Saturday we went to Cantillon Brewery in Brussels. Its one of the last traditional breweries left in the world. They're very proud of their natural fermentation cycle and how they must respect nature and deal with natural fluctuations in yeast/fermentation. As a result, no two batches of beer they brew taste completely the same. Since they also don't use industrial fermenters to speed up the process, it takes at least 18 months, and usually 36 months for the whole fermentation process to happen. The most interesting thing about their brewing process I found was the fact that they ferment their beers in wooden casks, recycled from wineries. Obviously the gas from the fermentation can escape, so this fermentation is only the first stage. They then ferment the beer again in glass bottles to get those bubblies we're all so used to in beers.
Anyways, they're famous for their lambic beer which I'm not sure how it differs from other beers wrt to its brewing (clearly I paid attention to my handout), but its a very sour beer, almost wine-like, and like nothing in the US. The 3 beers I tried there were Lambic, Geuze, and Frambois. The Lambic is, as mentioned, what they're known for, and is a flat beer. Basically, what comes out of the wooden casks I think. Afterwards, the Geuze and Frambois are made with some additional steps. Geuze is a mix of three different beers and is considered the "campagne of beers" or something. And Frambois, is basically the raspberry version of Kriek beers aka cherry beer aka fruit beers. The fruit beer here was SO much better than stuff I've had at bars. The way they make their fruit beers is by literally putting fruit into the beer and by the end of the fermentation process the flavors been imbibed into the beer and the fruit dissolved. Its very clear that its not just some terrible fruit flavoring.
Sunday, we went to basically the polar opposite of Cantillon and went to the Stella Artois brewery in Leuven for a big tour. Minus getting mildly lost on the way there and biking in a flat, the trip was fun, and definitely worth the 8 euros in just free beer alone. Unlike the self-guided Cantillon brewery, the Stella one was led by a tour guide, and we were made to wear bright yellow vests, and told to not walk outside the white lines. We weren't even allowed to take pictures of the control room, where men who have received Master's in brewing worked to oversee the brewing process. Quite different from the traditional brewery where if you screwed up your beer, you wouldn't know till after fermentation.
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| the crushing of the grains into sugar water |
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| the industrial fermentation process |
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| THE BOTTLING LINES |
The best part of the industrial tour was seeing the bottling assembly lines. They package beer in cans, bottles, and kegs, but only the can line was fully visible and in operation. AND IT WAS FASCINATING. It was great fun watching the lines speed up, slow down, look for the cans that had tipped over, or were screwed up and spilled beer all over the place when the machine tried to flip them ect. I wish the other packaging lines were open, but alas.
The tour ended with a tasting of course. We were all served Stella Artois first (the Stella part of their name came in the early 1900s after a Christmas beer they brewed became so wildly popular they decided to brew more). Stella is really not that great compared to the other Belgium beers I've had here, such as Leffe. Leffe is I guess another similarly pils beer (whatever that means....), but tastes better in my opinion. At the end we were also given gift bags with more Stella and Leffe. All in all, definitely worth the 8 euros, and maybeeee worth the pain of biking on a flat.
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