Ohio Beer Guide: Adventures of the Muse

Adventures - Travels of the Muse

Archive May-June, 2007

June 10 - Oklahoma City, OK - TapWerks - This place is unbelievable! It has 108 taps!! I have never seen so many taps... ever! Selections from all over the world...with only a little "crap" on tap.

It's near downtown in the area they call Bricktown. Besides all the taps, they have a decent selection of bottled beers, too. It's down the street from the Bricktown Brewery, but I preferred this place. Friendly staff, too! That's the owner with two of his "beer wenches." (They told me to say that.)

June 7 - Philadelphia, PA - Eulogy Belgian Tavern - This place advertises itself as "beer heaven." I do think Philly might be beer heaven for Belgian beer lovers. This is the third good Belgian beer tavern in the city. I'm sorry I didn't get to sample the food, but I did see a couple of beers here that I hadn't seen before. (They say over 300 beers, but I didn't count) They had the Panil Barrique here (the Italian Flemish sour), and the Duchesse de Bourgogne (also a Flemish sour) on tap. They also had a very interesting Belgian sour wit beer. This one, brewed by Regenboog brewery in Brugge, was called Vuuve. At 60% barley and 40% wheat, it was a very light beer... had a hint of coriander and orange peel.... and just a little bit sour. Very refreshing and good! I don't remember seeing this one when in Belgium. Oh... the Delirium Tremens brewer was here tonight for a special beer dinner. Too bad I wasn't hungry

June 7 - Philadelphia, PA - Ludwig's Garten - No crap on tap here.... so the sign says. A quick lunch of Schwetzinger Spätzle and an Aventinus. Nice place with about twenty or so good beers on tap. Many Belgian beers for a German beer garden, but who's complaining? I tried the Atomium Grand Cru, too.

Alain DeLaet and Tom Peters

June 6 - Philadelphia, PA - Monk's Cafe - Very famous, popular Belgian beer bar and restaurant in Philly. Quaint, old, small, crowded...but very friendly place. I met Maggie, Deb, Nora, and owners Tom Peters and Fergus Carey, within minutes of my arrival. It might have had something to do with the Cantillon t-shirt I was wearing, though! Great selection of beers. I first had the Urthel Vlamese Bock, and then the Monk's Cafe Sour on draft. Then, Alain De Laet arrived! He is the brewer/owner of Huyghe Brewery in Belgium, brewer of Delirium Tremens. He talked about his brewery and its history and the Delirium Tremens Cafe that I visited about 3 weeks ago. He is the fourth generation of his family to be involved in the brewery. The brewery dates to the 1600s, but his family has owned it since the very early 1900s. I finished off the evening with a Delirium Nocturnum. Wonderful beer!

June 3 - Philadelphia, PA - ZOT! - Back in the US, but searching out Belgian beer and food! This is a wonderful place. It's only been open about 2 months and they have an excellent selection of beer, both bottle and tap, and have Moules and Frites (mussels and fries) along with other Belgian and exotic dishes. We had kangaroo, ostrich, and bison, too. I had a Belgian sour brewed for Monk's Cafe by Van Steenberge brewery in Belgium.

May 23 - Tilburg, Netherlands - La Trappe Brewery- The only Trappist brewery in Netherlands. The other six are in Belgium. This claims to be the only one to brew a Witte and a blonde. I especially liked the witte. The beer is sold here in the states as Koenigshoeven beer, but I haven't seen the Witte here. I didn't see any sign of that name there. The beer was all good, of course. The quadruple sneaks up on you at 9% abv!

May 21 - Breendonk, Belgium - Moortgat Brewery - Better known by the name of their flagship beer, Duvel; it is the largest brewery we've seen this trip, and they are currently investing 10 million Euros for a new brewhouse which will triple their capacity. (See picture on right.) The new brewery should be open by October. Production won't triple immediately as they don't have triple the capacity for storage.

Moortgat produces Bel Pils, and the Maredsous beers. They also recently acquired Chouffe brewery. That beer will continue to be produced in the Ardennes.

May 20 - Esen, Belgium - De Dolle Browers - Another great Belgian Brewery that makes beer the old fashioned way. Oer Bier, their dark Belgian Style ale, means "old beer" or original beer, and is about 10% abv. the Ara Bier is lighter and hoppier... dry hopped for the nice hoppy aroma. They only use hop flowers, no extracts or pellets. Our guide (right) is brewer, Kris Herteleer's mother. Another family business. This one is more a "hobby" brewery. They do no advertising. People have to come to the brewery to buy the beer. Kris is also an accomplished artist, with his art work covering the walls in the tasting room, and also on the labels

May 19 - St Sixtus Abdij, Belgium - Westvleteren Abbey Brewery - Our guide says this was voted the best beer in the world, and it is not exported to the U.S. We are drinking the Westvleteren Bruin 12^o. It's a very smooth complex Belgian triple, dark with a caramel malty flavor. The high alcohol is almost un-noticed. We also tried the Bruin 8 and the Blonde.

May 16 - Brussels, Belgium - Cantillon Brewery - One of the very few breweries left that still brew Lambics using spontaneous fermentation. They only brew about 20 times a year and always in Winter. Lambics take 3 years to make, when you do it the right way, according to our guide, Yvan deBaets. That's him on the right, showing us the brew tank. Note that it's operated with a series of belts run by steam! So is the mash tun that dates back to the 1800s. The natural bio-organisms in the old wooden building are essential to the making of Cantillon's lambics.

In the picture on the right is the tasting after the tour. Mrs. Cantillon is in the background. It's still a family run business.

May 16 - Brussels, Belgium - Delerium Tremens Cafe - They advertise over 2000 beers available. Largest selection in Belgium, they claim. Twelve on tap, the rest in bottles. I tried something called Pink Killer from the appropriately named Silly Brewery. It was a grapefruit beer. More worthy of mention were the two on tap from La Rulles, a triple and one called Estivale.

Adventures Archive - Jan to April 2007

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