We arrived in Brussels a little bit late, after missing our train from Amsterdam. When we got to our accommodation, there was no-one there (I had said we would arrive in the morning). 20 minutes later, we were let in to the beautiful B&B we stayed in.

We dropped our bags, then headed to the centre of town, a ten minute walk. We were both reminded of Paris walking through the streets, it is a beautiful city. We soon found a cafe for drinks and a very late lunch.

We kept walking to the centre of town, to Markt Platz, which is very beautiful. I soon spotted a beer shop (proudly stocking 250 beers), and procured some room beers. We stopped in another cafe that offered beer tasting, including some crazy Belgian fruit beers, before a cheap dinner of Greek food.

It did not take long for me to decide that the beers of Belgium are my favourite of all the countries we visited in Europe. The strength and variety of the flavours and styles makes it an unmissable country for any beer geek. The most incredible thing is that after a day of tasting, drinking beers between 6% and 11% ABV, you feel fine the next day

October 4 – Day 82

Today we planned to do a walking tour of Brussels, but couldn’t find anyone offering one. We then thought we’d do a bus tour, but the Brussels Marathon meant that there were a lot of closed streets, and they were only stopping at about a quarter of the stops. Instead, we bought a little tourist book, and walked around by ourselves.

We had a look at Manakin Pis, the little peeing boy. There are numerous legends about him, and why he is eternally peeing. When we visited he was wearing one of his 800+ outfits, which is incredible. We decided to go and see the rest of the collection in the museum at the King’s House.

After that, we headed to Delirium Cafe, which is truly incredible. They  hold the Guinness World Record for the most beers available – 2004. I set out to taste the best, working through a few Grand Cru’s, and plenty of other Belgians. The cafe itself is amazing. Every surface is covered in Beer paraphernalia. The entire roof is covered in serving trays, and all of the light comes from beer signs, as far as I could tell. A must see for anyone who likes beer at all.

After a thorough sampling of their Bible-esque menu, we continued on Simone’s tour of Brussels. We stopped at St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a Palace, Gardens and the Clock. After all that walking we were ready for more drinks, so we stopped at a bar for drinks, where we met the craziest American of the past three months (he had plenty of competition), then headed off to dinner. Brussels in a day

October 5 – Day 83

Today we headed to Brugge, laughing all the way at quotes from ‘In Brugge’. When we arrived, it was raining, but we decided to walk anyway. We went in and out of chocolate shops all the way to the centre of town, also stopping for the best hot chocolate I have ever had. A bowl of steaming milk, into which you drop a chocolate cup full of chocolate bits. Delicious.

By this stage it was pouring, so a canal cruise didn’t look very appealing. We spotted a bus tour going past, and ran and got on. It showed us all the places we would go for the rest of the day.

First, I climbed the 366 steps of The Belfry tower in the main square. Even in the rain, the views were excellent, and I was lucky enough to be at the top when the 29 tonnes of bells started to ring. It was deafeningly enjoyable.

After climbing down, I went to a beer shop I had spotted from the tour. As soon as I walked in the door, I saw something very special on the counter – beers from St Sixtus in Westvleteren (the abbey that produces the ‘best beer in the world’. They only had the 8 in stock (the Blonde), but I got a bottle. This is against the wishes of the Abbey, but I was worried about missing out. Hopefully the beer gods forgive me.

Next we walked through a beautiful garden, into the stunning ‘Houses of God’, which were built for the poor. They surround a beautiful courtyard – definitely worth a visit.

From there, we went back to the train station, and back to Brussels. Naturally, we headed back to the Delirium Cafe for more research.

October 6 – Day 84

Today, I made the pilgrimage to Westvleteren, which will hopefully have cleansed me of my sins yesterday. Westvleteren is not an easy place to get to. Here is what we did, and what you should do:

Getting to Westvleteren (Home of St Sixtus Brewery)

First, we bought return tickets to Poperinge Train Station (~35 EUR per person). On the platform, we called up the belbus company that will take you from the station to St Sixtus (about 8km). They said the bus would be waiting when we arrived (around 11:30).

We got off the train, and sure enough, the bus was there waiting for us. 15 minutes later, we were at the Abbey. We told the driver we would be waiting at 3 to get the bus back to the station (BIG MISTAKE). The Abbey is actually not very appealing, and you can’t see much. Across the road is the cafe where you can get the beers though.

I sampled the range (8, 10 and 12). Each beer is better than the last, and the 12 is truly outstanding. It really is the best beer I have ever tasted. I had a few more of them.

It was pouring with rain, and we soon gave up walking around their gardens, and headed back for a few more beers.

It turned out it was a beer purchasing day at the abbey, and I can confirm that they have a pad of paper with people’s vehicle registration, as well as their order, and the time they will arrive. Amazing.

IMPORTANT TIP:

If you ask the belbus driver to come back and get you, they will NOT do it. We were pretty confident that the driver had understood us, but evidently not. You cannot make a reservation with a driver, you need to do it over the phone. This was a very expensive mistake for us.

After asking around, we eventually got a phone number for a taxi. We were told that this was very unusual, but I had no idea how bad it would be. The bus cost 3.20 Euro for both of us, I thought a taxi might be 10-15 Euro. It actually has to travel to St Sixtus from another town, and they have a fixed rate to take people from the abbey to the train station. The driver said 45 Euro when we got in – I couldn’t believe it, so we called the taxi company to confirm, and were told it was 40 Euro – for an 8km ride. Had we known, we would have hitchhiked with one of the cars at the abbey picking up their beers.

If you plan to get the belbus, make sure you book the return trip when you call, there is absolutely no other way of getting back to the train station.

We were back in Brussels by about 7pm, where we had dinner and headed back home to pack. I had an excellent day, even if it  was a bit expensive. I would consider hiring a car with GPS to get there (if you have a non drinker with you). Apparently it is much quicker, and probably doesn’t cost that much more if there are 2+ people going.

I loved Belgium, it was one of my favourite places of the trip. I hope to go back one day soon

After a few weeks of ‘international lagers’, I felt like something a bit more stimulating, and picked this up at a local supermarket (in Hvar, Croatia).

I must admit, the appearance of the bottle (white) drew my attention to this beer. Its appearance when poured also doesn’t disappoint. It is a deep brown colour, is opaque, and pours with a fluffy brownish head. Lacing lasted for the whole glass – and the glass was from a hostel kitchen, it was definitely nothing special!

When I smelled the beer, I could smell the alcohol (it is 10.5% after all). It also smells sweet and fruity, and has a hint of chocolate.

It feels smooth and creamy, and is sweet to begin with, before turning more bitter towards the end. It has strong fruity flavours, and lighter caramel and chocolate. The alcohol content is not overbearing at all – this is a very drinkable beer, which makes it dangerous (I can see myself having a few quite easily).

Overall, this is a delicious beer. Definitely try this one if you get a chance

We decided that the time had come to do another double batch, as the remains of batch 11 (our last double) are coming to an end. I decided on 40L, which (I found out today) is the absolute maximum I can do in my 55L esky. It was almost flowing through the hinge. Time to upgrade this soon…

We had a dream brew day. We hit both the target gravity and the target volume, something that I do not remember happening in the past. Also, I managed to get 65% efficiency, which is pretty good for the volume of the brew. We also christened the new 60L fermenter today, which seems to be good, except for some lid-sealing issues (see pics below for solution).

This beer is a bit paler than the last one, due to changes to the grain bill. I also replaced the Target hops with Pilgrim. Unless it goes wild like the last one, it should also be slightly lower ABV (5% instead of 6%).

For those who are interested, this batch cost me AU$100, and 8.5 hours of time. That works out at less than $1 per schooner of beer (I don’t charge myself for time)

There are a few pics below, and for the first time, video of the boil in full swing.

As per the description, the beer is a deep copper colour. It has a creamy ivory head that lasts from start to finish, and is very clear.

Unlike most commercial brews, this one actually lists the ingredients. So straight off the side of the bottle, this contains “Pale, Munich and carapils malts and hopped with deranged amounts of Australian hops (Galaxy and Super Pride) and American hops (Simcoe and Sterling)”. It is one for the hop heads, you can smell them as soon as you open the bottle.

It is not overly carbonated, and is medium bodied. It has a slight alcohol flavour, but that is to be expected from a brew packing 7.9% alcohol.

As I mentioned, this is a great beer if you like hops. I think this bottle was actually a bit too cold. Once it had warmed up a bit in the glass a bit it improved quite a bit. It tastes good the whole time, but it is definitely better once it warms up a bit.

Overall, I’m pretty impressed. This is definitely worth a try if you are willing to spend a bit extra on a special beer. I’m glad I got a case of it, I’m planning to put a few bottles away for a while. It’s great to see commercial brewers doing something a bit different – it’s a shame that it takes a special occasion ().

If you do want to try this, hurry. They only made 1900 cases, and from what I’ve heard they’re selling quickly.

I used a different base malt than I usually do – Munich I Malt. I also used Caraaroma instead of Crystal, and of course, this brew included oats!

We also bottled the Pacific Pale ale we brewed about a month ago. Fermentation was the most vigorous I have ever seen for this beer. It was constantly bubbling for a week! Normally things slow down after a few days. I am still a bit worried about it – it tastes ok, but it reached a final gravity of 1.007 (much lower than I expected it to go) which may suggest a wild yeast infection.

I also did a bottle count today, and figured out that I have 84 bottles (63 Litres) of beer.

Pics of todays brew are below.

Batch 11 was a double batch. We brewed about 45L of this beer (because we loved it so much the first time). That said, the first brew (way back at batch 9) turned out a little bit better than this one I think. I class it as an American Pale Ale, the recipe calls it an English Best Bitter.

Its appearance is beautiful. There is a slight haziness, but it is barely noticeable. It is not too pale, and is golden in colour (8 SRM). The beer holds its head nicely, and leaves a lacing on the glass.

The aroma is hop-dominated, thanks to the generous amounts of Amarillo used in the recipe.  These hops are widely recognised as having citrus characteristics.

It is an easy drinker, with a light-medium body, and a fairly low level of carbonation. It is smooth to drink, however it is quite bitter (41 IBU). Flavour, like aroma, is completely dominated by Amarillo – not a bad thing at all. It starts of sweet, with the bitterness coming through in the aftertaste.

This is truly a great beer.

This is a dark beer, as the name would suggest. I brewed this one out of the VicBrew Winning Beers Recipe Booklet. I think it fits the style, but only just. As with all dark beers, clarity is difficult to determine (and because of this, it doesn’t really matter, in my opinion). I can’t see any suspended yeast in it, so that is a good sign. It pours with a thick (lasting) head, and is possibly a little bit over carbonated.

The aroma is similar to that of a stout, but not quite as pronounced. Carafa I and Roasted Barley grains contribute here. Hops are detected, but are not prominent. It is medium bodied, and moderately carbonated.

Roasted flavours are quite prominent when drinking this, however it is a very easy drinking style. We think it tastes a little bit like Tooheys Old, but fresher, and more flavoursome. This said, I don’t know if I have ever tasted a commercial Scwarzbier, so I can’t really compare flavours. Hop bitterness is quite high for the style (28 IBUs), but this is well balanced with the roasted malt flavour.

I’m pretty happy with this brew, I think it will improve with age if I can leave it alone for a few months!

Appearance

Any aspect of the beer relating to it’s visual appeal impacts on the appearance rating. This includes the colour of the beer, it’s clarity, how it’s head looks (and whether it lasts). Appearance is a score out of 5.

Aroma

The smell of the beer. Largely determined by the hops and grains used. There are an endless number of descriptors for beer aromas, and describing aromas of beer can quickly lead to you being classed as a beer snob. Aromas can be loosely grouped into malty, hops, yeasty, and everything else (fruity, smokey, alcohol flavour). This section also takes into account bad smells. Aroma is an important aspect of the beer consumption experience, so it is a score out of 10.

Palate

Palate refers to how it feels to drink the beer (good, right?). It refers to the texture and body of the beer. For example, a beer can be light or heavy, carbonated to still, smooth or hard. Also, how does your mouth feel after you drink it? Palate is often refered to as mouthfeel, which I think is very descriptive. How does the beer feel in your mouth? This is a score out of 5.

Flavour

The actual taste of the beer. This includes how the taste changes while drinking the beer, as well as the bitterness/sweetness/sourness of the beer. Also, it it an intense flavour, or is it gone by the time you swallow? Flavour is scored out of 10.

Overall

The overall rating takes all of the above into account, and brings in any other factors that may influence the experience of the beer. This is a score out of 20.

Score:

I sum up all of the above to give an overall score out of 50.

We only bottled our IPA about a week and a half ago, but Dad and I were getting desperate to try it.

It is quite brown for a pale ale, probably due to the 10% crystal, but I think it is still within the range of the style guide, and I do like my beers a bit darker.

The alcohol taste that I was worried about is completely gone now – it just tastes like beer. In fact, it’s only when you get to the end of the glass that you realise it was 6.7%. It is a hopsy beer, but not in an overpowering way. Beersmith says it is 46 IBUs. It has a beautiful head when poured, and this lasts right to the end of the glass. It will not be a sessional drinker. I figured out the other day that one bottle (750ml) is 4.4 standard drinks!

I’m really happy that it turned out so well, I think I will add a double batch to my list of beers to brew (#1, a Pale Ale,#2, a double batch of our Extra Strong Bitter).

I added a few more pics of how it looks to the flickr set (the first three). I have also started following a convention for rating beers. In future tasting notes, my comments will be more closely linked to the appearance, aroma, palate, flavour, and overall rating of the beer.

It is pale, and is classed as a light lager. It is easy to drink, starting off sweet, with a more bitter finish, staying malty throughout. It has a pretty low level of carbonation – starts off with a fluffy white head, but this dies pretty quickly. It has almost no body, but would be good to drink on a hot day at the beach.

I don’t know this got into our fridge, but I think dad said he took some to a Thai restaurant. I wouldn’t choose this beer if you have decent alternatives, it isn’t anything special.