h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Belgium is famous for a few things. One of the better ones is it's beer. What variety, from the trappist ales, still made in monastries to the cherry flavoured Kreik, or the rasberry Framboise. some of the best beers in the world though are the Belgian Geuze or Lambics which are only made around Brussels. These beers are fermented using yeast and microbes which are present in the local air.
They may well be an aquired taste, but you never know unless you try.
The best place to drink are the cafe bars, some with a seemingly endless line of different bottles of beer.

Beware though the beers can be quite deceptive, checking the bottle after drinking a few light and easy beers you might find that they're stronger than they seem

yes the beer is wonderful and also available for drinking at leisure without restrictive licensing laws, there is a fantastic belgium bar at waterloo that sells the trapest beers with fruit, raspberry is delicious but as you say very potent. a trip to the atomium in brussels is also worth while - it is a metal structure shaped like a molecule and others a panoramic view across the city from the top.

Ah yes the Atomium, gigantic model of an atom of Fe (Iron). Great views as you say.
I went to Brussels a couple of years ago and went up and when returning to spend some time with the family mentioned this andmy old man then got out some very old pictures of his from the world fair expo type thing in the 50's when it was built.

The yeast no longer lives in the enviroment, it is too polluted. One of the beer companies recenly changed the tiles on the roof, and the beer became revolting. They found that the yeast was actually living in the pores of the tiles, and was no longer able to survive in out of their protection. To get round the problem, they put the old tiles under the new ones Beer back to its usual high standard
BCNU - Crescent

What a horrible thought, no more lambics.
At least they worked out some kind of solution to their
problem.

Do you know which one of the breweries it was?

Phil

I cannot remember which brewery, unfortunatly The article was in one of the New Scientist magazines I read recently, either one from January or one from December. I checked their website, but they only keep a third of their stories on the web. I will see if I havn't thrown it out, but I reckon it is doubtful
BCNU - Crescent

As I mentionned in another message in this forum, whether you are or are not a beer enthusiast, you have to come to the Grand Place are to visit cafes which are unique in the world and sample the beers that you will have difficulty finding elsewhere.

This is just a sample of where to go when you arrive in the area, just walk around and ask, the locals will be happy to inform you or ask for directions at the Tourist office.

Roi d'espagne (on the Grand Place itself)
La Brouette
La Becasse (do not miss this one)
Le Cercueil (was great, not so great last time I visited but worth it)
De Ultieme Hallucinatie (a bit further away)
Le Corbeau
La Mort Subite

This is just a sample, please don't try and do all these in one day

GAG

I've got to add one place to this excellent list:

"Le Moeder Lambic". The guy there pretends to have 1000 beers in stock,600 of them from Belgium. It's not in the center, but not far by transportation, postal code is 1060. This "district" (Commune as we say here) is called Saint-Gilles. the place is filled with Comics Books, probably the next thing to belgium after Beers ('Never heard 'bout Spirou or Tintin ?), and is one of the only place I know that can give you the beer + the cheese from the same place (usually Abbeys), with fresh butter and slices of brown bread. No I 'm not the owner. Excellent Not-too-touristic place to have an original meal & good look on the city's life.

Welcome in brussels to any of the H2G2 community, my mail is
[email protected], & ready to help you in my city.

Just be aware of the fact that the famous cherry-flavoured beer is called "Kriek" instead of "Kreik".
Give it a try and you'll be amazed!

Caution: Don't be fooled by the French! It's NOT worth trying out the beer with the label "Kriek" in France, as the taste is TOTALLY different!

Cheers,
Fieter

Agreed - the Belgian beers are amazing.

Do you know how the locals order their beer? I tried ordering by brand name - moderate success, but each brand tends to come in several strengths, so the outcome can attack the knees unpredictably. Listened in for a bit (while sober). The locals specify the beer they want by nominating the glass it goes in!

Great marketing idea - every beer has its own glass. Some need wooden supports to remain upright, and have to be seen to be disbelieved (that's the glasses, not the drinkers, well ...) All you have to do is remember the Flemish names for 4,769 glasses - easy!