A visit to the Hertog Jan Brewery in Arcen

 So, when we recently went on holiday to Arcen, the place of the Hertog Jan brewery, I booked a brewery tour.

 

Located about 15 minutes from the parc, this was a good spot for some learning, and of course, Quality Controlling.

 

Now, the regular Hertog Jan beers aren't actually brewed here anymore, but in other breweries of the AB InBev group.  The tour was led by a dry humoured dutchman, Ger, or as he calls himself, Gertog Jan, who worked for a long time in the place.

 

The water used for the brewing process travels 800 years underground from the Ardennes in Belgium towards Arcen, and is pumped up.  We got to taste this, and it had a really pure taste. From there, it went to the malt room, where the various sorts of malt are burned for light or dark beers.  

 

  

 

 

 

What they do brew there still is their parade beer, Grand Prestige, as well as cooperative, very limited beers from their Proeftuinen range.  These are only available once through a subscription box, but this unfortunatly isn't available to Belgium.  We got to taste one of them, the Zwarte Raaf, a very dark and heavy beer.

  

Of course, there was also a 10 second long course in tapping their Weitzen (it works btw), which could be, errm, quality controlled to the fullest.

 

After a little movie about the bottling process, the final visit was to the cellars where the Grand Prestige ripens, and of course, here was some tasting involved as well.

  

And so the tour ended, in the gift store which is dead cheap.  For example, a pack of 6 of their beers all ranged between 4.50 to 6.90 for a pack, for most of them that buys you two bottles in a store...

 

A very intresting tour, taking slightly over an hour (as we where the last group of the day, there was some more quality control time) and explaining the whole process of the making of the Grand Prestige.  If you are ever near Arcen, be sure to take it in your holiday schedule, it's worth it.

  

And now, schol! 

Bierpassie Weekend 22nd of june 2024

 It was that time of the year again, the Bierpassie weekend in the centre of Antwerp on the Groenplaats.

So for the third year in a row, it was time to discover a whole lot of new brews!

And this year, I also booked a hotel in the city, even if it was only 5 kilometres from my front door.  No stress, breakfast, and just some rest and relaxation... or hangover recovery.  While not a heatwave as the past two years (luckily), the weather was cosy and welcome, only with a short shower around 18.30.

And there was great live music with Peper&Zout, who brings dixieland covers of famous pop and rock numbers.

Armed with a list of beers I wanted to try out, and the booklet there, me and Noshi went on the tasting trip.  And a free book as we bought so many beer tokens in one go, though this year we did leave our tasting glasses behind, we already have four.

I will give a short comment about some of the beers we tried, and the occassional picture, as we both alternated drafts and in the end I had tried a total of 13 totally new beers for my Untappd. And already completing my year goal of trying out 50 new beers by the halfway mark.

Palm 8 Horsepower (8%) - Brouwerij Palm: strong blond with a hint of orange, a good drinker to start with.

Mort Subite Juicy Crime of Passion (7.2%) - Brouwerij Alken Maes: you could smell the passion fruit above the glass

 

Paranoia (5.6%) - Brouwerij Huyghe: a real freshner

Floris Cactus (4%) - Brouwerij Huyghe: everyone wanted to try the green beer, it was horrible tasting like cheap lemonade.  For me the worst of the whole day.

Haeseveld Strong Blond (7.9%) - Brouwerij Huyghe: has a banana touch that tasted well

 

Delirium Red (8%) - Brouwerij Huyghe

Floris Framboos (3.6%) - Brouwerij Huyghe: far better then the above cactus beer

Averbode Extra (4.8%) - Brouwerij Huyghe

Hommelbier Fresh Harvest 2024 (7.5%) - Leroy: I love the Hommelbeer, and every year I want to try the new harvest limited edition

 

Cuvee Watou Rouge (8.5%) - Leroy: a strong, cherries and raspberries beer

Liefmans on the Rocks (5%) - Brouwerij Liefmans

Liefmans Kriek Brut (6.8%) - Brouwerij Liefmans

Vrijwit - T'Ij (5.2%) - Duvel Moortgat: this new one was superfresh, for me probably even the best of the day that I drank.

 

Achel Singel (5%) - Brouwerij Achel: a great pilsner like beer with extra hoppy touch, it was launched at the event and I liked it.

Timmermans Lambicus Kriek Black Pepper (4%) - Anthony Martin Group - a special cookie this one, with the fruit and spices duelling in your mouth.

Tipsy Gold (7.5%) - Gebr. Hermans: my silver medal of the day, a lovely touch of honey to a bitter beer.

 

Boscoli (3.5%) - Brouwerij Het Anker: a tasty fruit beer

Tete de Mort Red (8.1%) - Brasserie de Bocq: freshening red beer with a whole lot of fruits in it.

 

Tete de Mort Double IPA (8.4%) - Brasserie de Bocq: antother new beer at the event, and Noshi bought me some nice merchandise from the stand as well.

 

 

Filou Olympic Games 2024 (8.5%) - Brouwerij Vanhonsebrouck: specially made for the olympic year

 

Kasteel Rubus Framboise (7%) - Brouwerij Vanhonsebrouck: it remains one of the better fruit beers on the Belgian market.

Tarot Noir (8%) - Brouwerij Lindemans: Made on the basis of forest berries, this is a very juicy, good beer.

Amd so that are all the beers we have been trying and tasting, as well as meeting old reliables.  We also met a group of dutchmen for some nice chatting and around 22.00hrs we returned direction hotel, though with a stop at the restaurant / bar of a friend of ours for a little nightcap.

Next year, the event will be taking place in a new, modernised Tradefare building in Antwerp, and to be honest, I'm not sold on the idea of having it inside.  Surely it can provide cover from rain, but I fear as we always had sunny weather this period it would be to hot inside.

Modeste Beer Festival

 Time for the second beer festival of the year, and this time organised by the ABC or Antwerps Bier College.

Taking place on the premises of brewery De Koninck, it featured about 40 breweries and traders, and their app is super handy as you could tap directly into Untapd to update the tasters.

So Noshi and me went in, and I had already a list of beers I wanted to try out.  So let's see how much the beer counter will be bumped on this saturday!

 

 

Noshi with her Sakura Lambic Cherry B(l)ossom, this wasn`t the greatest of beers, but the best of views for sure...

It took place as such at the terrain of De Koninck, where we are greeted by a huge mural of the Wild Jo, one of the beers brewed here.

The entrance was 5 euro, which gave you a taster glass.  These initially where the 2019 series, but you could exchange it at the end for a 2023 version.  Like usual, they are exchanged at the brewer stands for a clean one with your beer (very democratic at 1.5 euro for most beers, half of the Antwerp Beer Festival in price), and I have a story about that at the end.

The setup was a big hangar with a lot of the brewers present, and outside a large open square, where some more stands where set up.  As more people arrived, they set up extra benches, making sure people could have a cosy sitting place for some chatting.

The dixieband was present as well once again.

Many of the beers had great names, like this Schoon Gerief (meaning in english Nice Stuff, usually referencing to a lady in our dialect), and in the end I got to taste 16 different beers, some good, some not at all, but that is of course personal taste.  You can check all my experiences on my Untappd profile.

 

My personal favorites where, top to bottom:

 

 

1. Schapenkop by 't Paenhuys, a triple of 8% ABV and 0 IBU

2. Bruismelk by Vleesmeester, a 6.5% ABV IPA with also 0 IBU

3. Al Blondy by Speciale Belge Brewers, 7% ABV with 25 IBU

Except for some very bitter prune beer, I didn`t complain to much about my selections of the day (or those of my companions, as we taste each others drinks and we all have very different styles, Noshi for example prefering fruit beers).

And of course, there is LOOT

I bought one of the raffle tickets, which yielded this Duvel gift set including a glass, and the Cytra which I like a lot.  The other one I`ll probably serve to Ribbi when they visit next time.

From Green Gold Brewing, a company from Slovenia, I bought a six pack of their beers with very lovely beercan art on it!

But finally, that story about the glass.  Somewhere down the line, I guess two or three beers in, I suddenly noticed my galss was exchanged for a 2012 version.  This is really vintage, as this is one of the very first edition of the festival.  

So I went to get drinks, clearly stating to clean but not exchange it please, and two breweries (Leroy and Cabardouche) actually where genuinly jealous about this, as it seems to be hard to find.  Noshi told me that when she went to exchange their 2019 for 2023 versions, the guy behind the counter also told her this must have been a lucky fluke, as those glasses have been long gone from the available one.  So this goes on my shelf of cool bottles and cans for sure as a great souvenir!

But in general, this event was a definite winner, and one we will certainly be joining again next year.  Great selection, really cheap compared to others we attended over the past 18 months when we started doing this, and a very amical mood location.

Highly recommended!

Huzzaaah, the 100th beer discovery of 2023

 Okay, so I had set the bar at 50 new discoveries to make this year, but some trips abroad and a beerfestival smashed that number already by july.

And now, I have officially "tapped" my 100th new beer on Untapped for this year.

The honour goes to:

 

 

Let's call this one a tribute to Noshi! 

 

And not only is this a year goal milestone, it is also the 5000th post on this blog!!!!

Bier Passie Weekend Antwerp 2023

 It's that time again, as the weekend of discovering beer on the Groenplaats in Antwerp has arrived.

That means lots of variety, tasting and new additions to my Untappd account!

 

So, armed with a short list of 8 beers I definitly wanted to try, we set out on a journey of hoppy discovery! 

Under a sweltering sun, as the belgian heatwave days are back after a single cooler day in the past month, and the sounds of a dixieland band, me and Noshi went armed with our reference guide (and initially, my paper scrap of things to try) to give it all a try.  Please note some pics are off, not because of high drunkeness on my part, but because I pulled back the phone just a tat to early.  I`m typing this sunday mornings, and there is not a single grain of hangover to be found in my old body.

Starting off was La Guillotine, a very heavy 8.5% multiple grains beer, a serious kick off today.

Noshi took a Floris Framboos, 3.6% and really refreshing.  Both these beers came from Brouwerij Huyge in Melle.

The next two beers where from microbrewery Abdij van Grimbergen, me going for the 8% Magnum Opus, Noshi taking the 8% Magnum Opus Brut Rosé, but to be honest both lacked a bit of an "oomph" and where amongst the least favorite ones we tried today.  The cheese was super duper though!

My next taster was a Malheur Summer, a 5% wheat beer, produced by Brouwerij De Landtsheer in Buggenhout.

While Noshi went for a new beer for this year, the Timmermans Lambicus Kriek Black Pepper, a 4% cherry beer that gave a nice spicy tough in the the aftertaste from Brouwerij John Martin in Waterloo (yeap, that place where Napoleon rued his visit to Belgium).

The we came to the stand of Leroy Breweries in Boezinge, and coming from the heart of hop brewing region in Belgium, I knew this was going to be good.  I took the special Hommelbier Fresh Harvest 2023, a 7.5%er, Noshi going for the Cuvée Watou Rouge of 8.5%.

I also purchased two beer sets at this stand, a steal at 15 euro for both together, for some more tasting back home.

Noshi followed up with a Martha Guilty Pleasure by the Brew Society in Heule, another new release for this year of 8%, but liked the above mentioned Watou more though.

The next one Noshi did like a lot, the Rasta Trolls, a 7% blonde enriched with brown rum by Brasserie Dubouisson in Pipaix.

I went for good old Scheldebrouwerij in Meer, and took their 9% 'N Toeback.  I never had a bad beer from them so far I must say.

My next experiment, and another special for this year, was the 6.9% Corsendonk Grand Hops Edition 2022, but to be honest found it a bit average compared to other beers I already tasted today.

Noshi in the meantime was send out to seduce the bartender of Brouwerij Vanhonsebrouck in Emelgem, to get a nice fishermen's hat for me along with her Kasteel Rubus Framboise, another new release and 7% of refreshing, pure fruit beer.

Next on the stop, the Stuut Aloha IPA of 6.2%, nothing spectacular for this Brasserie Caulier from Peruwelz.

While Noshi too a Tarot Noir, a beer I already tried out in the past by Brouwerij Linde;ans in Vlezenbeek.

I ended the day with a Le Plan Extra, a new yet simple, 4.8% beer from Le Plan Vermeersch.

While Noshi rounded out with another Tarot, the D'Or, a beer also tasted before with a hefty 8%.

So, there ended the beer tasting, resulting in no less then 15 new entries for my Untappd profile.  I also received a lovely Bier Passie t-shirt, a small pre-birthday gift from my little man.  At the back it says a wise life lesson, a bit fitting I would say.

 

 

These festivals are aslo great for some random conversations, like with these two guys, Bjorn and Mike.  No idea who they where, but they asked if they could join at our table.  Of course they could, and we had some laughs before moving on.  Though I can`t fathom as I heard people tell that some people dind`t want people at their tables... it's a beer festival for crying out loud!

Well, that's the first beer festival of the year under wraps for me, let's see if we get the opportunity to visit one or two more during the year.