One of Belgium’s great breweries is not resting on the laurels of its already superb lineup of beers. St. Bernardus, of Watou, West Flanders, perhaps best-known for its dark, rich, malty, Abt 12, has just added a fine warm weather session beer to its portfolio. I had the pleasure of visiting the brewery (for the…
The much-beloved Brasserie Cantillon has a new long-term storage project where tens of thousands of bottles of lambic, Oude Gueuze, and other beers will be stored for up to thirty years. I had the great pleasure of visiting the “Bomb Shelter Beer Cellar” with Cantillon brewmaster Jean Van Roy on Thursday, April 24. Jean told me,…
Next weekend, April 26-27, Belgium’s premier beer festival will be in full swing in Leuven’s Brabanthal. The Zythos Bier Festival (ZBF) will feature over 100 Belgian breweries and 500 different beers. The city of Leuven has fully embraced the festival and its local beer culture since the festival moved to Leuven in 2012. In fact,…
What is likely to be one of the most remarkable beer dinners in Belgium in 2014 is next week. The “Great Belgian Beer Dinner 2014″ initially sold out so quickly for the Wednesday, April 23 date-in just 20 minutes or so-that an extra day, Tuesday the 22nd, was added. For next Wednesday, extra tables will…
Last April, I paid a visit-my fourth since 2003-to l’ Abbaye Notre Dame de St-Remy, and its storied Brasserie Rochefort. The stunning brewhouse, said by many to one of the most beautiful in the world, continues to impress on every visit. The copper kettles and stained-glass windows create quite and effect, especially on sunny days.…
Bier! Magazine, the leading Dutch magazine on the subject of artisanal beer in Belgium, the Netherlands, and further afield, is now available in English, for the iPad tablet platform. The magazine has been around since 2008, and the English version is brand-new as of issue 21. Editor-in-Chief Fedor Vogel was one of my judging colleagues…
For you Game of Thrones fans out there, and those who just like a good beer, Ommegang has a special brew that will debut in stores on March 31st. A bottle happened to find its way to me recently. I love it when that happens. When beer knocks on your door, you don’t turn it…
Brouwerij Timmermans of Itterbeek has just launched two lambics for sale that beer lovers should be very interested in. The venerable brewery, which I covered in great detail here, just released Oude Lambiek 2011 and Kriekenlambiek 2012 in bag-in-box form. Brewmaster Willem Van Herreweghen and owner Anthony Martin had told me of their plans to…
Chris Bauweraerts, who co-founded Brasserie D’ Achouffe in 1982, is a big fan of model, remote-controlled airplanes. He’s also loves photography, and has paired the two to capture some pretty impressive aerial images of Houffalize, the small city where Achouffe is located. One of them is a grain silo covered with what looks like one…
Brasserie D’ Achouffe has a new beer, and it’s a unique, tasty one. The brewery is calling it “The missing link between beer and wine,” and it does have many wine- like qualities, due to the juice, skins, and seeds (also known as “must”) of dessert wine grapes. These grapes come from the Loupiac area…
