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De Struise Brouwers now selling growlers at the Old Schoolhouse brewery
De Struise Brouwers, the West Flanders brewers with great beers and a world-wide cult following, have started filling growers to go at their brewery/taproom in Oostvleteren. “The idea is to offer special beers only, ones that either we do not bottle, or which you’d have difficulty finding in bottles,” Urbain Cotteau, one of the several…
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Het Nest opens new brewery in Turnhout
Anyone who has tasted the Het Nest beers, such as the excellent, brett-infused De SchuppenAas (Ace of Spades) should know how superb these beers can be. Brouwerij Het Nest now has their own brewery on the outskirts of Turnhout, Antwerp Province. Expect big things in the future, such a tasting room with six to ten…
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Millennium Geuze: the masters reunite, 17 years later
Millennium Geuze is widely considered one of the best Oude Geuze blends in the last twenty years or so. Millennium Geuze was a collaboration between Armand Debelder of 3 Fonteinen and Willem van Herreweghen, founder of Geuzestekerij De Cam. 75 cl bottles sold for only 300 Belgian francs when it was released in 1998. 8,000…
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Belgian Beer Me’s “Wild and Spontaneous Beer Tour of Belgium” 2015
When Stu Stuart of Belgian Beer Me! Beer Tours of Belgium (BBM!) asked me to be a guest host on one of his “Wild & Spontaneous Beer Tour of Belgium,” I gladly accepted. I normally plan my own tours to Belgium and can safely say that organizing them is a very intricate, time consuming process.…
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Toer de Geuze article in Celebrator Beer News
I have a 1,200+ word article in the June/July issue of Celebrator Beer News on the 2015 edition of Belgium’s Toer de Geuze. In fact, you might as well call it “Toer de Geuze Weekend” from now one, as there are so many events taking place at the lambic breweries in the days leading up…
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Brasserie de Waterloo: Brewery, Visitor’s Center, Restaurant, and more….
On June 18, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his final defeat at the battle of Waterloo, a small hamlet of villages located about eleven miles south of Brussels. Now, an old farm that was set up as a field hospital by The Duke of Wellington, who led the English and their allies to victory that day,…
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Toer de Geuze 2015 is three months away
The biggest one day celebration of lambic beer in Belgium, Toer de Geuze, is just three months from today. The event, held only every two years, features an open house at most of the lambic breweries and blenderies in Belgium’s lambic country, in the Payottenland and Zenne Valley, areas to the south and west of…
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Updates from Geuzestekerij Oud Beersel
I visited Oud Beersel again a few weeks ago, and I’m happy to report that all is well. Actually, that would be an understatement, as the venerable Beersel lambic producer is doing very well. During my visit on August 30th, blender/co-owner Gert Christiaens told me that demand is such for his beers that he needs…
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Meet Anne-Françoise Pypaert, the first female Trappist brewmaster
Step aside, guys. The lady is in charge. Welcome to Brasserie d’ Orval, Anno 2014. Things have changed a lot in the male-dominated world of the Trappist Abbey breweries in the last few decades. A significant number of women now work at these hallowed places, mainly in the area of lab work, marketing, and quality…
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Brasserie Cantillon set to expand and double production
Jean Van Roy released some big news today: Brasserie Cantillon has found a space where they can add lots of extra barrels and increase production by double over a four year period. The building is just 300 meters from Cantillon, and was the site of another lambic blendery, Brasserie Limbourg, which closed in the 1960’s.…