Not as long and extensive as my usual blog posts and a bit too staccato and all over the place, but it became too long for the News section, so blog post it is.
Last weekend I traveled with several colleagues to the Zenne Valley for a Lambic Academy session at Boon brewery with Luc de Raedemaeker and Sep Roggeman followed by a brewery tour with Jos Boon as our tour guide. Thank you for this very interesting and inspiring day in a gorgeous brewery!
I really really really want to do the Toer de Geuze next time. I thought about it last year, but life got in the way again. I might also do one myself (by bike) because the surroundings are wonderful as well.
Four of us got a small taste of those surroundings, by staying at a local Airbnb the weekend before the Lambic Academy session. The time to properly explore the woods was sparse, but we did manage to squeeze in a walk from the Hallerbos side of Dworp to Oud Beersel where we had a chance encounter with none other than Gert Christiaens, who provided us with a lot of extra information about Lambic beers as well, which made this weekend even more educational.
I am especially interested in the next part of the whole process of changing labels which will not only change the legislation surrounding Oude Geuze and Oude Kriek, but might set a precedent for other products that will need to change labels due to changes in the regulations as well.
But not to go to deep into international law and stuff, it was also just very nice to be able to taste all the different kinds of lambic beers they served at both Oud Beersel and Boon Brewery as well as at 3 Fonteinen where we ended up after the session on Monday.
This was all a nice contrast to our more touristy day in Brussels on Sunday where we visited the Belgian Beer World Experience together with Gery. And yes, we know it is a tourist trap, but we still had to see it for ourselves. And it was… Something for sure. It was not bad at all, it was actually quite fun, it’s just… Let’s call it artistic license. It’s certainly an experience! And the building is gorgeous. And it is in the middle of Brussels, which makes it convenient to combine with about any other activity you might want to do in Brussels. We still went to De La Senne as a palate cleanser afterwards of course. Can’t visit Brussels without a visit to De La Senne.
We also used the opportunity to play and review a beer board game for PINT magazine for the fall or winter edition, although calling that a game might be a bit generous.
Anyway, although this post feels very incomplete without actually telling something about Lambic beers, I am going to share it now anyway. And who knows, I might come back to this later to add that information after all and make it a proper blog post.
