Trailing Off....: Hoppy Anniversary Part One: The Beer

For an anniversary holiday, one might expect a couple still in the throes of newlyweddedness to plan romantic strolls in Paris, serenaded gondola rides in Venice, or even an ancient site-hopping rendezvous in Rome. This couple wanted beer.

That beer could be a culinary experience had never occurred to me. I’d spent nearly 20 years drinking basic swill offered at the lowest prices: Bud Light, Old Style, Leo, Efes, Tsingtao. Though two years of Guinness has been a giant leap forward in taste, I never knew what beer had to offer. It all started when we discovered that 172 steps from our front door was a quaint little hipster pub called The Black Sheep, voted the number 1 craft beer pub in Dublin (https://www.jar.ie/article/ultimate-list-craft-beer-pubs-dublin) .

With no Guinness or mainstream brew on tap, I had to learn which intricate blends of hops and barley appealed most. Beer can hit every flavour note nearly as well as a complex curry. Stouts can be sweet and chocolatey; IPAs can be citrusy and bitter; some beers are spicy, while others like weissbier can be herbally and reminiscent of bananas. A truly good beer gets better as the glass becomes emptier.

At Au Bon Vieux Temps. Cheese was served with celery salt.

Over the last few months as our love for beer bloomed and fermented, it seemed like the best fit to visit a country where beer has been made by monks for nine centuries.

At Le Pretexte in Brussels

S planned every aspect of the trip and all I was required to do was to go along for the ride and document the sites and sips.

It was love at first pour at the first pub. A la Becasse, a family owned place since 1877, specialises in barrel lambic beers which is made by spontaneous fermentation. The blanche variety tasted of coriander and orange zest. Gueze is a type of lambic that has a second fermentation and is slightly sour. These beers are served here in a lovely jug and with the warm and cosy atmosphere of the pub, it was actually quite romantic. We loved this pub so much we came back on our last day.

Two of my favourite pubs were in Antwerp, a short train ride from Brussels. Oud Aresenaal is a local hangout and the sense of camaraderie filled me with joy. When we were there on an early Sunday afternoon, groups of friends were chatting together as their pet dogs eyed each other suspiciously. I went up to order another beer and the barman shouted at me, “In Belgium, we don’t order from the bar. Sit down!” Despite feeling like an idiot, I enjoyed two lovely glasses here: Troubadour (smells like pears but not too fruity or sweet) and Arsenaal (non-distinct table beer).

At Aud Arsenaal

With beer, there's no need for monogamy. At the other pub, Pater’s Vaetje, I discovered that I really, really love darker beer like dubel and tripel. As the sunlight streamed in and lit up the glasses like diamonds and people took photos of the cathedral outside, we sat at the bar and watched the all-female staff make delicious food and serve beers. Especially good were the De Konnick and Karmeliet Tripel. Oh, and I had the best cheeseburger of my life here too.

Definitely not my usual RBF

The beer that made me swoon with love is kriek, which is a lambic beer fermented with cherries. I had quite a few of these and found that a couple were rather fake (grenadine added). Real quality like Echt Kriekenbier tasted liked ginger jams and wasn’t too sweet. It was a dark brown rather than bright red. A small glass of kriek is great with a heavy breakfast, by the way.

favourite beer of the trip

Perhaps the best café/pub of all was La Chat Touille, a café where cats roam about playing with toys, climbing onto shelves on the wall, and giving a little love to customers before ignoring them. It was a moment of pure bliss to sip on a strong beer (La Poes) whilst petting a tomcat. I can't tell you how much I love my husband for making this difficult to find place part of our itinerary.

both are a little uncertain of the situation

The pub your mother would warn you about and the most famous was Delirium Pub, which has over 2000 beers. I knew it wasn’t going to be a cosy experience when I saw the pile of vomit blocking the path to the toilet. Though as noisy and full of foreigners as Dicey’s on a Tuesday night, it was still an interesting experience to drink fancy pants beers with people whose main aim seemed to be to get hammered.

good, strong beer

Not every moment was spent in a pub. We did experience a bit of history and culture on the trip. The Cantillon Brewery has a museum and self-guided tour. They make 100% organic gueze, lambic, and kriek beers using the old methods. The best part of the tour was the sampling at the end.

"This way Madame"

Over four days, we sampled about 35 different beers. Lest one thinks we were stumbling about the town, beers in Belgium are served in 25 or 33 millilitre glasses/bottles and we often shared a bottle so as to always spice things up a bit. There was no drunkenness, just a constant mellow peaceful buzz. We may not always have made the best choices, but like marriage, we are new to this, and hopefully over time as our bond grows, so will our knowledge....