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Belgians are the world's fifth biggest beer drinkers; they
drink all colors of beer and brew almost 500 different varieties
made in 115 breweries of all sizes. Beer was adopted as the
national drink after the plague broke out in the Middle Ages,
as beer was safer to drink as the water had been boiled. It
seemed to be a miracle cure and beer became the daily drink.
An Array of Beery Tipples
In such a beer mad nation, it's only fitting that there's
a stunning array of varieties to choose from. Trappist
beers, perhaps Belgium's most revered tipple since monks
started brewing them in the Middle Ages, are characterized
by their rich, yeasty flavor. The most celebrated of these
is Chimay, brewed at Belgium's biggest monastic brewery
in Hainaut while the strongest is Westvleteren
from Ypres.
Lambic beers another Belgian specialty, are made using
yeasts that are naturally present in the air instead of being
added separately to the water and grain mix. Because of this,
the breweries are nothing usual sterile breweries as they
are left deliberately dusty and unclean so the yeast can thrive.
For a close up look at this process, visit the Cantillon
Brewery in Brussels, one of the most atmospheric
breweries in Belgium, run by a member of the Cantillon family
who've been brewers since the 1700s.
Another treat for beer lovers is the country's wide array
of specialty beers with their strange and unusual tastes and
flavours. Fruit beers are a Brussels favorites with
the kriek (made from bitter cherries and added
to Lambic beer) and frambozen (flavoured
with raspberries) the most popular. Strong beers are another
dangerous but enticing option in Belgium; the pilsners De
Verboden Frucht (the forbidden fruit) and Duvel
(devil) are both as strong as red wine. |
