Belgian Beer Chronicles

Bourgogne des Flanders, a fruity blend from the Belgian town of Bruges

After water and tea, beer is said to be the most consumed beverage around the world. And Belgians, over the years, have mastered the skills of beer crafting and blended it into their social practices so well that it has become an integral part of their cultural heritage. The beer culture of Belgium even managed to earn itself a place in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2016. From pale ale, to red hues, to the black shades: Belgian beers cover a wide range, with around 180 breweries around the country. Raising a toast to their craftsmanship, today we are going to discuss the journey of a few Belgian beers here.

Trappist Beers:

Westmalle, the first golden pale ale to introduce the Tripel beer type

Mostly top fermented, these are the beers brewed by the monks of the Trappist order inside the monastery. They are available for sale outside the monasteries or in the brew house shops. They can be found across the Flanders region including Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp, and also in the capital city Brussles.

The Trappist order originated in the Cistercian monastery of La Trappe in France in 1664, when the then Abbot introduced the Strict Observance, where a fundamental rule was that he monasteries should be self sufficient. Monastery brew houses have already existed across Europe since the middle ages. Thus, following the Strict Observance, the Trappist monks started brewing beer inside the monastery itself, to feed the community. Nowadays, however, beer is also brewed to fund the monastery works and charitable causes. Monastery breweries later came into existence in other countries as the Trappist monks spread across Europe.

Many of the Trappist monasteries and brew houses were destroyed during the French revolution and the world war. Currently, around the world, there are 11 such monasteries, and 6 of them in Belgium itself.

Happy Panda Notes:

• Lookout for the Authentic Trappist Product mark on the bottle.
• Westvleteren 12, from the Westvleteren brewery in the Saint Sixtus Trappist Abbey, Belgium, has been debated to be one of the best beers in the world.

Abbey Beers:

Leffe, a brand of Stella Artois, brewed under license of an existing monastery

Originally, any monastic style beer was referred to as Abbey beer. However, that changed with the introduction of the Trappist beer official designation by the International Trappist Association in 1997. Now, abbey beer refers to beers brewed by a non-Trappist monastery or produced by any commercial brewery with commercial arrangement with a monastery. Some abbey beers are also produced by commercial breweries without any monastery connection but only assuming an abbey name. The beer brewed under the license to an abbey bear the Abbey Beer logo.

Although Abbey beers do not conform to rigid brewing styles, most of them almost include the distinctive Trappist styles of dubbel, tripel and blond.


Wheat beers:

Hoegarden, witbier

Originating in the Flemish part of Belgium in the middle ages, wheat beer or witbier is traditionally made with a mixture of wheat and barley, flavored with a mixture of herbs called gruit. Later on, after the availability of hops in Europe increased, they started getting be added to the gruit.

One such beer, the famous Hoegarden, has an interesting back story to it. During the 1950's, white beer production almost ended in Belgium. In the town of Hoegarden, the last wheat beer brewery closed its doors in 1955. After 10 years, a young farmer from the same town started reviving the beer. Result was the birth of a widely successful and popular beer that took its name after the village.

Lambic:

A notable variety of wheat beer is the Lambic, which is produced in Pajjotenland region of Belgium, southwest of Brussels. The specialty of this beer is that, instead of the regular fermentation by cultivated brewer's yeast, lambic it is brewed by the process of spontaneous fermentation by exposing it to wild yeast and bacteria said to be native to Senne valley. Then, the beer undergoes a long aging period ranging from three to six months (for young) to two to three years (for mature). This unusual process gives the beer its distinctive flavor: a dry, fruity taste, similar to wine, with a slightly sour sensation lingering in the mouth.

From Lambic, four kinds of beers are produced. Of these, the Lambic is the unblended basic brew or the refermented basic brew. It is a draught beer rarely bottled, hence available only around the area of production and a few cafes in Brussels. Faro is the lambic just after the first fermentation and is sometimes served with sugar or caramel to make it taste pleasant. Gueuze is the commercialized finished product, which blends young and old brews to stimulate the final fermentation. Fruit lambic is made by blending fruit concentrates to lambic brews before the final refermenting stage.

Timmermans brewery near Brussels is the world's oldest lambic brewery.

Flanders red ale:

Bourgogne des Flanders, a Flemish red ale

This is a style of sour ale brewed in West Flanders, Belgium. The beer is aged over a long period, typically a year or more and often in oak barrels, to give it a lactic acid character. Lactobacillus is specially used for the fermentation. It is a bacteria similar to the one producing yogurt. This results in the sour taste of the ale. Red malt contributes to its color. The matured beer is often blended with a younger batch before bottling to create a balance of taste.

Rodenbach started this type of ale more than a century ago.

Brewery Bourgogne des Flandres in Bruges follow this typical flemish beer blending tradition. Their house ale is a blend of the mild Den Bruinen Os, which is brewed on site with an aged lambic, brewed in Timmermans near Brussels. The resulting blend is a deep reddish brown colored rich and creamy ale with a tingling sour aftertaste.

Flanders red ales have a strong fruity taste, similar to its flavor. It is often considered the most vinous of all beers.

Hope you enjoyed the beer stories, and I hope you enjoy the beers even more. Cheers!!