Photo by: Olena Kachmar ()
Hours of sight-seeing have made you ravenous, so you’ve taken a break to down some pommes frites and a foamy beverage. But you’re not in France-- you’re in Belgium, where the locals still dispute the origin of “French” fries and crafting beer is a fine art, hundreds of years in the making.
A brief history
Though beer has been a part of human history for thousands of years, beer brewing became a common practice for abbey monks, in what is now Belgium, during the Middle Ages. Beer was more sanitary than water and could be traded. Tumult during the French Revolution left many monasteries destroyed, but brewing rebounded with Louis Pasteur’s invention of pasteurization because higher quality beer could be stored for longer. In 1900, more than 3,000 breweries produced beer in Belgium. Today, approximately 120 breweries produce hundreds of choices for your enjoyment.
Belgian brewing tradition
Only a few monasteries in the world—six of which are in Belgium—produce Trappist beer. This rare distinction requires that beers be produced within or in close proximity to a Trappist monastery in accordance with monastic business practices, and the majority of profits must be returned to the community. The result is superbly crafted beer which echoes the passion and history of beer-making. Abbey beers follow similar recipes and brewing processes. Ales bearing the “Certified Belgian Abbey Beers” label have a historical connection to an abbey, are brewed by a non-Trappist abbey or are produced by a commercial brewery for an abbey.
Popular Belgian beer varieties include blondes, dubbels and tripels. The lightly colored blonde ales have a fresh taste and spiced or slightly fruity aroma. Dubbels are strong brown beers that receive double the normal amount of malt during fermentation. Tripels, which use three times the malt, are lighter in color and have higher alcohol content than dubbels. If you normally shy away from beer, try a fruit-infused lambic. The slightly sweet taste of this specially fermented wheat beer is a pleasant surprise on the palate.
Drinking belgian beer
Belgian beers are available at many restaurants and bars throughout Europe, and specialty beer stores often have many of the rarer brews. Most abbeys are not open to the public, but many commercial breweries offer private tours, providing you the opportunity to see the fermentation process and try different styles. Prior arrangements are usually required, so contact the brewery to schedule your tour in advance.
For the largest selection of beer in the world, visit Brussels’ Delirium Café, earning a Guinness World Record for its selection of more than 2,000 beer varieties. Grab a table — it will take a while to pick your poison.
Wherever you choose to celebrate Belgian beer, it will almost always arrive in the brewer’s distinctive glass, perfectly poured and crowned with foam. (In Belgium, head is a good thing!) Take a moment to savor your uniquely crafted beer. Cheers!
