Driven To Drink - Belgium, Day One
Starting off in Dusseldorf in the morning we've got to get to the far side of Belgium by the evening, which is a fair bit of driving. Luckily I've got a plan for a nice lunch stop, right on the border between the Netherlands and Belgium, the St Benedictus Abbey, aka Achelse Kluis, aka the Trappist Abbey of Achel. And where there's Trappists, there's beer. For truly they are the binge drinkers of the religious orders. Well, OK, not that truly.
There are seven Trappist breweries; six in Belgium and one in the Netherlands. Achel is the newest of these, only starting brewing in 1999, and whilst the border goes through the abbey grounds the brewery is on the Belgian side. Although most Trappist beers tend to be on the strong side, typically 7-10%, some of them also make a lighter strength beer, often just for the consumption of the monks, unless you're really lucky. Achel makes two 5% beers which are commercially available but only on draught and at the abbey cafe. I can't imagine why my route just happened to pass this place.
So, there I was in a nice sunny courtyard sampling beers in the only place you can get them. First off was the rather nice 5% Bruin, followed by the superior...
54 - Achel Achelse Kluis Trappist 5 Blonde
A really nice, clean and dry blonde ale with a bit of hop going on. This one went down very pleasantly and I could have happily sat in the sun and had a few of these. This is possibly that unheard of thing, a Trappist session ale. It's now overly showy but it's very drinkable. Nice. If you're ever in the area it's worth going for one, something the large number of cyclists at the abbey seemed to concur with.
If, however, you're driving, you might want to stick to their ice-cream. I'm told it's very good.
The abbey also has a rather good beer shop, that doesn't just sell their own beers. After stocking up with a number of Trappist beers and quite a few lambics from Drie Fonteinen (get them while they're still brewing!) it was back on the road. Skimming the outskirts of Antwerp and Ghent we eventually reached Watou, a village in the hop growing region of West Flanders, fast against the French border, in the evening.
Despite only being a village, Watou has two breweries. In the centre there's Van Eecke, known for the Kapittel range and the hoppy Poperings Hommelbier, and a little further out is Sint Bernadus. Our destination was the Brouwershuis (Brewer's house), which is next door to the St Bernadus brewery, used to be where the brewer lived (no, really) and is now a very salubrious B&B.
As neither of the two recommended bars in the village were open, and we couldn't be arsed to go further afield, we stopped off at the frites shop for sustenance and took it back to the B&B. Where we sat in another sunny courtyard and washed it down with some fine beer from the brewery next door. St Bernadus have four beers in the 100 list, which I'd already had all of, and most of their range is available in the fridges in the comfy sitting room of the Brouwershuis; included in the price, just help yourself. A bottle of Abt 12 makes a rather excellent nightcap.
