Wednesday 17 November 2010

Mmmmmm beer


IMG_0446
Originally uploaded by Lillput
I like beer.

I was introduced to it about 20 years ago when I learned that cider didn't generally travel much, nor well.

In a conversation with S and some other friends at a beer festival, I had to admit I didn't like Belgian beer, at least not the stuff I'd tried. The admission was greeted with some surprise and the assertion from all present that there would be Belgian beers I like, I just had to find them.

So, S suggested we amble over to Brussels by Eurostar to try and find beer I might like. He's nice like that.

CJ tells me that he's never been there and would appreciate an appraisal of the place. So this seems as good a place as any to do it.

I'm going to try not to ramble...

Friday
Last minute change of plans sees us meet at the Betjeman Arms in St Pancras.
Much better than the usual run of station bars serving well-kept Doom Bar and Betjeman (both Sharps).

Eurostar check-in is like "airport security lite" and soon we're aboard the train.

Travelling at up to 180mph is a bit disconcerting when the journey is so smooth and it's dark outside so you get little sense of what you're travelling through.

Two hours later we arrive at Bruxelles Midi - in the rain.

We find the apartment (Apartments Manneken) dump our stuff, change into dry clothes and head back out to find food...and beer.

'Le Falstaff': Well-known in the right circles. Service awful, food a bit m'eh (Carbonnade for S, Lapin ala gueze for me).
Beer: Hoegaarden - standard fare, perfectly good - a good introduction to get my palate in.

Next A la Mort Subite.
Beers: Morte Subite Kriek, a lambic and a couple of others I can't remember. Kriek was a high-point for me - bright pink, fruity but not sweet.

Saturday
More rain.
Visit to La Grande Place and the museum there. Interesting place - a good introduction to the history of Brussels - includes architectural artefacts, maps, ceramics, paintings and tapestries.
Oh, and the wardrobe of 'Le Mannequin Pis' - seriously, weird.

Refreshment needed so S recommends A la Becasse.
Lovely interior (Arts and Crafts, maybe?) with friendly service.

Beer: sweetened Lambic beer. Served in a jug to share. Followed up with a mix of Lambic and Kriek in an even bigger jug.
I think the kriek/lambic mix worked particularly well.

Time to find something to eat and luckily right opposite was a cheese shop and a bakery. Back to the apartment to eat and have a bit of a rest.

Refreshed, we headed back out around 9pm and found Poechenellekelder.
Lively but easy-going atmosphere, excellent service and beer served with a little bit of ceremony.
Beers: Taras Boulba (yummy yum, yum). Kwak (nice but in a silly glass) and probably four more that I can't remember.

Sunday
Culture: Notre Dame de la Chapelle church. Quite restrained by Roman Catholic standards but has a completely OTT pulpit. Definitely worth a visit.

Parc de Bruxelles was a little sparse but would probably be a green oasis in the height of summer.

Musical Instrument Museum was fab - if you like musical instruments. Floor after floor of every instrument you can imagine and several you can't.
You get a set of headphones that pick up sound samples whilst you're walking around to illustrate the exhibits. Not perfect but a good idea.
Really enjoyable couple of hours spent and we didn't see everything. I can pretty much guarantee you'll never see so many accordians or bagpipes in any other place.

So it was time for more refreshment.

Toone is famous for its puppet theatre and should be notorious for its service. Not exactly hostile but definitely didn't get the impression they cared about whether we were there or not.

Beer: Hopus (tall glass and a shot glass for the bottoms to be added if you like). Very nice indeed - better with the bottoms added.

We decided to go to one of the many fishy restaurants in Rue des Bouchers. Sole and Monkfish were greedily eaten and washed down with Leffe (blonde for me, brune for him).

Thence to Delerium which our beer guide told us had 2000 beers to try.
We think it's changed set up since the book was written but it was a nice place.
No table service - but something like 30 beers on tap at the upstairs bar. Oh and a very tall bar.
Beers: Floris Fruit beer (possibly Kiwi flavoured?) very drinkable but not very beerish (pictured)
Guillotine: Dark but quite bitter.
There were a couple of others too...but their names escape me.

Upstairs bar was full of young trendy things and it was very noisy so we tried the downstairs one - this one had more people the same age as us but the crush was greater and the noise level higher.

Instead we escaped and went to Soleil which was just around the corner from our apartment. Very quiet and clearly a locals' bar. Nice place with the grooviest toilets you can imagine.

S had Rochefort which was dark, chewy and strong. Can't remember what I had.
We then had time for one quick closing - something draught, but I can't remember what.

Mionday
Our last day so a bit of an early start which was something of a shock.
A walk north following a trail of building-side cartoons which seem to be prevalent around the city.
The area is rather unloved and it's a shame they don't make anything of the canal but we did stumble on the interesting 1930's church of John the Baptist in Molenbeek.

A walk through the Marolles area with its antique shops and flea market ended with a trip to the utterly charming gueze museum/Cantillion Brewery.

Here we learned about real, traditional Lambic brewing methods. We were given a booklet and sent to amble around the working brewery learning about how it does its stuff.
After about an hour we were invited to sit in the bar and try their beers.

Gueze is not to everyone's taste - it's very acidic, almost cider-like in character. I wouldn't want to drink it every day but after three small glasses of it, my tastebuds had become accustomed.

Then it was time to head towards the station but time for a couple of glasses of "Palm" in a station bar.

The journey home was as smooth as the one out and before we knew it we were back in St Pancras.

In conclusion
A great place with many further possibilities.

I was wrong about Belgian beer - it's not all sweet, sickly and dark. There's probably a beer to suit everyone. I found loads to like.

Having a beer guide (in the person of S, and a copy of a CAMRA book) was extremely useful but it's not hard to work out how the various bars work if you pay attention - some are table service, others are bar service.

Making the effort with French (in most places) was rewarded with smiles and help.

One surprise was that smoking is still allowed in some bars - it might sway your choice of venue.

Go there! Drink beer.

Thanks, S

x