Belgium: Beer Adventure Day 3

May 24th

Today was more wandering around Bruges.

Look how adorable this house on the canal is.

We passed this statue while riding the bus into town from the train station.  

I correctly figured out what/who it is.  Do you know?

This is Papageno, the bird catcher, from Mozart's opera The Magic Flute.

The Belfry again.  We were going to climb it, but the wait was too long.

So we went to the Beer Museum instead.

At first I wasn't so sure about the museum, but they actually had an interesting set up.  Everyone is given a tablet and headphones.  You can choose you language and then at each exhibit, you scan the QR code to get info about that piece.  You usually had the option of audio, text, or a video.

The only downside is, I don't remember what this is.  

So.....it's a Beer Seal!  Because I said so.

View of the market square from the Beer Museum.

Since we were on  beer adventure, here are diagrams for the different types of fermentation:

Spontaneous Fermentation

Cool Fermentation

Warm Fermentation

Mixed Fermentation.

A mural of almost all the Trappist beer places.  To be a trappist beer the following must be observed:

The beer must be brewed within the walls of a Trappist monastery, either by the monks themselves or under their supervision.

The brewery must be of secondary importance within the monastery and it should witness to the business practices proper to a monastic way of life

The brewery is not intended to be a profit-making venture. The income covers the living expenses of the monks and the maintenance of the buildings and grounds. Whatever remains is donated to charity for social work and to help persons in need.

Trappist breweries are constantly monitored to assure the irreproachable quality of their beers.

There are 11 recognized trappist breweries - 

Belgium has 6, Netherlands has 2, and Austria, United States, and Italy each have 1.

What's a beer museum without being able to sample beer?  

We sampled many beers.

Beers the Seventeenth - Twenty-Fourth

	17. Palm Blonde (5.4%) Light and malty.  Budweiser-esque in flavor but smoother. 18. Boon Kriek (4%) Tastes like cherry pie.  After-taste is somewhat cough syrup flavored.
	19. Steenbrugge Wit (5%) Yeasty with touches of cardamon.  Very refreshing, would be good pool-side. 20. Steenbrugge Dubbel (6.5%) Okay and soft.  Not bitter.  Smooth.
	21. Brugge Lentegruut - Seizoengruut (8.7%) Slightly fruity, maybe citrusy with clove and cardamon.  (I really just like cardamon).  Veryo fresh tasting. 22. Rodenbach Foederbier (6%) Caramel with sour notes.  It has a slight cloyingness.
	I promise these are different beers from numbers 21 & 22. 23. Palm Cornet (8.5%) Vanilla and oak flavors.  A little hoppy.  A little bitter. 24. Rodenbach Rosso (4%) Almost wine like. Slight sourness and acidity with cherry flavors.

Having sampled many beers, we went to see the beer wall.

The beer wall hosts a bottle of beer, and the accompanying glass, for each of the Belgian beers.

People waiting for a boat tour.  I was not interested, based on the line, to get a boat tour.

Then we found another boat tour line that was not as long, so we took a boat tour.

Boat Tour!

I couldn't hear the guide so...here are some photos:

I do know this is Bruges most famous citizen, Fidel the golden labrador. 

Cygnets!   

Fidel again.

This concludes the boat tour portion of our adventure.

We then wandered to the Southern part of Bruges to investigate the Minnewaterpark and the Koning Albert I park.

This concludes the parks portion of our adventure.

Dinner was at a Japanese restaurant called Tenuki.  

They serve traditional style Japanese food.  It was expensive, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Beers the Twenty-Fifth and Twenty-Sixth!

25. Brugge Tripel (8.7%) Spiced and malty.  Feels happy in my mouth. 26. Brugs Tarwebier (4.8%) Yeasty and crisp.  Not bitter.  Slightly citrusy.

The town hall at night.  Wooooo!

We tried to go to two different bars, but both were temporarily closed.  We ended up at Delaney's, an Irish bar/restaurant.  The inside was partially decorated like a medieval castle.  We think someone asked what was in Ireland and the answer that came back was clovers and castles.

Beers the Twenty-Seventh & Eighth  

(Eighth is also a weird word)

27. Brugse Zot Dubbel (7.5%) Cherry and oak flavors.  Tastes kind of woody. 28. Chimay Red (7%) Creamy light taste.  Inoffensive.

This concludes our adventures for today.

Belgium: Beer Adventure Day 2

May 23rd

This morning we left Brussels and took the train to Bruges.

St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral.
I have never heard of St. Gudula, but maybe that's because she's a Belgian saint from the 600's.

Art!

Waffles!

I imagine many Groots dancing around.

Brussels train station art:

The train ride was about an hour and unexciting.

Bruges!

This guy was so pleased with his car-mobile thingie.

Quaint streets of Bruges.

The main square or market square with the Belfry of Bruges.

At first I didn't think you could climb it, but then we did.  More on that later.

We found a random Dali museum on the bottom left side of the Belfry.

Plans for a stained glass window.  

Mommy. why is that giraffe on fire?  I.......I don't know.

I'm not sure descriptions would help all that much, so.....enjoy the delightful weirdness that is Dali.

This concludes the Dali portion of our adventure.

CANDY!

Canals?  Canals.

Ye olde horse fountain/trough.  

No really, this is where they would get water for the horses, and still do for the carriage horses.

There was a similar spout on the other side.

De Halve Maan (The Half Moon) Brewery:

This brewery dates back to the 1500's, but was taken over by the Maes family in the 1800's.  They still run it and it is currently the only surviving brewery in historic Bruges.
100 years ago there were around 500 breweries 

Views from the roof (the third tallest structure open to the public):

I didn't take very may photos on the brewery tour because it's not terribly exciting.  

Also, if you've ever seen one brewery, you more or less have seen them all.  It's all the same just shoved into buildings in slightly different configurations.

Beer wall in the bar!

Beer the Twelfth!  

(Twelfth is a weird word)

12. Brugse Zot (6%) Slightly bitter and sour but easily drinkable. Has some slight taste of spice, maybe clove?

This concludes the De Halve Mann portion of our adventure.

Off to wandering!

More quaintness!

This guy looked important.  I mean, he has his own statue.

The internet tells me that Simon Stevin was a great Flemish mathematician, physicist, and engineer.

This also looked important.

This is the Stadhuis, or town hall.

Muppet bar!  It was not as Muppet themed as I would have liked.   

Windmill!

Other people enjoying a windmill!

Sneaky windmill.  

Because it was Pentecost weekend, many of the restaurants were booked solid. We opted to hit up one of the more touristy restaurants for tonight.

Beers Thirteenth-Sixteenth! 

At Het Hof Van Rembrant

	13. Rochefort Trappistes (10%) Slightly sour with strong cherry aroma.  Very smooth. 14. Bourgogne des Flandres (5%) Sweet with some chocolatey flavors.  Sort of a coppery/irony finish but minimal after-taste.
	15. Engelszell Gregorious (10.5%) Slightly coppery with a strong tastes of raisins and chocolate. 16. Waterloo Tripel 7 Blonde (7.5%) Sweet and inoffensive.  This beer is unremarkable.  I mostly got it because it's in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo.  Also it came in a ceramic chalice.

This concludes our adventures for today.

PS Today is my brother's birthday.  Happy Birthday Colin!