Love Good Beer

Pilgrimage to Westvleteren

Sunday, January 9th, 2011 | Beer | 3 Comments

Westvleteren is one of only seven Trappist monasteries in the world where the monks brew traditional Belgian beer.  What makes them special? They are the one Trappist brewery that only sells their beer on the premises, not in beer stores.  You can get the beer of the other six Trappist breweries all over the world, including in London and in Vancouver.   The only place you should be able to taste Westvleteren is in Cafe In De Vrede adjacent to the brewery at Saint Sixtus abbey (Westvleteren is actually the name of the nearest town), or in your home if you’ve visited and purchased a few bottles.  However, some sneaky beer store owners have made the pilgrimage to Westvleteren and put their horde up for sale.  I’ve come across this rarest of beer in Amsterdam and in Antwerp.  I did buy some, but specifically avoided the legendary quad until I could make the journey myself.  The aforementioned quad is widely considered to be the best beer in the world, just check out Beer Advocate and RateBeer.com for proof.

The Beers of Westvleteren

Since getting into beer and learning about Trappist brewing tradition, I’ve had it as a goal to make the trip.  Now I’ve finally done it.  This past Christmas Erik and I, along with the wives, took a trip to Belgium.  We took the Eurostar from London to Brussels, spent the night there (Cantillon, Delirium, Mort Subite, Bruges, Antwerp, and so many more posts to come), then rented a car and drove out to West Flanders.  The trip was supposed to take over an hour and a half, but, thanks to our rental car upgrade (Audi A4 diesel wagon) and my prodigious driving, we made the trip in just over an hour.  We were getting a bit worried as we neared our destination since it looked as though we were in the middle of nowhere amongst the farmland of flanders fields.  Our apprehension was not lessened as we approached what appeared to be a desolate monastery.  Then we turned the last corner and saw a slick looking cafe and hundreds of other cars in the parking lot.  Turns out we approached from the rear.

In de Vrede Cafe, bit modern looking eh?

I was a bit disappointed to see a shiny new visitor center with a modern cafe restaurant staffed by normal looking people.  I expected tonsured monks pulling bottles out of hay lined crates and blessing the beer before selling it to me.  Oh well, at least I still had the best beer in the world to drink.  We ordered one each of Westvleteren 12 (the quad), Westvleteren 8 (a dubbel), and Westvleteren Blonde (pale ale).  They were all very good beers, but when something is billed as the greatest beer in the world, you expect magic.  In that respect, I was a bit disappointed.  I am quite sure the exclusivity of this beer helps it in the ratings department.  Turns out the St. Bernardus brewery brews the same beers using the same recipes and St. Bernardus 12 doesn’t get quite the same attention, though it is still quite highly rated.

Don’t get me wrong, all of the Westvleteren beers were excellent examples of their style.  Going right to the monastery and trying the best and most exclusive beer in the world was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.  I bought two bottles of each style and I haven’t drank them yet, so I’ve got a few more Westvleteren sessions to get through yet.  If you like beer at all, I definitely recommend making the pilgrimage yourself.  If not for the beer, then because something else happened on Flanders Fields a few years back.

When you consider the population of Canada at the start of WW1 was about seven million, it’s quite impressive that over six hundred thousand Canadians served in the war.  When you think of what Canada was like at that time, we were barely a country, we barely had an army, and most everyone was a European immigrant (not necessarily from the UK).  And yet Canadians, who were mostly farmers/labourers and possibly of German decent, signed up in droves to fight for Britain.  Most of the sixty seven thousand Canadians that died in WW1 did so in Flanders fields.  We saw monuments to Canadian soldiers all over Belgium and Flanders is littered with military cemeteries and monuments.  Think of what the trenches of WW1 were like (I was freezing just standing outside for ten minutes) and consider the way Canadians fought for the UK and for Belgium.  I did and being there, taking it all in, I’ve never been so proud to be Canadian.

The Menin Gate in Ypres, a monument to commonwealth soldiers who died in Flanders Fields

Some of the 55000 names on Menin Gate

Recent wreaths laid for Canadian soldiers at Menin Gate

Random Cemetery in Flanders: Their name liveth for evermore

Tyne Cot Cemetery at night: 12000 graves, 9000 unnamed

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: Belgium, best beer in the world, cafe in de vrede, flanders fields, pilgrimage, saint bernardus brewery, saint sixtus abbey, westvleteren, westvleteren 12, westvleteren 8, westvleteren blonde

Amsterdam: Two rad beer stores and the Heineken Experience

Sunday, September 19th, 2010 | Beer | 2 Comments

I made sure to check out the beer scene when I visited Amsterdam a couple weeks ago.  If you haven’t been to Amsterdam before, I highly recommend it. Outside of the touristy center around the train station, it’s a lovely city set amongst picturesque canals and contains more bikes than you’ve ever seen before.  The red light district needs to be seen to be believed and it is quite the sight.  More importantly, Amsterdam has a thriving craft beer scene. I managed to check out two of its epic beer stores, but sadly none of its renowned beer cafes.  The one I tried to visit, Golem, was closed for having broken a law, though they didn’t say which one.

De Bierkoning in Amsterdam

De Bierkoning (the beer king) was the first store I visited.  Conveniently they were celebrating their 25th anniversary, which meant free tastings and special beers.  I asked someone working at the store to point me in the direction of some quality Dutch beer and they suggested I try their anniversary specials.  A few local breweries brewed special versions of their regular beer for De Beirkoning’s 25th.  I bought five or so of those special beers and those I’ve tried so far have been delightful.  The anniversary beers were brewed by Brouwerij de Molen, Brouwerij de Eem, and Brouwerij ‘t IJ.  My favorite to date is Hamer and Sikkel by Brouwerij de Molen, a roasty flavorful porter brewed extra strong for the occasion.  Another plus, I received a free de Bierkoning keychain bottle opener for purchasing more than ten euros worth of beer.  It’s now attached to my keychain for all my immediate bottle opening needs.

Perusing in De Bierkoning Amsterdam

The second beer store I visited was the Cracked Kettle, apparently known by locals as less commercial and of higher quality than de Bierkoning.  While I didn’t feel like I could fit anymore dutch beer in my suitcase, the Cracked Kettle tempted me with brews from their Belgian neighbors.  Somebody from the store had recently paid a visit to the monastery of Westvleteren, brewer of what is widely considered the world’s greatest beer.  They only sell their beer at the monastery, so to find it at a store was almost too good to be true.  I purchased the dubbel and the pale ale, but passed up on the chance to be the quad, aka “best beer on earth“.  Why would I do such a silly thing?  Because I’m going to make the pilgrimage myself and only then shall I drink the sweet nectar of the Gods (that’s probably what the God serving monks call it).

The Cracked Kettle Amsterdam

Inside The Cracked Kettle Amsterdam

Westvleteren at The Cracked Kettle Amsterdam

I also paid a visit to the Heineken Experience, a tour through an old Heineken Brewery much like the Guinness Storehouse, though not as a good.  The Heineken Experience was much less educational and much less of a museum than it’s Guinness counterpart, but was similarly amusing.  It’s just as much of a tourist trap, chock full of interactive propaganda and marketing.  There is one part where you stand on a movable platform and get brewed.  The platform shakes you around as you are stirred, splashes you with water, and then takes you to a party where extremely good looking people drink you.  At the end of the tour you do get three half pints of Heineken (extra cold!) to drink in their built in nightclub.  I don’t hate Heineken, but I do wish what I drank of it wasn’t often skunky (stupid clear bottles).  While it was cool to see the Heineken marketing machine in action, I can’t say I’d recommend the Heineken experience or do it again.

Us guys at the Heineken Experience

Messed up interactive thing at the Heineken Experience

Finally a taste at the Heineken Experience

Amsterdam, like Stockholm, and unlike Athen and Berlin, was one of those cities I really loved visiting.  Next time I’ll hit up the epic beer bars.  I may or may not have eaten a space muffin.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: amsterdam, Brouwerij 't IJ, Brouwerij de Eem, Brouwerij de Molen, cafe golem, cracked kettle, de beirkoning, hammer and sikkel, heineken experience, westvleteren

New Year’s Beer Resolutions

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 | Beer | 3 Comments

We had a good year in 2010, but didn’t exactly close out the year strong what with our posting becoming increasingly infrequent.  Despite our lazy December, we managed to have a really good first full year of LoveGoodBeer.com.  Some of the cool stuff that happened to us:

• We received free beer a few times
• We attended a lot of cool events (one with a press pass)
• We had a few restaurants ask us for help with their beer menus

While that stuff was awesome, it’s time for us to step our games up.  To make sure we reach higher this year, I’ve decided to set some lofty goals via New Year’s resolutions.  I haven’t talked to Erik about these, but he’ll just have to deal with it.

Westvleteren, we'll be there

New Year’s Resolutions:

• Get Erik intertube access – Erik bought a new house in late November and has been busy renovating and moving in, but still doesn’t have the internet.  This explains why he hasn’t posted in well over a month, even though he has rad things to write about.
• Drink more awesome beer and less crappy beer – There is a lot of good beer out there, so why bother drinking crappy beer?  Also, we need to try every good beer ever made and, therefore, have no time to waste on crappy beer.
• Exercise more -  If we are going to drink more beer, we’ll have to exercise to stay really, really, really ridiculously good looking, probably at least three times a week.
• Go on at least three beer pilgrimages – We haven’t even been to Portland yet, so we’ll need to do that.  Oktoberfest in Munich and Trappist Monasteries in Belgium come to mind.  Westvleteren here we come.
• Post thrice per week – Collectively, we should be able to post three times a week every week.

I was also going to add “take over the world”, but felt it didn’t apply because we have pretty much already done this.  Happy New Year!

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: Beer, Belgium, munich, new year's resolution, oktoberfest, pilgrimage, portland, westvleteren

Real Trappist Beer

Friday, March 6th, 2009 | Beer | 5 Comments

I sometimes flinch when people say they do or do not like Belgian beer.  A year ago, I might have said something similar, but I’ve since learned that Belgium is country and not representative of a beer style.  In fact, Belgian beer comprises a vast and diverse collection of very delicious beer styles.  The most interesting moniker attached to a category of Belgian beer, to me at least, is Trappist.  Trappist is also not the name of a beer style, but signifies that a beer has been brewed under the control of Trappist monks.  Trappist beer is available for sale, but the monks use any proceeds to carry out their monastic lives, not for profit.  I find this pretty freaking cool, that I can drink beer made by monks in the same way they’ve been making it for hundreds of years.  Check out the Wikipedia page for more info on Trappist history.

There are currently only seven Trappist breweries remaining in the world, six in Belgium and one in the Netherlands, and all are currently attached to active monasteries.  They are Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle, Westvleteren, Achelse Kluis, and Koningshoeven (the Dutch one).  Trappist beers were traditionally brewed with greater strength to help sustain the monks during their fasts (which may or may not explain some saintly visions).  Today, Trappist ales can generally be categorized among the dubbel, tripel, Belgian pale ale, or Belgian strong ale styles.  Many confuse Belgian beers sporting the abbey label with trappist beers.  The abbey label arose around the same time that Trappist beer became popular, but abbey is only a competitive marketing term.  Abbey and Trappist beers are generally brewed in the same styles, but the abbey label does not necessarily signify that a beer was actually made by an abbey, not that it really matters.  There are many fine examples of excellent abbey beer (Unibroue in Quebec brews some of the finest belgian trappist/abbey style beer in the world), but you can be sure that authentic trappist beers are of the finest quality.

I for one am excited to get into the stockpile of Westmalle, Rochefort, and Chimay authentic Trappist beers I have recently amassed.  A Belgian tasting night might be in order, complete with sasions, browns, wits, lambics and more.  If you haven’t tried any Belgian beer styles, I highly recommend you do so.  There will definitely be at least one that strikes you as lovely, and you don’t want to be missing out.

Cheers,

Chri

Tags: abbey, achelse kluis, belgian, chimay, dubbel, koningshoeven, Lambic, orval, rochefort, sasion, trappist, tripel, unibroue, westmalle, westvleteren, wit