Ariving in Belgium

customs agent: "Passports, please.  The purpose for your visit to Belgium?  Business or vacation?"
Sarah & Gary: (after a pause) "To drink Belgium beer."

customs agent: "We get that a lot.  Welcome to Belgium."

So began Sarah & Gary's latest European trip to indulge in local cuisine and quality libations, which was also called in this case the 12th ICMS Conference, but that's beside the point.

Les Brasseurs de la Grand Place

We'll start where any good trip and/or story should start -- at a bar.  And not just any bar, but one of the best beer breweries in Brussels (say that three times fast -- we will use this phrase repeatedly during our tour as a sort of makeshift breathalyzer).  The name is Les Brasseurs de la Grand Place and it is in the heart of Brussels, at the most touristy part.  Despite its location and the escalated prices of all things around us, Les Brasseurs was neither pretentious nor pricey.

First off, how to find it.  Go to the Brussels-Central train station and look around for this place:

I don't know what building this is, nor do I really care, but the tower is visible from most anywhere in the neighborhood.  If you are facing this building and see this exact view, then the place of interest is directly behind you.  Turn around and, as they say in French, "wa la!"

They only serve about 6 or 7 beers on draught, but they brew 4 of them here.  The casks are stacked in the back, hanging on a rack on the wall.  Notice in the photo that just a single copper pipe in the back seems to be connecting all of these together.

Which we thought was alarmingly similar to the Duff brewery technique shown below.

We were happy to see, however, that in our taste testing that each of the beers was indeed unique and delicious.

As you might have gathered by now, we highly recommend Les Brasseurs and these were the beers we liked:

Watney's Scotch
Mort Subite Kriek
Ramee Blanch
De Konig Amber

A note on lambic beers:

Our favorite beers in Belgium are the lambics.  As we understand it, the yeast used to ferment these beers is a local strain, found wild only in Belgium.  The beers always seem to have at least two fermentation steps, in which the second or third fermentation is spontaneous by this wild yeast.  By "wild" I guess they mean grows happily within the brewery, in the casks, among the dust, etc. so that the "spontaneous fermentation" comes from simply opening the casks to the environment when adding the second malt, fruit, or whatever new sugar they have selected for the yeast to feast on.  This multi-fermentation is what gives these beers the very high alcohol content.

We really liked the kriek (cherries added, with a sweet & slight sour taste), the rouge (cherry but somehow brewed differently than kriek, resulting in a stronger flavor and higher alcohol) and gueuse (very sour) beers.  Never got a chance to try a faro beer, so we will hang on to this as our excuse to go back for another visit someday.

More info from folks who know what they are talking about can be found here (lambic wiki page).

Next stop -- Moeder Lambic.

Moeder Lambic

No too far from Les Brasseurs is another great place to sit and drink, called Moeder Lambic.  I say "not too far" because I can't really remember how we got there.  I'm sure if you ask at Les Brasseurs, they will help you find your way, but the place you are looking for will match the picture below.

This place has tons of beer on tap, but they don't brew their own.  We pretty much stuck to the specials of the day and were not disappointed with any.  As with Les Brasseurs, the way to taste was their "pallet" of beers (any 4 for 10 euros).

Again, two thumbs up for the Moeder of all beer bars -- very nice folks serving up endless beer selections.  Here are the ones we tried:

Cazeau Tourney Triple
Musketeers Trubador
V Cense
Bell-vue Gueuze

 Next stop -- Morte Subite.

Morte Subite

Conveniently, all of these brewers and bars are within a short walk (however staggering) from The Grand Place, which any Belgian person can help you find.  Everyone there seems to be fluent in at least two languages, and their "broken English" that they seem to apologize for frequently is way better than any French that Sarah or I could stumble through.  Although Brussels is in the region of Flanders, starting any conversation with "Hi-dee-lee-ho, Belgireenos!" is neither polite nor understood.

Back to the beer tour.  Among the other notable sites in this neighborhood of The Grand Place is quaint old bar called Morte Subite.  This is the home of the best kriek we tried.  Like many of the old buildings in the area, all the wood work and brass fixtures will take you back in time 100 years when you walk in the door.  The name means "sudden death" and thankfully has nothing to do with a toxic quality of the beer.  The story goes that the lawyers and bankers who worked in the area would spend their lunch break here, drinking and playing cards, so when the clock chimed for the end of lunch, everyone dropped their cards to determine who was the winner of the final hand.

I don't know what I'm thinking about here, but maybe just listening for the lunch bell to ring.

If you have a hard time finding this, just look for Sarah's place next door.














Next stop -- Atomium?????

Atomium

Let me start by saying,

    What the?!!!
    Did you know about this?!
    Brussels has building made of giant silver balls?!  Built in the 1950's no less.

Apparently, this was the centerpiece of the 1958 World's Fair and was never intended to be a permanent building.  But as all things which are COMPLETELY MADE OF STEEL go, it is pretty tough and shows no signs of wear.

Standing over 300 feet tall, it had the fastest elevator in the world at one time, and here are the views from the top.

But you can go from room to room using the stairs, like some giant human habitrail.

I know.  This has nothing to do with the beer tour, so let's get back to business.

Final stop -- Random Walking.

Random Walking

"Of all the gin joints in all of Brussels ..."

Great minds think alike, so it is no surprise that our friends Kevin and Jeremy would be wandering from bar to bar at the same time we did and coincidentally ran into us at Morte Subite.  We continued our beer tour together and here are some photos of the day.

There are lots of little bars, hidden away between the buildings, with little more than a small sign and door at the street to let you know they are there.

 At le Beeasse.

At Delirium.

 Needless to say, all the "in the bar" photos begin to look the same.

 

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six-foot-four and full of muscles
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich

Don't forget to try the frites and muscles.

Thanks for reading.

Looking forward to the next trip.

Gary & Sarah