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To a lot of people, Belgium is just a little North European country that houses the European Parliament and, well, not much else.
However, anyone that’s either visited Belgium, or tried one of their myriad beer styles, knows that the reality is rather different. Aside from being a beautiful country with some stunning architecture and art, Belgian beers are some of the greatest - and strangest - in the world. Where else do you find beers brewed using honey and spice? Or brewed in the open air actively encouraging airborne yeasts to change the flavour? Or monks brewing some world classics to fund their religious way of life?
The folks at North Bar – which is styled after modern Belgian drinking dens and first made its name selling Belgian and German beers – know all about the quality of Belgian beer, and hold a festival once a year to celebrate the weird and wonderful brews available.
To give Leeds Guide a flavour of what we can expect for this year, they shared with us two very contrasting Belgian specialities.
We start off with a kriek (read: cherry beer) from tiny brewer Drie Fonteinen (Three Fountains), one of the only Belgian brewers to still produce beers in the cellar of their own cafe. Their Oude Kriek (£8.50) beer is a 5% lambic beer (that means it’s brewed in open casks to give it a sour, apple, almost cider-like flavour) blended with schaerbeck cherries, that avoids the syrupy sweetness of a lot of fruit beers and instead packs a mighty, dry, sour punch. It’s almost like a dry rose wine, or a fruit cider.
At almost the opposite end of the Belgian spectrum is the Smisje Wostyntje Torhouts mustard bier (£4.80) (try ordering that after a few). This is brewed by the Regenboorg (which means Rainbow) Brewery, the smallest Belgian craft brewer, and is brewed using mustard and honey from the brewers own bees.
Yep, we said it’s brewed using mustard. Don’t run away though. This isn’t pungent and powerfully bitter. The blend is perfect, and while you can certainly detect the mustard, the balance makes the flavour a little coriander and cinnamon-esque, with a nice long warming finish and a spice that tingles in the mouth.
There will be some 100 Belgian beers available at North during their festival, including Alvinne Podge Imperial Stout, Girardin Gueuze, Verhaeghe Echte Kriek and Glazen Torren Saison, (and around 20 at Further North the week after) and they won’t all be as odd as these two, so don’t worry. There will also be waffles and chocolate sauce and some Belgian rarities on draught too. The whole thing kicks off on the 1st April with a space party (it is 2010, after all) – which involves space costumes and a space-themed DJ set from the I 8 NY DJs. A night of oddness which nicely sets the theme for many of the beers on offer.
1-15 April, North Bar, 24 New Briggate, LS1 6NU, 0113 242 4540
16-25 April, Further North, 194 Harrogate Road, Chapel Allerton, LS7 4NZ, 0113 320 0202
Posted on Tuesday 23rd March 2010
TG
North Bar
24 New Briggate, Leeds, LS1 6NU
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