Our first visit that day was an early one. We left the hotel at 9 AM and drove to the neighbouring town of Esen-Diksmuide where we were expected at the Dolle Brouwers brewery. Grandmother ( the mother of the brewer Kris Herteleer) turned 93 this year!!! and she still gives the tours on Saturday and Sunday in English, Dutch and French.She explained to us that the brewery was originally set up by her two sons back in the eighties, how they took over the old brewery from the previous owner who helped them out with the creation of their first beer, “Oerbier” (= ancient beer). The beer won a prize in a competition in Brussels and the sales took off. Nowadays the brewery is run by one son, Kris and his wife Els, with the help of the mother. Kris is also an architect and a painter. This is certainly one of the most original breweries to visit in Belgium. Everything expresses art and good taste, no matter how old the materials that are being used are. Of course a tasting concluded the tour, we were able to taste the Oerbier  (with new yeast that causes lactic acids to develop) which has regained its authentic sweet-sourness, the wonderfully dry-hopped Arabier, the Dulle Teve (= Mad Bitch), a very dense triple and the Stout.

After this visit we went to the town of Alveringem for a visit to the malt- and brewery museum “De Snoek” (=the pike) there. Regnier guided us around in a place well known to him. This unique brewery survived WWI because it was located just behind the battlefields and was an important supplier of beer to the allied troops during the war. They remained active until the fifties. Then the family Dierikx decided to concentrate on distribution rather than on production . The extraordinary thing is that the actual brewery, maltery and even the kilning tower remained intact and were restored in the late eighties when the city bought the premises and turned it into a museum. What a decision that was!!! The copper is now shinier than ever and where else are you going to find such an (almost) working example of a cascade brewery ( = using gravity with brewhouse on top and fermentation downstairs)
We tasted the housebeers , the blonde which is brewed at Bavik breweries and the dark which is made by Strubbe in Ichtegem. We also had lunch there and tasted the local farmers’ dish with smoked ham, cheese, smout ( =lard) and hoofdvlees ( = head cheese)

In the early afternoon we drove to nearby Westvleteren where we saw the Sint-Sixtus trappist abbey. Belgium has six trappist monastries like this where monks brew beer, and this is the smallest one. Their production is 35 times smaller than Chimay for instance and this makes the beer very wanted and sought for. But we tasted it!!! They make two strong dark ales, one of 10.5 ABV and one of 8 ABV. They also brew a bitter blonde of 6 ABV.

Since the outlet always closes for the second half of September , we tasted the beers outside in the garden like in a picnic. Regnier had brought some cases in the trunk of the bus and the driver had arranged to get us clean white tablecloth and napkins. This was great and we were lucky because the weather was just splendid!!!

After the visit to the abbey we drove to the brewery De Ranke in Dottenijs, which is in the province of Hainaut, some 50 kilometres down south. This very modern brewery produces beers like XX Bitter, a very hoppy pale ale and Guldenberg, an abbey beer that is lighter in colour and less bitter. Their cherry beer, Kriek De Ranke, is produced with a blend of Girardin lambic and real cherries together with a blond beer brewed by themselves. A great beer with lambic character. We were very well received and our group was very interested at the technical details. We did a fantastic tasting in the room in the back of the brewery and Nino Bacelle, one of the brewers, let us taste some very rare aged beers from previous batches.
Everyone had a great time here!!!

We couldn’t stay too long because we wanted to attend the Last Post ceremony, at the Meningate in Ypres, which has continuously been held since WW1 and remembers the soldiers without a grave who were killed during the first World War. It is very impressive and every night, hundreds of people attend it.

Picture of faceless German Mourners