April 22 was the first edition of Rondje Roodbruin—open brewery days at Rodenbach, Bockor and Verhaeghe celebrating the Flemish reds. I have to say, I am so happy we went because the next one is not until April 27, 2014.
There was a free shuttle running between the breweries, free full-size samples and free, easy parking (we parked on the street by Rodenbach). If I had to criticize anything, it would be Verhaeghe. There was quite literally nothing to see there. Just a glass of Duchesse de Bourgogne to drink. But will I get on the free tour bus to go drink a free Duchesse? Yes, yes I will. Not complaining; just would have been nice if there were something more. (For the record, Omer and other beers were available on draft, and they did have glasses, bottles, etc available for sale.)
On to Rodenbach. This was the reason for coming. Mainly because I wanted to see the foeders (skip to the end of the pics below). They are massive and built by hand by in-house coopers. You can’t normally tour Rodenbach without being part of a large group so this was a real treat. (Allegedly, you can e-mail them and find out if there is an existing tour that you can join. I tried this last year; they never mailed back.)
