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Ten Days in Belgium - April 2000- Introduction- PART I (April 2-5) - PART II (April 6-10) April 6 & 7 -- As lambics dominated my first two days in Belgium, monks have held sway over the middle portion of my visit. Following successive lunches at Val-Dieu and Achel, I have had the pleasure of spending time at both the abbey of Westmalle and the secularly-run brewery attached. And if the fates are with me, tomorrow I will pay a visit to Westvleteren. It had originally been arranged that I would spend the night at Westmalle. But at the last minute, I and the group of journalists I am travelling with were bumped to make room for religious pilgrims. (As it turns out, this was just as well -- as is the case with the guest rooms at Achel, overnight visitors at Westmalle are expected to live the abbey life, which includes observing the 4:00 a.m. wake-up call!) Instead, we attended Vespers (an evening service) and spent some time speaking with the youngest brother at the monastery, and the man responsible for the public image of Westmalle beer, Brother Benedict. We then returned the next day to visit the brewery. Brother Benedict surprised me by saying that Westmalle is the highest production Trappist brewery in Belgium, beating Chimay's 110,000 hectolitres of annual production by about 10,000 hl. Later at the brewery, I learned that this breaks down into roughly half Tripel and half Dubbel, with 75% of the total sold in Belgium, 15% in the Netherlands and 10% elsewhere, including North America. Although there has not been any direct involvement of the brothers in the brewery since the departure of Brother Thomas, now consultant to Achel (please see Part I), three of the brothers oversee the business of the brewery and a board of eight, including four local business leaders and the brewery manager, meet regularly to guide the brewery's course. All the monies raised through sales of the two beers is channelled into the monastery's charitable works. Anyone who has read World of Beer through the years will know that I am an ardent admirer of the Westmalle Tripel, a wonderfully complex and warming 9% alcohol by volume beer that is rightly regarded as one of the world's classic beers. But I have been perhaps less forthcoming about the merits of the Dubbel, a soft, medium-bodied 7% dark ale with notes of cocoa and spice, and a light fruitiness that is particularly noticeable on tap. A new taste for me at the abbey brewery was the Extra, the 4% ale available only to the brothers (and fortunate visitors). With a round, refreshing, moderately bitter body holding notes of crisp apple, grass and straw, the Extra admirably lives up to its brewery nickname of "the pils of high-fermentation beers. Tomorrow, despite having been refused our official media request for a visit, freelance travel writer, Janet Forman, and I are going to drive to Westvleteren to try to meet the abbey's head brewer, Brother Phillipe, and possibly see the brewery. We shall see what happens.
April 8 -- There are those who will tell you that Westvleteren has the hardest walls to penetrate of any Trappist abbey in Belgium. And if your goal is purely to see the brewery, they may be right. If, on the other hand, you would like to chat with a brother, spend some time in the abbey's modest but quite beautiful church or enquire as to the possibility of and prerequisites for spending a night or two in one of the forty guest rooms on the grounds, my experience would suggest that nothing could be further from the truth. Upon our arrival, Janet and I were introduced to a young monk named Kurt, who looked to be in his mid-teens but actually figured to be about a decade older. A gentle, soft-spoken soul who will next year take his final tests towards becoming a full-fledged member of the order, Kurt was only too happy to tell us that Westvleteren has a very modern brewery manned by the monks and three laymen workers, who also help out on the farm, in the gardens and wherever else their assistance is required. The monks brew three beers, the 5.8% Blonde (formerly the 6 degree), the spicy, stronger 8 degree and the robust, spicy-cocoa 12 degree. Brew days come only 30 times a year for a total production of about 4,000 hectolitres, and the beer is sold at the abbey only on Mondays. The brothers of Westvleteren take their beer seriously. Listed on the wall above the cases of returned empties are several recommendations on how to store, drink and enjoy the three ales. That includes the seemingly contradictory information that Westvleteren beers may be cellared for aging, but also have a "best before" date ink-jetted on the cap. The first commandment of beer according to the wall sign is to let the bottle sit upright for eight days before consumption. As the day was a Saturday and no beer was being sold, Brother Kurt counselled us to proceed across the street to the In de Vrede Cafe, where we eventually revelled in the unrestrained gastronomic joy of ice cream made with the 12 degree ale, served with a bottle of the same beer. (If you over make it to this part of northwest Belgium, do not depart before you have partaken of this delight!) Before we left, though, we got the skinny on the abbey's modern guest room complex. As with the other abbeys, the monks at Westvleteren emphasize that a stay at the monastery is a retreat, not a vacation. As such, you are asked to participate in the day's seven church services, including the morning prayer at 3:30. The cost is 850BF per day, and if you are interested, you should call 057/40.19.70 to make arrangements before you go.
April 9 & 10 -- Having bid farewell to the other writers on the tour, Janet and I picked up a rental car at the Brussels airport and aimed it towards the countryside of Flanders in search of traditional village cafes. As it turned out, we didn't have far to go. In as little as a fifteen minute drive outside of Brussels, it becomes possible to travel back in time. The European capital is surrounded by small villages and towns, several of which are not even big enough to rate a mention on our map, and in most of these places you can find at least one very basic, very traditional Flemish cafe. In the words of one of the regulars we met during our exploration, these are the "old people's cafes." Whether or not places like the Bij Rie van Mollem in Mollem, the In de Koekoek in Asse and the In de Oude Smis van Mekingen in St-Pieters-Leeuw really are for "old people," this not-quite-old-yet writer finds them positively enchanting. Simple places that resemble more farmhouse kitchens than modern cafes, they are where the locals drink straight, young lambic, where finding the toilet means navigating your way past the livestock to the outhouse, and where a smile still means something. They are honest places filled with real people, and I wouldn't trade any one of them for a dozen city bars. If you are able, I counsel you to visit as many of these wonderful cafes as possible, charting your course by the sage advice contained in Stephen D'Arcy's "Selective Guide to Brussels Bars." (For ordering details, please see the April 3 diary entry.) By nightfall, Janet and I had made our way our of Flanders and as far south in Wallonia as the town of Rochefort, where the next day we would try to penetrate the Abbaye de St-Remy, where the rich ales bearing the town's name are brewed. Unfortunately, we had somewhat less success than we previously had at Westvleteren. Not entirely knowing what to do once we arrived at the abbey, Janet and I joined a French-language tour of the impressively large monastery church. Once we felt that we had seen and I had translated enough there, we ventured around to the front of the building where we met and were invited into the office of Pere Jacques. An older and slightly absent-minded monk, continually rushing off to do this or find that, Father Jacques provided us with what was perhaps the biggest surprise of the trip: the information that the seventeen monks at St-Remy do not drink their or any other beer. In fact, he said, he had no idea what the Rochefort ales tasted like because he had never tried them! While Father Jacques did offer to sell us a small quantity of the beer should we desire it, touring beer aficionados are better advised to visit the Magasin de l'Abbaye (Abbey Store) on Rue de Dewain in town (ph: 084/22.30.66). There you will find numerous products made at St-Remy and other abbeys, including fresh-baked abbey bread, plus items made under license, such as the Rochefort cheese. Interestingly, the breads reflect the beers; there is a lighter "Novice Bread" that would correspond with the 6 degree ale, a heavier and darker "Trappist Bread" for the 8 degree, and a sweet bread to go alongside the potent 10 degree. Bread and liquid bread, paralleling each other in flavour, colour and intensity. I marvelled over it all the way back to Antwerp.
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