After the success of the Branch trips to Arran and Prague, in late 2007 it was felt that it was time to start planning another jaunt abroad. In the end Bruges was picked as the destination and early April the time to go. When we had first chosen Bruges it appeared from my researches that there were still two breweries operating in the city, further investigation however revealed that De Gouden Boom (The Golden Tree) got taken over by Palm and closed its doors in 2005 just leaving De Halve Maan (The Half Moon). Since Bruges is such an attractive city and the CAMRA guide to Belgium lists several good bars in the city we decided to go ahead with the visit. It was decided that members would make their own travel and accommodation arrangements as allowing for greater flexibility and that we would meet on the Saturday (at least) for an organized tour of the brewery.
Come late March it appeared that only some 7 or 8 people would be able to make the trip but since the brewery visit for 20 was already booked it seemed churlish to back out at such short notice so we plunged ahead.
Four of us (Tom, Janet, Sybil & myself) travelled by Eurostar from St. Pancras to Brussels and then by Belgian railways on to Bruges (trains to any station in Belgium are included in the price of a Eurostar ticket). The new Eurostar terminal at St. Pancras is magnificent with its huge, soaring, engine shed glass roof and we pulled out on time at 08:05, some 30 minutes later we were plunging into the Channel Tunnel, now that's how public transport should be, for those who don't know I make the distance travelled about 70 miles! As we sped through Northern France we discussed the fact that the Cantillon brewery (home of some very well known Lambic beers including a Kriek that both Janet and I am very fond of) was only about 300 metres from Brussels Zuid station.
Consequently we dropped our bags at the left luggage office and set off. The brewery is tucked away down a little back street and has no signage pointing towards it but there had been a good map on the brewery website so we found it easily enough. There seemed to be little activity when we got there but a lady emerged from an office, took our 5 euros a head and explained, as Lambic beers are fermented using only naturally occurring yeasts (spontaneous fermentation) they only brew from October to mid-March to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination. Having explained the processes we were handed pamphlets with numbered sections and pointed to the sign reading 'No. 1' at the end of the passageway and left to get on with it whilst the down time work of the brewery, bottling, labelling etc., went on around us, no overly officious health & safety here! The brewery itself was not hugely different from many of those we have visited although it did seem to have rather more cobwebs than some as this picture of the brewery cat may demonstrate.
The reason for all of the cobwebs is explained in that the final maturation of the beer and the fruit used to make the various fruit beers attracts lots of flies in the summer months, since insecticides can't be used around beer maturing in porous wooden barrels, spiders are the brewers best friend, as such no cobwebs are ever destroyed or a spider killed.
The wort is cooled overnight with the louvered walls of the room left open to allow the naturally occurring yeasts to settle and start their work, this occurs in a copper cooling vessel very similar to the ones we have seen in both Hook Norton's brewery and U Fleku in Prague.
The beer ferments in barrels made of chestnut and for the first few days these are left unsealed to prevent explosion, once the slow fermentation has started the barrels are sealed and the beer is left to ferment for at least a year and up to three. From these different ages of beer are Gueuze and fruit lambics made, young beer is used to provide unfermented sugars so that further maturation can take place in the bottle and the older beers are used for both bouquet and taste.
At the end of the visit two samples per head are available, the gueuze and either the Kriek (cherry) or Gambrinus (raspberry), if you haven't had Gueuze before it can be a bit of a surprise as it has a somewhat sour character but I find it very enjoyable in smallish doses. The 'true' Kriek and Gambrinus also share this sour character in that they are not the overpoweringly sweet versions that have proliferated recently which to my mind are very similar to alco-pops. The fruit beers of Cantillon taste strongly of the fruits they are made from but are obviously still beers and very refreshing on a hot day.
Further information can be found at www.cantillon.be
So, having already visited one brewery within four and a half hours of leaving home we felt it was time to head for Bruges, a slight oddness of Belgian Railways is that the main departure boards don't list the intervening stations and so you need to know that you are looking for a train to Oostend! Having found ours we settled down for the 55 minute journey to Bruges. On arrival we made our way to the Flanders hotel where we were staying and where also Ralph & Lesley had booked to arrive the next day. Bruges is very much geared up to tourism and the hotels all seem to be of a good standard and since the old town is encircled by a canal all those within it are in easy walking distance of all of the sights.
To be continued.....
Part two.
Having ensconced ourselves in the hotel we set out for a quick look around, Bruges is a great city for walking, a maze of little streets interspersed with canals and open squares makes for a very pleasant experience. There are no 'great' sights or edifices in Bruges but its mediaeval street plan and many brick buildings give it a feel somewhat akin to Cambridge in its less frequented areas. As there are many descriptions of the city available both in print and on the 'net I shan't continue here except where they have a beer 'flavour'.
The Good Beer Guide To Belgium by Tim Webb was an invaluable companion, written, as it is, with a degree of humour amongst the various facts and descriptions. For instance, without it, we would never have found the Staminee de Garre situated down a tiny alley (or garre) just off the street between the Burg (town square) and the Markt (market place). The entrance to the alley is literally the width of a doorway between two shops and if you didn't know what you were looking for you would most certainly miss it which would be a shame as the bar is a cracker. Set over two floors, the upper being galleried, it is a very small place and consequently somewhat crowded. What, for England, would be a long beer list (100 odd) is pretty slim pickings by Belgian standards and gives no real help to the uninitiated (this we found to be the case in most places so do some research before you go) but since Janet could get 'real' krieks in most places and I'm up for trying any beer we could order knowing that 50% of the group would be happy! An excellent meal at the Assiette Blanche finished the day off nicely. The Friday was spent with more pottering around with stops in bars and cafes along the way, one particular bar that we felt was a must was t Brugs Beertje which Tim Webb recommends highly. The bar is only open from 16:00 ('til 01:00) which seems to catch out a lot of Brits used to lunchtime opening, we got there at about 16:30 and fully agreed with Tim, it resembles a two room London boozer but differs in that the staff seems to be extremely knowledgeable and friendly and the beer list is in a huge folder and runs to over 30 beers, there are also 5 on tap. Having settled ourselves in another group of people arrived and sat on the table next to us, having budged over to give them a little more room and being thanked in English we fell to talking about beer as they said they had no idea of what to order and for some reason thought that we did! As is usual with these conversations the chap I was sitting next to said 'so where do you come from?' I gave my normal response to a Brit abroad and said 'oh, a little town just south of Cambridge called Saffron Walden' to which he said 'whereabouts?', 'Victoria Avenue' I replied and he replied 'so you drink in the Railway then?'. Yes, you go to Bruges and meet a guy who lives some quarter of a mile from you! So hallo to Ian Grant and family and please join CAMRA, we aren't all as bad as the group you met in Bruges. Whilst all this was going on other members of the party had struck up conversation with Cliff and Liz from Nottingham, as we felt that five people turning up to the brewery for a trip for twenty might look a little foolish we invited them along on the morrow. Part of our rambling during the day had been to find a restaurant for that evening with the intention that Ralph and Lesley and as many of their offspring that had made the journey would join us for dinner. We settled upon In't Nieuw Museum which both features in Tim Webb's guide and serves steaks cooked over a wood fire, in the end just the four of us dined there as Ralph and co. still didn't feel hungry after having driven over (and picnicked on Calais beach with a bottle of champagne!). The steaks were superb and Tom and I discovered a special Museum beer which was described as being much the same as the Krimburgen blond that we had been drinking but was only one euro a glass and very nice it was too.
Saturday dawned wet and grey and not even a dip in the hotel's small pool (three's company, four is too many) could lighten my spirits, however, donning waterproofs, we headed off for the brewery. Fifteen minutes walk through the rain soaked street brought us to Walplein and the Halve Maan brewery, here we met Cliff and Liz and made ourselves known to the staff, as expected they were a little surprised to see seven people for a twenty person tour (Lesley, Sophie & Charlie decided not to come) but we checked in, paid our money and were introduced to our guide, Inga. Well, I have never had a more entertaining tour, she was informed, funny, sarcastic and extremely well versed in the history and operation of the brewery. In a nutshell the brewery was converted from a traditional tower brewery to a single room brewery in the seventies I believe but the original layout with cooling room and malting floor remains. Inga was most scathing about their new neighbours in the building behind the brewery, this is an old building which has been converted into apartments and apparently the residents have been complaining about the noise the brewery makes! Surely if you buy a property next to any existing business you should be aware of what may impact upon you?
A few pictures of the brewery follow, click on the pictures for a larger view.
Sybil in the brewhouse Inga on the left The Malting floor
Trying to drink all the samples !
The pink tickets in the picture were our remaining beer tokens, rest assured we maintained the honour of the branch and got through them all, no thanks to Janet and Sybil though :-)
After a somewhat hazy wandering about in the afternoon we met up in Cafe Vlissinghe, reputed to be the oldest bar in Bruges, since it has been in operation since 1515 this seems to be a reasonable claim. Not a great beer list but a very atmospheric place for a drink, it has a chair belonging to Van Dyck and a huge iron stove.
All in all I think we recommend Bruges as a destination for anyone whether they are mad about beer or not and we would like to thank the staff of the Halve Maan brewery, especially Inga, for a great visit.
Ian Fitzhenry
