Beautiful Belgium Spring 2002
By James Ritchhart
In keeping with the time constraints due to the BJCP exam, this series on my Recent trip to Belgium will be shorter stories with a few pics added.
Arriving in Brussels on Sunday, I went into town with the intent of picking up a discount card which would have provided me with a 20% discount on any Leon restaurants in Brussels, Antwerp, Liege and other cities. (Beverages included.) Unfortunately, the people at Leon Brussels didn't know what I was talking about. The owner of Leon made the offer some six weeks before my departure. So as to not have it be a total waste of time, I went to the Bier Temple and picked up a few offerings, just in case I got stranded on the side of the road somewhere. Then off to Esen for my tour of DeDolle Brewers.
The trip to Esen was rather uneventful. Went through some very pretty countryside, saw a lot of livestock and a few windmills. My tour was scheduled for 2:oo and I actually arrived at DeDolle around one. I entered a very quiet building and didn't notice anyone around. To my left was a small office and seated at a desk in the office, was Dulle Teve herself. The Mad Bitch! I entered the office and presented myself. Well, Dulle Teve would have none of this! "You are from Florida! AND you are one hour early! You must leave and come back ON TIME!!." OK! I was a bit put off and immediately understood why the beer is such a precise triple. Very bitter! I left the office quietly and headed for the door. She followed and demanded, "Where will you go for the hour?" I told her I was hungry and would go for something to eat. She said' " It is Sunday! ALL the restaurants are closed!" Then she changed. She said to come back in the office and she would call a friend. She made a brief call in Flemish then directed ma down the street one block until I saw a building with the name 'Symphonie' on the window. She said to knock at the door and they would feed me. I did as instructed. The building was dark and the shades drawn, but sure enough, after a knock, the door opened and a jovial gent named Erik invited me in. Symphonie was in fact a restaurant, in the small town sense of the word. They were closed on Sunday, but Erik said he would be happy to fix me a meal. He inquired what I like and I told him that I like all food. He immediately disappeared into the kitchen and went to work. After 5 minutes he returned with an endive salad and a bowl of mayonnaise, stating proudly that the mayo he had just made, then disappeared into the kitchen. Since he had not brought me any dressing, I assumed that I was to mix the mayo with the salad, which I did. A few minutes later he returned with some fresh made dressing and looked at me like I was some sort of fool for putting mayo on my salad. He asked if that's what we did in Florida. Anyway he brought me a OerBier then a bowl of fresh payottenland fish stew. Then a bowl of beef stew with some of the best beef I have ever tasted. Oh, and some of the best bread I have ever had. It was hard to believe that he had prepared all this for me alone. Man, was I stuffed. Anyway, I rushed back to DeDolle. (I didn't want to be LATE!) I found out later that the woman had actually been a schoolteacher for almost fifty years. SHE was my tour guide. She said that Kris, (the brewer) had been tied up and she would show me around. What an amazing tour! The brewery dates from the 1830's. Much of the equipment was original. We went up and down ladders. Saw the storage tanks in a lagering celler, the copper open air fermantation tanks; the whole nine yards. She seemed particularly proud of the storage tanks. She pointed out the lettering on the side of one tank, Hier lies De Oer. She said that De Oer was Flemish for prostitute and that was their little joke; that people were drinking the juice from a prostitute. Now I guess I should tell you that Dulle Teve is 84 years old! And she is probably wittier and sharper that most people my age. (You know-early thirties.) She showed me around the lab and I got a glimpse of a new beer they recently released as well as many experimental beers they are brewing. About this time Kris came in, introduced himself and told us he would meet us in the bar when we were done. Then, the teacher brought me into a classroom and told me the history of Belgium brewing. Very cool tour. We then went to the bar where I had a flight of all the beers as well as a bottle of 15 year aged Straffe Nacht. Wonderful. Really great people. When I got to the bar (around 3:30 I was the only one there. By 4:30, there were probably close to 100 there. (Sunday, no restaurants, beer-get it?) I helped Dulle Teve with her homework (she's taking an English class) and then bid them farewell. I had a dinner reservation at t'Hommelhof that I didn't want to be late for.
MORE LATER!