TDF 2010 Stage 2: Brussels to Spa, Belgium

Today's post comes to us courtesy of Greg Gaughan, a cycling, beer and wine lover, a new reader here at MFWT, and a recent returnee to the Philly area after a three-year stint as an expatriate living in working in Luxembourg. Check out his site, Blogging Luxembourg, for tales of his travels in and around the Benelux countries.

Stage 1 of the 2010 Tour de France ended in Brussels and Stage 2 picks up in Brussels on the way down to Spa, Belgium. Although the Tour often passes through Belgium during the month of July due to the wonderful rolling hills of Flanders and the Ardennes, some were probably surprised when it was announced that the Tour would pass through Brussels and the surrounding area as it is almost completely flat. After watching Stage 1 pass through Belgium on Sunday and seeing the great passion that Belgians have for cycling, plus taking into consideration that Brussels is the home town of the greatest cyclist of all time, Eddy Merckx, it was a no-brainer to involve Brussels and the surrounding area in the Tour.


Brussels is the capital, both politically and culturally of Belgium, a country I have come to know very well and love over the past three years. My wife and I recently returned from a three-year period of living and working in Luxembourg and during this time we spent a good amount of time in Belgium and more specifically we made around a dozen trips to Brussels to soak up the culture… mainly the food and beer.

Beer is to Belgium as wine is to France and Brussels is the heart of beer culture in Belgium but it is often overlooked by travelers as some consider it too touristy and not worthy of a visit on a trip to Belgium but I could not disagree more. How can you not love a city that has as a symbol the Manneken Pis, a little statue of a boy peeing just off the Grand Place.

There are many great cafes and restaurants in Brussels at which to enjoy some typical Belgian food and to sip some of the finest ales that Belgium has to offer. If you happen to be lucky enough to be visiting Brussels during the Tour de France, or at any other time, here are some of my favorite places to enjoy while in this fine city:


Brasserie Cantillon – When it comes to Belgian beer, the oldest and most interesting style has to be lambic, a beer that is very unique in that it goes through a period of spontaneous fermentation by being exposed to the micoflora in the air at night. Many years ago there were several traditional lambic brewers within the city limits of Brussels and several more in the surrounding countryside but today Brasserie Cantillon is the only lambic brewery remaining in the city of Brussels and is a must visit for any beer lover, history lover and even some wine lovers as these beers are as close to wine as beer can get. Lambic beers are aged in old wine and spirits barrels and Cantillon has a massive amount of barrels filled with lambic aging throughout the brewery that can be seen up close on a visit.



It is often hard to visit craft breweries in Belgium without advanced notice or a large group as these breweries are often small and family run but Cantillon is open to the public 6 days a week for self guided tours and tastings. Cantillon has been run by the same family for about 110 years and is world renowned for their top notch lambics that include the addition of fruits such as raspberries, cherries, apricots and even several different varieties of red and white wine grapes.

After working up an appetite learning more about lambic at Cantillon, I often head back into the heart of Brussels for a lunch of traditional Belgian food which usually consists of pomme frites (not French fries please) and mussels (moules) or some other seafood that may be fresh at the time of year. On almost any corner of Brussels you can get a cone or little container of frites to go with a sauce of your choice, although mayo is usually the sauce of choice.


After lunch in Brussels it is always a good idea to take in the sites of the Grand Place in the center of town as it is great for people watching and there is usually something going on here like a TV show being filmed, a beer festival, a market or many other interesting events or performances. Every other year the Grand Place is turned into a huge flower carpet for a week in the month of August. My wife and I were lucky enough to be in Brussels in August 2008 when the carpet was up and got some great views of this beautiful display. The Grand Place also has a nice selection of museums that are worth a visit. Although we have not visited all of the museums, we have enjoyed the Brussels city museum for their cool collection of outfits that the Manneken Pis statue has worn over the years. There is also a cool little comic strip museum just off the Grand Place that serves beer.


To continue on in your Belgian cultural immersion, there are several bars that I would suggest visiting that are all within a 5 minute walk of the Grand Place. My favorite bar in Brussels is Chez Moeder Lambic (Fontainas). The Fontainas location of Moeder Lambic opened in October 2009 and is the second Moeder Lambic in Brussels but the easiest to get to without having to get on a Metro train. Although both Moeder Lambic locations feature a great selection of bottled and draft beers and a selection of fine cheeses, the Fontainas location has a massive setup of 40+ beers on tap which is unusual for Belgium as most bars stock a large number of bottled beers but a limited number of draft beers. Moeder Lambic Fontainas always features at least 4 traditional lambic beers on tap from Cantillon, Drie Fonteinen and other lambic producers and so many other Belgian beers on tap that anyone that wanders through the front door is sure to find something they will like. Each month they also feature a few special beers from a different country. On my visits I have been there to see Italian, Swiss and German beers featured.


Although you could spend all day at Moeder Lambic, there are many other nice bars that are worth a visit including Poechenellekelder which is right next to the Manneken Pis statue. Although the name is hard to pronounce, it is not hard to find a beer to try on their menu that lists well over 100 bottled beers and also a nice menu of snacks and light food that can help extend your stay. In the warmer weather they have a nice patio at the front of the bar that puts you in a great position to watch all the tourists snapping pictures in front of the Manneken Pis statue.

A few other bars that we enjoyed from time to time include La Becasse that features lambic beers served from ceramic jugs; Toone which has a decent selection of beers but the main drawn is the puppet theatre upstairs; and Morte Subite which has the feel of a grand Parisian café.

After a long day of visiting the best bars in Brussels, there are many great restaurants to have dinner at. You can get lost in the center of Brussels with all the restaurant options you have, many of which are geared towards tourists so they focus on low prices rather than quality. If you do just a little bit of research and don’t mind walking a few minutes out of the center of town, you will find it worth the effort. One of the best restaurants we have visited for dinner is the Bier Circus. This restaurant features a beer menu of over 200 bottled beers and a food menu that is just as impressive for its quality. Most of the food is prepared with beer and they can suggest the right beer to go with each course you order.

If you still have time left on your visit and you want to get out of the hustle and bustle of downtown Brussels, then it is worth a day trip to the area surrounding Brussels as there is much more to discover. Just a few miles outside of Brussels you will find an area referred to as the Payottenland which is home to the remaining traditional lambic brewers in Belgium.

In the town appropriately named Beersel you will find another fine lambic brewer and blender, Drie Fonteinen (the 3 fountains). Drie Fonteinen up until recently brewed their own lambics that are highly regarded but more than one year ago they had a tragic thermostat failure that ruined tens of thousands of lambic bottles that were aging in a storage facility. Today Drie Fonteinen only blends lambic they purchase from other lambic brewers in the Payottenland but they do it very well. There is also a lambic tasting café at Drie Fonteinen that is a must if you happen to be in the area on a weekend. Drie Fonteinen is also known for their restaurant that is highly regarded in Belgium as one of the best.

Another standout food and beer destination for me is De Heeren Van Liederkercke in Denderleeuw, a restaurant that would be worth a visit even if they did not serve an ounce of beer but the fact that they have one of the best vintage beer cellars in Belgium and the rest of the world makes it a must visit. De Heeren is a family run restaurant that takes pride in offering fine Belgian cuisine such as stoemp, waterzooi, Flemish beef stew, frites and several other dishes worthy of a try. My wife and I have often driven the 2 and ½ hours or so from Luxembourg just to have lunch at De Heeren before returning back home in the evening.


No visit to Brussels is complete without having a Belgian waffle to end the evening. There are two main waffle varieties: Brussels and Liege. The Brussels style remind me of Eggo waffles so I prefer to stick with the sweeter Liege waffle with no toppings but you can put nearly every topping imaginable on top of your waffle if you choose to.


In De Verzekering Tegen De Grote Dorst in Eizeringen is a little café that could only exist in Belgium. They feature lambic beers almost exclusively, including several hard to find vintage lambic and gueuze beers. Although this café is well known in the beer world for their lambic beer selection and beer festivals, I think the most unique thing is that they are only open on Sundays from about 10 am to 1pm for the church crowd and after funerals.

These are just a few of the places I have visited in Brussels but there are many more spots to have a fine Belgian ale or some traditional Belgian food. You will have to come to Brussels yourself to see how wonderful of a city it is.

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TDF 2010 Stage 1: Rotterdam to Brussels

Two countries in as many days, and the race is just getting started. One of the great spectacles of Le Tour is seeing it run through neighboring countries, seeing the huge crowds that come out to embrace the race as if it were their own. The riders who happen to hail from those guest countries often take particular pride in giving it a go on the day, whether it's riding ahead of the field to stop and greet friends and family, or whether it's taking a flier from the starting gun and taking a chance on the start-to-finish breakaway.

Dutchman Lars Boom did just that today, displayed his nerve, attacking from the drop of the starter's flag and staying out front, with just a couple of breakaway companions, for nearly the entirety of today's 223km Stage 1. Displays of nerve defined today's stage in other ways as well, with crashes -- an omnipresent risk in bike racing but especially prevalent in the early days of a big race -- peppering what theoretically should have been one of the more straightforward stages of this year's Tour. Three crashes in the last 2k of the race, one of them among the largest mass pileups I've ever seen, made for an unpredictable (and rather scary) finale.

As much as I'd prefer to have seen a clean finish, I'd love to have been there to witness the mayhem in person. Had I been, as I've said here before, there's little doubt where I would have headed after the finish....

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Two Kinds of Sour: Cuvée De Ranke

Much like my friend Joe at Old World Old School, who included drinking more beer and paying more attention to it among his resolutions for the New Year, I've been meaning to write about beer here at MFWT at least a little more often for some time now. It's the paying attention part that really clicked with me, as beer already slots in pretty regularly to my eating and drinking routines. There was a major focus on beer during the course of my posse's pub crawling activities last weekend. One of our stops, in particular, provided plenty to contemplate, though we of course never lost sight of pursuing the pleasure principle.

In a city increasingly populated with great beer-centric bars and restaurants (if only wine would catch up...), we still couldn't pass up a visit to that holy grail of all brews Belgian: Monk's Cafe. Having set the stage with a thirst quenching bottle of Cantillon Gueuze and a follow-up with Lost Abbey's Red Barn Ale, our server, Jill, didn't hesitate one second when I asked her what I should try next. "Cuvée De Ranke." Cantillon, I do love you; and Lost Abbey, I like you well enough, though I'm still getting to know you. But Jill nailed it, for on this day it was the Cuvée De Ranke that most captured my attention and most delivered on the principles of pleasure. With an ever so slightly sweet, more so sour center akin to better known Flemish Sour Ales, followed up by a funky, tart sneak-attack à la spontaneously fermented Gueuze, and finished off with a refreshing hint of hoppy bitterness, the De Ranke was a very complete, primordially satisfying brew.

Ex post-facto research reveals that my gut reactions to the beer were more accurate than I could have expected. "Cuvée," it turns out, actually is a blend of two styles of Belgian sour beer. About 70% of the blend is a red/brown sour ale brewed by De Ranke in the tradition of the Roeselare/Kortrijk/Oudenaarde regions, top-fermented using Rodenbach (perhaps the most famous Flemish sour producer) yeast strains. The other 30% of the blend is actually lambic, which De Ranke purchases from Brouwerij Girardin. After blending, the beer is bottle-matured before release. According to De Ranke, it is capable of mid-term aging. It didn't stand much of a chance of that on our table, though.

De Ranke is brought into the US by one of my favorite beer importers, Shelton Brothers; you'll find more information about their beers at the Sheltons' site as well as at De Ranke's homepage.

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Lambic Comes Ashore

In response to my recent write-up of an unblended Lambic tasting, big Joe M. asked about the existence of Lambics brewed right here in the US, most particularly on the East Coast. Quite frankly, I couldn’t answer him. Luckily, someone else could. Joe’s question led to an informative comment from Jon Webster of Slake Thy Thirst that I thought was worth bringing up to the front page.

There are certainly a handful of adventurous brewers spread around the States that are running wild yeast fermentations and aging their beers in wood. However, it appears that Maine’s Allagash Brewing Company may be the first American brewery to try their hand at crafting a true Lambic, a project they began late last year. They’ve even posted a video that details production of their first batch.



Its main appeal may be to the serious beer geek. Even if that’s not you, though, it’s worth a watch. (If you’re reading this via subscription, you may need to click through to the blog itself to view the video.) At the very least, it’s always good to be reminded that YouTube can be good for something besides music. And stupid skateboard stunts.

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A Beer on the Wild Side

I stopped into Monk’s last night to grab a quick bite after teaching a course on classic French wine and cheese pairings. The mussels and fries were reliable as always, if not at their best, but the beer…. The beer was absolutely wild; wild as in natural and wild in its flavors.

Cantillon Brouwerij may be best known – to those who know it at all – for its beers in the style called Gueze, which are spontaneously fermented, blended lambics. Cantillon Iris, however, is neither gueze nor lambic. It’s a vintage dated beer, first brewed in 1998 in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Brussels Museum of the Gueze. I could try to tell you all about its production method but you’d do better reading all about it courtesy of Cantillon’s website. I drank the 2004 vintage of Iris, which is currently available at Monk’s.

For me, Cantillon produces more than just gueze, lambic and unusual brews like Iris. They produce what I’ll call bières de terroir, beers that speak clearly of their origins. Something tells me it’s not just the raw materials they use, the wheat, barley and hops (which are all grown locally and organically, by the way), but also the brewery itself, including its place in the city of Brussels, that speaks through their beers. Given that Iris is fermented spontaneously, using only the wild yeast and bacteria native to the brewery’s environment, I suppose that makes perfect sense.

Cantillon’s own description of Iris as possessing “vinous taste” is apt. It reminds me of old, rustic and dry Vouvray, like the 1984 “Aigle Blanc” from Philippe Poniatowski, which sticks in my memory for its tooth-aching acidity and pungent, sour, subterranean flavors. In all of Poniatowski’s wines, there was a taste of the cave in which they were aged. Call it a flaw if you will, but it was a clear part of the wines’ terroir and of their character, which sometimes varies from bottle to bottle, particularly with age – just like the beers of Cantillon. That wine was not for the timid. Neither is Iris.

It also brings to mind a good, artisan example of the Loire goat’s milk cheese, St. Maure de Touraine. It’s a cheese where I always imagine tasting the flavors imparted by the goats, by the grasses and flowers they were raised on and also by the cave in which the cheese was aged (received its affinage, if you prefer). Perhaps the comparison came to mind because I’d paired St. Maure with a Sauvignon Blanc from the Touraine only an hour or two earlier. But I don’t think so. The parallel seems real to me. In fact, it might be interesting to pair the St. Maure with Iris, just to explore the relationship mind you.

I can’t think of a brewery I’d be more excited to visit. The trip to Brussels the visit with Cantillon would necessitate wouldn’t be such a bad thing either.

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Related reading:

• A nice write-up of a blogger's recent visit to Cantillon can be found at 40 Beers at 40.
  
• And another at Peas in Deutschland.

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