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3 Fonteinen is one of those places. We’ve been a bazillion times, but never bothered to take pictures. Until now…and with good reason—the new brewery! It wasn’t yet fully installed when we were there on open brewery days in September (note the four coolships), but with the start of brew season, it should be now. If you want to see in person, 3 Fonteinen will be open the first Saturday in November and December for tours (5€ per person).
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From 3 Fonteinen. Shot September 2, 2012. Beersel, Belgium
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Maredsous is an abbey beer brewed by Benedictine monks in the Walloon region of Belgium. The beer is, imo, just okay. Perfectly acceptable, not exceptional. It’s the sort of reasonably priced, solid Belgian I’ll drink when we move back to the states. But for now, with 21 cases of the best beer in the world in the basement and a choice of Cantillon, why bother with something unremarkably “decent.”
While the beer isn’t my favorite, Maredsous is a place I’d visit again on a sunny Saturday afternoon or lazy Sunday or a Tuesday (or whatever). This area of Belgium is lovely, and the Maredsous visitors center has plenty of outside seating and nice playground for the kids. Inside they have a bookshop, a giftshop and a cafeteria-style restaurant. That took some figuring out. The system is a bit different; you order and pay for your food then take the ticket to the appropriate counter to pick it up. One counter for beer, one for hot food, one for cold food, etc. Free parking, free bathrooms and the church is free.
They do offer guided tours which sound interesting. The web site site promises a look into the life and work of the monks—taking you behind the walls to monks cemetery, ceramics studio, etc. Only one problem: They’re only given in French and Dutch. While the tour is cheap (2.50€), probably one you don’t get much out of it unless you speak the language.
I should have taken a picture. In the gift shop, they sell hand-thrown pottery including the traditional Maredsous chalice in very untraditional colors—pink, kelly green and navy. They’re really beautiful; I just couldn’t justify spending 10€ on one when I’ve never used the (mass produced, 50 cent thrift shop) one we have. Although, if someone said they wanted one, you wouldn’t have to twist my arm to get me to go get it for you.
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From Maresdsous Abbey. Shot September 1, 2012 in Maresdsous, Belgium
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Photos from the first-ever open brewery days at Chimay.
Last week we toured the Chimay brewery at the Notre-Dame de Scourmont Abbey in southern Belgium. This was the first year the Trappist brewery was open to the public. Honestly, not my favorite of tours, but what an opportunity have one of the first looks inside.
A limited number of tours were given; they were free and bookable online (only on the French and Dutch versions of the Chimay web site). I can’t say it provided any great insight into monastic life or brewing or really anything because, well, the tour was conducted in French. My high school French doesn’t take me far beyond “Parlez-vous anglais?”, but it’s a brewery tour. What can they say that we don’t already know?
I had hoped to get to peek into the abbey, maybe see some monks like at La Trappe, at least visit the bottling line. Nope. The tour concluded with Chimay cheese and Spéciale Cent Cinquante. We received a 150-year-anniversary collectors glass as a souvenir of the visit and made our way to the restaurant down the street where they serve Chimay Dorée. The beer is good but the service is painfully slow (painfully slow by European standards and that means s l o w).
I did see a monk later…in the Carrefour parking lot.
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From Chimay Brewery. Shot August 31, 2012 at the Notre-Dame de Scourmont Abbey in Chimay, Belgium
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Bockor was the second brewery we visited on Rondje Roodbruin (after Rodenbach). We did the abbreviated version of the tour—skipping the coolship. To get there you had to climb a narrow set of stairs with a tight stream of up and down traffic. Thank goodness most Europeans are thin (positively skinny by American standards). We walked up three floors before we decided it wasn’t worth it. We’ve seen a coolship before. Frankly, a stainless open-fermentation tank isn’t that interesting when it’s empty. So we made our way back down to the best part of any brewery tour—the samples!
Check out my mom drinking her beer below. She sure has come a long way from this (she’ll kill me for posting that). Testament to the fact that, if you think you don’t like beer, you’re wrong. You just haven’t found the right beer yet.
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From Bockor Brewery. Shot April 22, 2012. Bellegem, Belgium
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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.)
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From Rodenbach Brewery. Shot April 22, 2012. Roeselare, Belgium
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March 3 was the public brewing session at Cantillon Brewery. This “open brew day” is held twice a year (March and November). It’s an opportunity to experience the brewing process firsthand, with a guided tour.
Little known fact: you can take a self-guided tour of the brewery any day they are brewing—usually Tues and Thurs October to April (actual dates are published on their facebook page). Never really been an option for us with all kid wrangling involved. It seems too hazardous with everything operating (it’s not like they have OSHA in Belgium!).
It’s not that the kids are so terrible, more because they like Cantillon way too much. Ask the 3 year old what his favorite beer is and he will say, “Cantillon.” I remember he once begged me to fill a sippy cup from my bottle of Pinot D’Aunis; he was two. The other one will just ask for a sip, then drink the whole glass.
So we took the opportunity to leave the little ones with Grandma and got up crazy-early to drive to Brussels (to attempt) to make the first tour of the day. They’re given in English, French and Dutch; an English tour runs about every 45 minutes beginning at 7 a.m. We arrived a little bit after 7, but somehow got lost walking from the parking garage at Grand Place (even tho we’ve made that trek many times). We made it to Cantillon with time for free coffee and croissants before the tour. It was busy, but not so crowded that we didn’t get a seat at a table.
They called for the next English tour. We were two of six people in the group. I was shocked. And the other four were Italian.
Highlights: It’s fascinating to see all the old equipment in operation. We got to try the wort directly from the kettle. It was exactly as you expect wort to taste: warm and gross. I don’t know why I expected it to taste any different than what I can get at home; the magic happens in the fermentation, not the brewing.
By far the most interesting thing was watching the barrels being cleaned. Each one weighs 55kg (121 lbs) empty. One is hosed out, heavy chains are inserted thru the bung hole on the top and the barrel is partially filled with water. It’s then pushed up onto this machine. The whole thing rotates while the barrel spins inside. (If you think about that carnival ride—I don’t know what it’s called, the atom or something—where they strap you into a chair that spins around and upside down while the whole thing rotates. It’s like that.) After a while on the machine, the barrel is rolled off and held in place, while it drains and the chains are removed. All this is work is done by one guy. One young, strong guy.
After the tour, we had a bottle of Zwanze 2011. By this time it was very crowded; we passed what looked like British tour bus on the way out. If I were to go again, I’d go before 10. Can’t imagine how packed it would be in the afternoon.
Also: We purchased a museum membership (Cantillon Brewery is the Gueuze Museum). For 11€ we now get a free tour and drink whenever we go, plus a discount on bottles and merchandise—something we took advantage of on our layover at Midi on the way to London.
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From Cantillon Open Brew Day. Shot March 3, 2012. Brussels, Belgium
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This was probably Nicholas’ favorite thing we did in Ireland. (He still has the building map and likes to point out how you go up thru it. He often sits on my lap and reads as I type. Recently I typed “I guess” which he insisted said “I Guinness.”)
Weird, I know, since he’s 3. But no surprise there. It was pretty freaking cool. The building is beautiful in and of itself (built 1902, first multi-storey steel-framed building in Britain). The view from a top, looking over St James’ Gate at the Gravity Bar, is worth the admission price alone. Then there’s the beer. I don’t care about the whole “craft beer revolution; Guinness is too corporate blah, blah, blah.” Guinness is what every small, independent brewery aspires to be. Going from the entrepreneurial days of Arthur Guinness to the global brand powerhouse it is today—there’s something quite admirable in that. I’ll always sit for a pint of Guinness. It’s not what I’m drinking as I type this, but that’s not really relevant is it?
Guinness Storehouse is the Disneyland of beer. Ingredients, the brewing process, history of the brewery, ancient equipment, advertising artifacts. Old mash tons, barrels, bottles, and the harp. It’s pretty hard not to like this place. Welcome:
The self-guided tour is interesting both to those unfamiliar with the brewing process (here’s your crash course) and those who experience it firsthand in our kitchen/backyard/basement. There are facts and quotes from Arthur Guinness throughout the place, but the one I like best was in the advertising section. Written by a doctor, it reads:
“I often prescribe Guinness and for the following reasons in chief. A bottle of Guinness put in front of say, a dispirited health-greedy convalescent has a wonderfully auto-suggestive cheer-producing effect. It looks potent and jolly and when consumed it acts as a stomachic and whip to the appetite. It makes the patient feel better and eat better and think cheerfully.”
Roger that. Guinness was also given to people who had just given blood and prescribed to nursing mothers and those recovering from illness. To think all we get today is a cookie, a pat on the back and antibiotics.
With your ticket you get one pint, redeemable either at the Gravity Bar or at the pour your own pint bar on the floor below. We chose the latter and are hereby officially certified to pour the perfect pint (at least that’s what the certificate says).
The only downside: the Gravity Bar, not a cash bar. You can only redeem your ticket for a free pint. Understandably, this keeps people cycling thru and keeps it from getting too packed on busy days, but I would have liked another pint up there. IMO, they’re sitting on a goldmine. If I was Guinness, I’d enable cash transactions or build a similar bar (cash only, no tickets). They’d make a killing.
There are also several restaurants inside, but we didn’t eat at any. Did pick up some recipe cards. Going to make this Guinness chocolate mousse or the truffles some time. Recipes are also on their web site.
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From Guinness. Shot October 27, 2011. Dublin, Ireland
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From Guinness Gravity Bar. Shot October 27, 2011. Dublin, Ireland
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