Brewmaster's Corner Episode #4: Traveling Belgium

Block 15 co-founder Nick Arzner has an imaginative nature that translates beautifully into his vision for beer. He and his talented staff in Corvallis, Oregon always have something special on tap that you likely won’t find outside of the brewhouse. Arzner is currently fulfilling a dream traveling Belgium with his wife Kristen, seeking out even more inspiration for his wonder brewhouse.

Thank you to Angelo for inviting my contributions to the pages of Brewpublic’s Brewmaster’s Corner. I first must point out that I am not a Brewmaster, merely a disciple of beer, damn good beer.  Brewing, creating, envisioning, serving, preaching, and most importantly, consuming. Secondly, I must let you know that I am not that great of a writer or editor.  I will simply do my best to convey my thoughts and feelings about beer with other people. Thirdly, I am writing this on a beautiful evening in a courtyard at the St. Bernardus Bed & Breakfast in Watou, Belgium while drinking a wonderfully refreshing  yet complex St. Bernardus Wit. Life is good.

I have been traveling the past week in Belgium with my wife and co-owner of BLOCK 15, Kristen.  We actually planned this trip over four years ago.  Fortunately, something important popped up and we had to postpone, that being the ideal location to start our dream; Block 15 Brewing Company.  Our goal was to work our asses off for at least two years, with the hope that then we would be at a point to leave our dream in the hands of the wonderful people we work with.  Now slightly over two years later we have realized that goal.

I want to share with you the wonderful experiences I as a huge beer enthusiast have had over the past six days in this country.  We actually will be traveling for another week. This post will focus on three cities and their surrounding areas:  Brugge,  Roeselare, & Watou.  I’m going to mention my highlights in order to keep the post from being too long.  I was hoping to include Brussels, the lambic region, but our flight was delayed over 36 hours, cutting our time very short in Brussels.  Fortunately, we have several free days next week, so a visit to Cantillon will be realized.

Aside from beer, Belgium is rich in wonderful food, history, culture and enjoyable people.  But this is about beer!

Brugge

Our first stop was the CAMBRINUS HOUSE tucked just outside of the majestic  town square.  They presented us with literally a book of beer options, over 300 to be exact.  The atmosphere is fantastic: brass, wood, paintings and back bar coolers overflowing with bottled beer.  They also have a very nice food menu with regional options.  A great place for a beer or five, or an extended meal.  My advice is to blindly pick a beer you have never had to begin and enjoy it while browsing to pick out your next.

Our favorite beer bar, possibly ever, was the  ‘T BRUGS BEERTJE.  A small joint tucked away in an alley off a main cobbled street.  The interior is worn and stained from years of smoking (now non-smoking!).  The barkeeps were a bit younger and beer enthusiasts themselves that spoke good English.  A book of 200 plus options was presented.  As if this isn’t enough, the back of the book has a page of special beers, some that the owner picks up from the breweries herself.  Rodenbach “Vin de Cereal”, De Struise Pannepot Reserve 2005 & Black Damnation, and 3 Fonteinen Oude Gueze 2005, to name a few we sampled.

The only current brewery in Brugge is DE HALVE MANN.  For 6 Euro you can enjoy an educational tour through the brewery and a glass of their Zot blonde at the end.  Much of the tour is through their museum of old brewing equipment.  It is mind boggling to me the amount of effort brewers had to expend to make beer in the past.  I will never bitch about the 15 stairs between my brewhouse and cellar again!

After three nights in Brugge we stopped by the RODENBACH Brewery in Roeselare on the way to Watou.  What I didn’t realize is that you must have an appointment to visit the brewery and receive the tour.  This is actually the case in most breweries in Belgium, groups (of 15-25min) must reserve in advance.  Fortunately a large group of people on excursion from a conference were beginning their tour shortly and the kind folks at Rodenbach let us join them.  The tour begins with a short video of family history then you wander through the old malt kiln and conditioning tanks before descending into the beer cathedral, where the nearly 300 foeders are patiently maturing the beer.  This was an amazing sight & olfactory experience, and overall intense moment for me.  The foeders are up to 150 years old, ranging in size from 12,000liters-65,000liters.  I could write several pages on this alone.  The tour ends with a glass of their Grand Cru on tap.  We also were able to purchase some special bottles, a 2007 special reserve vintage foeder #230 and 2005 Vin de Cereal 10% ABV pulled exclusively from foeder # 132.

We eventually made our way to the ST BERNARDUS Bed & Breakfast right outside of Watou.  If I only had three days in Belgium, this would be my stop..here is why.  The B&B is a marvelous manor with 11 rooms.  Jackie, the attendant is extremely hospitable and ensures your stay is pleasant.  For 70 euro we have a large room, breakfast, bikes, and yes all of the St Bernardus beer we can drink!  Currently they have construction projects at the brewery and a visit is not possible.  However, St. Sixtus is a short 10km bike ride through beautiful farm land, and just another 7km past is the De Struise tasting room.  Somehow I got my dates screwed up and the café at St. Sixtus was closed, no Westvleteren beer today.  I’m not upset as I know we will be back and Belgium has plenty of great beer to drink.

We did arrange to meet with Carlo of the DE STRUISE brewery thanks to Matt from OAKSHIRE for putting us in touch.  They now have an interesting tasting arrangement in an old school yard.  You can contact Carlo from their website to arrange a meeting.  I was very excited to meet with Carlo as Black Albert and Earth Monk are two phenomenal brews I have had.  I noted both of these beers in my top five of 2009.  Carlo was extremely accommodating sharing tastes of Pannepot Grand Reserve 2008, Black Damnation III Black Mes, Roste Jeanne & Elliot Brew.  Behind every Struise beer is a story, and that story was shared with us by Carlo.

I am not even halfway through my Belgium trip and the inspiration is already almost overwhelming.  This country is all about beer, great beer.  The brewers are passionate, painstakingly taking time and energy creating their art.  A 21 day turn around from grain to glass is laughable to them.  They not only have centuries of knowledge to pull from, but centuries of high quality history to uphold.

We have always kept the Belgian Brewer’s philosophy “Create Something New based on Age old traditions” at heart when brewing  our beer.  Through this philosophy we have created such beers as Pappy’s Dark, The Demons Farms, Six Hop Wonder, Imagine, Trubbled Monk, Provisions Saison and the host of wild ales aging in barrels.  This trip is not only strengthening this idea but evolving the meaning to something more relevant.  Truly, a slow style of brewing and a commitment to passion day in and out.  You will see our large rotating list of seasonals become a bit more streamlined as we tirelessly polish our recipes and techniques.  When I arrive home one of the first things I will do is find yet even more conditioning tanks, and thus more time for each beer to ripen.  I will take my notes, the memory of these fine Belgian ales, and the stories of the Belgian Brewers, past & present to fuel the creation in our brewery and cellar.  And if over time I feel this inspiration wane, I know I can find it again in Belgium.

Cheers,

Nick Arzner

Block 15 Brewing Co.

To follow the next part of my Belgian trip and other beer thoughts you can subscribe to my Brewer’s Brain journal.