Free Beer

Wednesday we went to Louven, Belgium for two brewery tours and a city tour. We started the morning at Timmerman’s one of 15 remaining Lambic brewery’s. It was a quiet hole in the wall place who have recently penetrated the US high end beer market after success in Russia. Known best for their cherry, Blanche, and dark (can’t remember ) the name traditional lambic beer. The four things the guide told us to remember about lambic beer are:

It is Seasonal, meaning it can only be brewed from November to April because of it requires Spontoaous fermentation which means that they let it ferment with the windows open because there are special particals in the areas air that gives the beer a unique taste. These particals are only present within 15 km of the city. It is also a Wheat beer and of course lambic beer. We got to try 3 different types of beer and I really enjoyed the raspberry, strawberry, and Blanche. The cheery one surprised me an was very good dispute my assumption it would taste kind of like cough syrup.

After leaving Timmerman’s we went to the Stella factory. Unfortunately they did not have a tour guide ready for us and do we had to forgo seeing how the beer is brewed on a mass production level. But to compensate they allowed us to still have a tasting in which thy taught us the correct way to clean, pour, and hold our Stella beer. It requires 6 steps, including a special way to clean the glass with an up and down swilling of the cup on these brushes submerged in water, then at 45 degree angle rinse the glass while holding in at the base, then to let the tap open for a couple seconds before tilting the glass at again a 45 degree angle until full, remove the glass before shutting off the tap to ensure that the final drop of the tap does not ruin the head of the beer, then using the knife cut off the top and finish the perfect pour with washing the outside of the glass and drying off the bottom.

After, taking our usual souvenir from the bathroom (toilet paper) hehe, we went back to the bus to meet our usual tour guide, Peter, for a tour of his hometown. When we got off the bus we saw the oddest monument, a large silver spear with a large bug pierced. It was apparently a gift from the university to the city for an anniversary, smolizing living one with nature, paralleling how the science program displays insects in the museum. It was a beautiful city, with rough cobble stones and beautiful buildings that made the university. Most of them were built with money from donors who sent their cities youth to the once strict catholic school or were infirmatories. For the most part it looked deserted but Peter insisted everyone was inside studying for their up coming exams. The city tour felt like it went on for ever and ever and eventually we all made Peter stop for waffles and ice cream . We slept most of the way home which was much needed.