Lonely Planet's Global Beer Tour by Lonely Planet

Author:Lonely Planet
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781787010918
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Published: 2017-04-30T16:00:00+00:00

BELGIUM

How to ask for a beer in the local language?

Une bière, s’il vous plaît / Een pintje, alstublieft

How to say cheers? Santé!

Signature beer style? Gueuze (among many others)

Local bar snack? Kip-kap, a type of brawn

Don’t: Insist on a draft pint: Belgium’s remarkable beer diversity is due in part to the popularity of bottles

No country on earth has such a diverse array of indigenous beer styles as Belgium, to say nothing of the world-class beers it produces in styles brought in from abroad. About the same size as the state of Maryland in the US and only 50% bigger than Wales in the UK, this tiny country wedged between France, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg brews more different types of beer than all of its neighbours put together, creating an exceptionally dynamic range of beverages that pair particularly well with food. In fact, beer is so revered here that Belgium is even home to la cuisine à la bière, which means ‘beer cooking’ in French, one of its two major languages, with such highbrow dishes as carbonade flamande, which use beer as an ingredient; similarly, many fine-dining restaurants here have extensive beer lists, as well as wine.

Several of the best-loved Trappist monastery breweries are located in Belgium, from funky Orval in the French-speaking south to the legendary Westvleteren in Dutch-speaking Flanders, and a number of farms that originally only made beer as a refreshment for field labourers, such as Brasserie Dupont, have since transformed into world-renowned farmhouse breweries.

From sour beer styles, such as Flemish Red and Oud Bruin to syrupy Golden Ales, Trappists and abbey beers, from refreshingly hoppy saisons to bitter porters and roasty stouts, Belgium is the original beer paradise. Yet despite the great variety you’ll find here, it’s eye-opening to discover that Belgium’s current beer culture is actually much smaller than it used to be: thousands of small breweries in Belgium closed down over the course of the 20th century, pushed out by the growth of industrial lager and aggressive business practices. Beer fans around the world might clamour for bottles of Westvleteren 12, but the most popular beer in Belgium is actually Jupiler, a Pilsner, and its best-known export is arguably Stella Artois, brewed in the same style and often at the very same brewery as Jupiler by the world’s largest brewing company. Depressingly, a number of historic beer styles like Peeterman and Bière Blanche de Louvain have more or less disappeared for good. But things are heading back in the right direction. Today, new microbreweries, such as the Brussels Beer Project and Brasserie de la Senne have brought dynamic new flavours to the country’s beer scene. Even spontaneously fermented Lambic beer, long thought to be heading the way of the dodo bird, is seeing an upturn, with the first Lambic blender in 15 years, Gueuzerie Tilquin, starting up in 2009, and a proliferation of specialist bars, including the great Moeder Lambic in Brussels. Local beer festivals are also working to revive the original diversity of Belgian beer.

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