo Credit: Juha Pätilä [Flickr]
Kevin loves the tradition of the Belgian breweries and the culture surrounding their beer. There is so much diversity in Belgian beer and many, many hard to find small production beers, but when asked to pick beers that exemplified the Belgian beer experience, he picked three that were readily available in the United States. If you want to do some Belgian beer research from the comfort of your home bar stool, Kevin passes along these beer recommendations.
Copyright ©2014 Find. Eat. Drink. LLC All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2014 Find. Eat. Drink. LLC All rights reserved.