Brugges

I was very much looking forward to our trip today.  We visited Brugges, which is a small town with several canals running through it.  Despite the cold and rainy weather, our trip to Brugges was nothing short of amazing.  The city is composed of buildings built in a gothic style and the most modern building is one that was built in the Art Deco style.  This means that many of the buildings are historical pieces that have been renovated and made functional.  Our guide Krista mentioned that many of the houses are considered historical landmarks and that it is quite common to have archeologists looking through their yards.  This is because many of the houses are built on top of various ruins.

Krista gave us a tour of her hometown and showed us many of the important sights.  She also explained the historical context of the town.  I was most interested about the various communities that had developed on the outskirts of Brugges.  This included a convent of older nuns that originated from a group of free women who were not affiliated with a specific religion.  These women formed a group and built a complex during the time of the crusades because their husbands were off fighting in the war.  They were charitable women and helped out the needy.  This complex still exists but it was taken over by a group of nuns.

While in Brugges we were also able to visit a small chocolate shop.  This was probably my favorite part of the entire tour because we were able to watch the chocolatiers make some of their favorite sweets.  It is amazing how much work goes into a single chocolate truffle.  The chocolatiers import their chocolate, but they melt and blend the dark and light chocolates to make the perfect combination of chocolate for their sweets.  They then pour this chocolate into molds and fill the truffles with all sorts of nougats and creams.  This tour was great and I am glad we were able to see how these treats were made.  I would love to try and make some truffles in the future!

Brugges was a beautiful city, unfortunately we were only able to stay for the day.  It definitely deserves to be explored more and I plan on returning some day!  Hopefully when the weather is a little bit nicer J

Domus Brewery Tour

Today we visited the city of Leuven and toured the Domus Brewery.  This is a smaller brewery that provides beer for their pub.  This was an interesting tour because it was a much smaller brewery than the ones we have visited previously.  I enjoyed seeing some of the older homebrew equipment as well as their double pump system.  Domus does not bottle or keg their beer, rather they store it in a double pump system that is directly connected to their pub.  This means the beer travels from their brewery to their pub in a matter of seconds.  After the tour we were able to taste some of the Domus beer including the Condomus and their Christmas Ale.  Both beers were very tasty, but I preferred the Christmas Ale.

After the tour we were able to explore the city of Leuven a little bit more.  This was quite exciting because Leuven is a college town much like McMinnville wants to be.  It was great to see students wandering around the city and we were able to visit some of the local hangouts.  Keith and I wandered into a coffee shop that was also a bar and enjoyed a quite decadent cappuccino.

I enjoyed exploring Leuven and I would like to return someday to see more of the city!

Bosteel's and Lieffman's

Today we travelled through the Flanders area in Belgium.  We visited several breweries and toured the city of Gent.  The first brewery we visited was Bosteels, which is a family owned brewery that specializes in Kwak beer.  This is a style of beer that is served in a special glass that has a round bottom and must have a holder.  The special glass and holder traces back to Napoleon.  This is because Napoleon banned the deliverymen from drinking any beers at the pubs where they were delivering goods.  The owner of the brewery developed the special holder that could be attached to the carriage that the deliverymen were driving.  The owner could then bring them a beer to drink while the men were making their deliveries.  The brewery itself was very interesting and remains even today a small operation.  The current owner of the brewery gave us a tour of the office building, which used to be the family house.  This was awesome because we were able to see some of the rooms that were used for entertainment and such.

We then went on a quick tour of Gent in which we saw the many canals that run throughout the city.  The cathedral in the center of the town was quite impressive.  There was a great deal of stained glass as well as beautiful paintings.  Important families that were members of the Church commissioned these paintings.  The families wanted to ensure their place in heaven and be commemorated by the Church forever.  Gent was quite beautiful and I would enjoy spending more time there and exploring the city more.

In the afternoon we went to Lieffman’s brewery and toured the facility.  This was a very old brewery which fairly old equipment.  The brewing of the wort is no longer done in this facility; rather it is done in the Duvel brewery that is close by.  The cooled wort is then transported to Lieffman’s and put in large open-air fermentation tanks.  The open air is important because the lactobacillus bacteria can then inoculate the beer.  This gives their beers a characteristically sour flavor.  Lieffman’s also makes a Kriek style beer in which cherries are macerated with their dark ale.  This results in a lovely sweet cherry flavor in the beer.

The brewery tours and the visit to Gent were awesome!  It was great to see parts of Flanders and get outside of the city of Brussels.

Het Ankor Brewery

Today had a frustrating beginning, but ended up being a pretty great day.  We were scheduled to tour two breweries in two different towns outside of Brussels.  First we visited DeBuisson Brewery where we watched a video about the history of the brewery and tasted some of their beers.  The coolest part of this visit is that we can buy their beers in Portland.  The tour was somewhat of a letdown because we did not actually get to see the brewery; rather we just watched a video.

The next tour was at Het Anker Brewery.  This was a great tour, and I wish we could have spent more time at this brewery.  We got to see the brew house and also visited the barrel room where they were aging their very own Whisky.  The beer that this brewery produces is quite strong and very flavorful.  They are able to use herbs, spices and other additives to strengthen and flavor their beers.  This is because unlike Germany, Belgium does not have a purity law so brewers here are able to use all different kinds of spices.  Het Anker uses spices such as dried orange peels, licorice, start anise, and coriander.  They also add port wine to some of their beers.  These spices add complex flavors to the beer.  It was very interesting to taste these types of beer.  I really enjoyed this tour and the tasting.

Although the day began in a slow and frustrating way, it was still a great experience to see Het Anker brewery and see more of the Belgium countryside.  I look forward to the next few days of our stay in Belgium.

Brussels and Cantillon Brewery

Today was our first official day in Brussels!  Last night we walked around a bit and visited Delirium Café, which has 1,000 beers available.  It was great to see the beer culture here in Belgium; it is clearly different from the beer culture in Germany.  This morning we toured the city of Brussels and saw lots of historical buildings.  Belgium has had a very tumultuous past, and the guide did a fabulous job explaining all of this to us throughout the tour.  She helped us understand the significance of all of the different types of architecture.  The most impressive buildings were all of the guild houses as well as the churches.  The landscape here is much different than in Germany because there was very little Nazi influence; rather the Belgium people are defined by all of the invasion and war that they have experienced throughout their history.  My favorite part of the tour was going to the top of the music museum and having a coffee.  The view of the city was quite impressive and makes me want to explore the Brussels even more.

This afternoon we toured Cantillon Brewery, which is one of the most fascinating breweries I have seen on this trip and quite possible the most interesting brewery in the world.  Cantillon brews lambic style beers.  This style beer is characterized by the spontaneous fermentation.  This is when yeast from the air inoculates the wort after it has been cooled.  The inoculated wort is then stored in barrels and begins the fermentation process.  The beer is fermented for several years and then can be blended to form Gueze or it can be macerated with fruit to produce different flavors.  True lambic style beers are very dry and not sweet at all.  After the tour, we were able to taste the lambic beers that Cantillon produces.  This was not your typical tasting experience; the young lambic beer was not carbonated, was sour, and was very dry.  The Gueze and the blended versions were more carbonated but had the same sour, dry taste.  This brewery tour was awesome, and completely different than any of the other tours we have been on.