Brussels Part 1:Cantillon and Grand Place #HogsAbroad
Its been awhile since
my last post, and this weekend was full of too many events to shove
into one post. For that reason, I will write about early Saturday in
this post and Saturday night and Sunday in the next. I got to Brussels
on Saturday around noon, with a checklist of things to do before I
leave:
Visit Cantillon Brewery
Explore the city center
Go to the Belgium v Norway friendly match
Meet people!
Brussels Town Hall at Grand Place, considered by some to be the most beautiful square in Europe
I
made sure to book the closest hostel to Grand Place, and luckily, there
is one in an alleyway about 20 meters from the square itself. I did not
know what to expect from the square, but it was truly an unbelievable
sight to see. Every building was a piece of art.
Grand place is lined with former guild halls that were erected throughout the history of Brussels
The Brewers Guild Hall
After
checking in, I headed straight to the Cantillon Brewery. Cantillon is
the lone surviving brewery in Brussels, and their charm comes from the
fact the brewery has virtually stayed the same since the 1900′s.
Cantillon
only brews one type of beer- the lambic. Lambic beers are all
spontaneously fermented from the bacteria and yeast naturally found in
the air. The microorganisms in the air are the key trademark of a
lambic, and just as Champagne can only be made in certain areas in
France, lambics are locked down by the Belgians. These beers are able to
age better than a lot of wines, and geuzes (a blend of young and old
lambic) are known to be exceptional with up to 20 years of age and
beyond.
The boil kettle at Cantillon
After
the beer itself is brewed, it is placed in the big copper vessel shown
above, called a coolingship. The beer wort cools down overnight, and
once its temperature drops below 40 degrees C, the microorganisms in the
air inoculate the wort and the beer is placed in wooden barrels after
further cooling.
Unlike most breweries, Cantillon allows its guests to tour every facet of the brewery, including the cellar
Cantillon is truly a beer nerds paradise. To the average Tripadvisor reviewer, the term “dirty” is thrown around a lot
At
the end of your self guided tour, they offer 18 month old lambic
straight from a barrel, which was very interesting. I then shelled out a
little extra to taste one of Cantillon’s most notable beers: Lou Pepe
Kriek. Mine was a 2013 vintage, and can honestly say the beer lives up
to all the hype it has received.
While trying to find a seat, I
was offered a place around a barrel with loads of beer on it. The two
New Yorkers were working for ZX Ventures, a small firm backed by InBev
that works in craft beer. We talked for awhile as they shared their
incredibly beers with me, ranging from Iris Grand Cru, the Lou Pepe
Framboise, and a 2007 Vintage geuze.
I
am terrible with names, and wish I would have gotten a picture with
these awesome beer lovers, they know about this tumblr so hopefully they
can remind me!
Once the brewery closed, we headed back to Grand
Place and stopped at a restaurant that had the most incredible bread and
goat feta cheese that has ever existed. It turns out the guys I hung
out with that night had frequented the place, and I ate their with them a
few hours later.
