It's all Dutch to me, or is that Flemish....

It was with great disappointment I learned that there was going to be a new beer festival in Northern Ireland. Why? Because it immediately dawned on me that I wouldn't be there to attend. Knowing the people involved in organising it, and the venue they had planned, it could only be a hit. Looking at Twitter over the weekend it took place I was not wrong. Seems like they nailed it on every level, so a big congrats go out to Matt, Michael, Darren and Felicia! This success will hopefully mean a repeat performance that I will be able to attend!

So why wasn't I able to attend this momentous occasion? I had already booked a trip to Belgium! So every cloud does have a silver lining and this particular lining was oh so silver. Belgium has been on the hit list for a while, but with my increased interest in all things beer and several viewings of 'In Bruges' it had to be done. Now I am not going to go through my whole trip and every beer I drank, anyone who follows me on UnTappd would understand how long this blog would be if I did. Instead I am going to call out a few places that I think are a must visit and some of the exceptional beers I drank.

 

Grub!

We had a variety of foods in different establishments, but as we were celebrating two birthdays we decided to pre-book a restaurant. Scouring the internet for eateries in Bruges, The Park Restaurant stood out as one highly recommended and a fairly good deal for a fixed price wine pairing dinner for 4. I know, wine pairing! Where is the beer I hear you cry! Don't worry it is coming, but as for the best meal we had, this is it.

Despite not really knowing what we were going to get, this exceeded all our expectations. From the Champagne to start through to the coffee at the end, the quality and service did not dip. The wine wasn't actually limited to one glass per course as we thought, which was mad given the price and wines on offer. But it is one thing to watch out for, as you could end up on your ear come dessert. We even got a free mini birthday cake to help aid the celebrations. All of this took place in a great setting, so pack a shirt or dress people. No jeans! The owner even came past to thank us for choosing the restaurant and to ensure that we had a good time.

Drinking venues.

Café Rose Red - Top of the list has to be this little gem. Along with a great beer menu they have 5 rotating taps - their blog will give you an idea on what is on and has been on. Thankfully for me they had some Cantillon on, which is just superb on draft. They also do beer flights and have very knowledgeable staff who are happy to assist with your choices should the menu be too daunting.

Red Rose Cafe beer flight.

t'Brugs Beertje - This is more of a pub type affair but has a bottle selection to die for which let me work my way through De Struise's output and tick a few other beers of my 1001 BTTBYD list. Very relaxed atmosphere and great staff.

Photo courtesy of http://www.visitflanders.com/

The beer!

Well what beers knocked my socks off? Why not start with getting some Cantillon Classic Gueuze on draft, absolutely beautiful!

Outside of that the main beers all came from De Struise which just blew me away. Special mentions go to their Cuvée Delphine imperial stout, Struise Tsjeeses Reserva (Bourbon Barrel Aged) and Ypres Reserva black sour. But all of their output was stunning, and I am definitely looking forward to sampling the bottle of Black Damnation III that I brought back.

Then we have the awesomeness of 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze, Duvel Triple Hop, Bourgogne Des Flandres.... damn it was all good!

As for bottle shops, it definitely is worth shopping around and doing a bit of price checking before blowing your load in the first shop that is wall to wall beer. It is fairly overwhelming to say the least. I found a lot of what I was looking for in De Biertempel set back from the main square, however there is also one in Brussels that was way over priced.

Also worth doing is a tour of De Halve Maan brewery, really interesting tour finished with some Brugse Zot Blond unfiltered and unpasteurised straight from the maturation tanks. The food it pretty decent and a reasonable price, with which we got to have some of the Straffe Hendrik Wild seasonal release, a sour version of the Straffe Hendrik Blond.

Where to stay?

We stayed at The Hotel Patritius which I couldn't fault, helpful staff, clean, walking distance to everywhere and a great breakfast to line the stomach.

I am not really going to go into the day we spent in Brussels, suffice to say don't visit it on a bank holiday Monday as most of it was shut. We did end up eating in an Ethiopian restaurant, food was great but the beer wasn't and don't even ask about the final drink of the evening. A shot of Katikala! I tried it so you don't have to.

All in all a great holiday and one I want to repeat. I would probably stay longer, venture to the surrounding districts of Bruges and take in more breweries. 

My name is Bruce!

PS) 1001 Beer to try before you die update, hit number 216!