A BRUGES BREAK

Each Christmas, our social meeting is enlivened by the invitation to spouses and partners to join in the festivities. These events have been so successful that there have been requests for other similar events during the year, and this year we have started the ball rolling with a trip to Bruges.

The city has a lot to offer, which was essential as not all our party were beer drinkers. Bruges may well be the heartland of the world’s greatest beer culture, but it is also an astonishingly well preserved medieval city, with a wealth of beautiful town houses and dramatic towers, a moat all around the old town and canals. Add world-class chocolate, and some of the friendliest people ever to grace a tourist destination, all within an hour’s drive of the end of the channel tunnel, and the combination is unbeatable.

To the uninitiated, the range and varieties of Belgian beers will come as a great surprise, and a short break is hardly the opportunity for a thorough investigation of what is on offer. However, I would recommend a little experimentation away from the more normal tastes. The excellent, dubbels, trippels, wheat beers, blond, amber and brown ales, and trappist beers are quite sufficient to monopolise your consumption, but occasionally try the lambics, geuze, and cask-aged brown ales in the form of Flemish red and Flemish brown ales. These styles will initially be quite challenging, but my experience is that half a glass can surprisingly realign your taste-buds, and result in a truly rewarding experience.

First step was to purchase a copy of the latest edition of the Good Beer Guide to Belgium & Holland by Tim Webb. There may well be better tourist guides than this but I have not encountered anything that comes close. Witty, informative and extremely readable, the onerous task of describing differently a large number of places which must appear to be much the same is achieved with ease. Included with this is an indispensable list of Belgian breweries and beers with tasting notes. With this book in your hand, while others stare in mystification at a beer menu with 250 entries, you will be able to make an informed choice, and not resort to using a pin. The only minor comment I would make is that a few of the times of closure listed for a couple of bars were either unlisted, incorrect or had changed since the date of publication.

An extremely good deal was arranged with Great Escapes which included B&B in the four star Karos Hotel, and the tunnel crossing. Our arrival was timed to coincide with the 4.00pm opening of the ‘t Brugs Beertje (TBT), 5 Kemelstraat. This atmospheric back-street bar is world famous. A glorious combination of breweriana-strewn walls, well-used furniture with character, classical background music blending with a gentle hubbub of conversation, and the owner Daisy.  As described in the Sunday Times article which we presented to her, Daisy “has the face of a Reubens cherub, and bumps softly between the tables dispensing bottles and bonhomie”. Although this bar features in all tourist guides to Bruges, it absorbs the tourist remarkably successfully, and remains a locals bar. One of the problems with being a stranger in a city is that, even with guide book in hand, local knowledge is missing. Not a problem in TBT – you will soon be in conversation with other customers who are only too pleased to pass on their accumulated wisdom; having discussed their advice with half a dozen other people in the bar first. Failing that, ask Daisy. (Much of the information in this article came by these two options). It is just as well that TBT is located in a back street because it is extremely difficult to walk past this bar without going in. 

The food in TBT is a little limited, and we were directed to Gran Kaffee de Passage, 26 Dweersstraat, a few streets away. Actually the restaurant of a small hotel, although it doesn’t show, this highly-atmospheric, candle-lit room is a terrific place for warming peasant-style Flemish food; an ideal accompaniment for a few more beers. As you sit in the soft candle light, you are overlooked by large photographs of venerable people from a bygone age. While the beer selection was limited to the more obvious and widely available of Belgian beers, there were ample for us to sample. This was also one of the most reasonably priced restaurants that we encountered.

While tired limbs took some of us off to our beds at that stage, the more hardy of us tried the extremely limited choice of beers at the hotel bar before following suit.

Rumour has it that the evil effects of an alcohol surfeit are much less with Belgian beers, as many add coriander into the brew. This had yet to be put to a rigorous test by our little group and some were up with the lark, making use of the hotel indoor swimming pool. A more than adequate breakfast fortified us for our first excursion into the shops and sights of Bruges.  We all went our own ways, except for lunch and the evenings, which, due to some lax inspection of opening days, and some dodgy information, resulted in some chaotic rendezvous, but all turned out well enough.

Our next venue was at the Bruges Beerkai, 9 Nieuwstraat, a brewpub opened in 2000. This cheerful, bare-boards pub overlooks a canal, and sells only its own products which are available on draught straight from the breweries cellar tanks, unfiltered and unpasteurised. The recommended introduction to their beers is by a “drietap”; three small glasses with pointed bases presented in a wooden stand complete with a bowl of nuts. We were advised to drink them in order – a sweetish and robust brown dubbel, a powerful and delicious blond tripel, and a saison beer; a complex darkish pale beer with an intriguing slightly sour dry taste. Having bought a “drietap”, the presentation of a Camra membership card entitles the bearer to a free full-size glass. Although we hardly taxed the food menu at the Beerkai, there were interesting choices including dishes cooked in beer, and what we had was very good. Brewery tours were available at 15.30 and 18.30 but we satisfied ourselves with a quick peer through an open doorway and headed for the sign of the half moon.

The Straffe Hendrick Brewery and its brewery tap the Halve Maan, 26 Walplein, are firmly part of the Bruges tourist scene. Most of the beer is brewed elsewhere, and the feeling is more of a very interesting museum piece rather than an operating brewery. The multi-language presentation is informative, and significantly more than you would expect at your local microbrewery. The brewery guide is very appreciative of interesting donations for the brewery’s beer mat collection. The brewery tap’s size prevents it from having much atmosphere, but it is pleasant enough, with a collection of 560 beer bottles, showing that someone must have had enormous fun building it up, as most of them are empty. The beers available are only the breweries own; a quaffable blond ale, and a stronger rich brown beer.

The evening started off at the TBT again. By this time, the non/occasional beer drinkers in the party were really beginning to appreciate Belgian beer, and make knowledgeable (if occasionally rash – 9%) beer choices. More advice from customers sent us off to Bistro Den Huzaar, 36 Vlamingstraat for a more upmarket and excellent meal. Although we were there for the food rather than the beer, the draught  Westmalle Dubbel was excellent. The bistro is quite smart, but we were on our best behaviour, so probably got away with it, despite frequent top-ups from the Westmalle tap.

Our route back to the hotel passed far too close to TBT for us to resist what would be a last visit, as the bar was closed on the Wednesday. Among nightcaps consumed was a very unusual but superb dark honey beer brewed for Christmas, Barbar Winterbok. As it was highly unlikely that we would find ourselves in Bruges at Christmas time, this was a welcome opportunity to sample a Belgian Christmas beer, afforded by the beer being bottled rather than draught.

The next day we found that the coriander in the beer had managed to protect most of our party, and we had only the one walking wounded.  Much to our disappointment, the other brewery open to the public, Goudenboum with its brewery museum, was closed until April. So this left us fairly free during the day to further indulge our shopping/sightseeing desires.

One of the delights of Belgian beer is that each beer has its own glass, and is always served in that glass. This must be an absolute nightmare for the bars that serve an enormous number of different beers, but they all seem to manage. The glasses are seldom less than handsome, and some are spectacular, if a little gimmicky. The excellent Kawk is served in a small yard of ale (a foot?) on a wooden stand, and from the same brewery, ‘t Zelfde comes in an ergonomically designed tumbler, unlike any other beer glass. My personal favourites are the half litre Duvel glass and the Gordon’s Highland Scotch Ale thistle-shaped glass.

These glasses make irresistible souvenirs, and are sold in a number of shops specialising in bottled beers for varying prices. A limited number are also available in supermarkets in presentation packs with some bottles. The general rule is the further away from the Markt that you buy the glasses the better. After having bought your beers and your glasses to take home, do not fail to visit the shop at the top of Wollestraat for a good laugh. The prices are absurd.

Wednesday lunchtime in the centre of Bruges left us struggling slightly to choose from the beer guide as a number of bars were closed that day. At first we tried Kuppe, 19 Kuipersstraat, but this was our least favourite venue in spite of some excellent Straffe Hendrik Bruin on draught. We then headed for Erasmus, 35 Wollestraat. This is the bar-restaurant of a hotel, and it does show. The setting with a small terrace at the rear near a canal is a picturesque place to sit and imbibe in good weather, but sadly not in March. The interior is designer modern and not the sort of place you would expect to have a beer menu of over 150. The food looked interesting with a good range of Flemish dishes, but we were firmly in light lunch mode and the soup was excellent.

Our final evening, devoid of a return to TBT, started in a beer cellar called the Attic, De Zolder, 53 Vlamingstraat. Sadly, early in the evening, this bare brick-walled bar with slate floors and a large open fire, was almost empty. It is away from the more fashionable centre, but well worth the short walk. We could easily imagine the atmosphere with more people, especially with their occasional live music. The barman was extremely helpful and friendly (it gave him something to do), and the beers cheaper than the very centre of Bruges. The beer range was well up to standard, if not in number, and the Rodenbach Grand Cru was glorious.

Our last meal was back at the Passage, and just as good as the first. We were tempted to return to De Zolder afterwards, but unexpectedly Garre, 1 De Garre was open. A garre is a blind alley, and there is not much more down this one than this bar. Although cramped downstairs, this rustic bar with exposed brickwork and beams, has a gallery reached by a spiral staircase in the centre of the room.  Throughout our trip, the standard of the service had been excellent, but we had not been prepared for our waiter at Garre. His eccentricity turned the simple act of waiting at tables into a floor show. The character of this bar appeals very much to the tourist, whether beer drinkers or not, and the waiter’s tales of bemused French (not liked) and appreciative Brits (much liked) whiled the rest of the evening away.

The trouble with getting information from people in bars is that you may not be at your most receptive when taking down directions of how to find the place. Our last stop in Bruges before heading back towards the tunnel was at Delhaize supermarket, 234 Malesteenweg. Although it was undergoing refurbishment at the time, the choice of beers was good for the more usual brands and styles, and very reasonably priced, on average about 60p for a 330ml bottle.  Needless to say, all further car movement was accompanied by loud clinking noises.

All that remains is to add a few notes on what to see in Bruges.  If just wandering around this exceptional Medieval town is not enough, there are boat trips on the canals, and museums. The Groeninge museum has a world-class collection of medieval art including Hieronymus Bosch’s Last Judgement, and the Memling museum, housed in a beautifully preserved 13^th century hospital, has a wonderful collection of Memling’s northern renaissance paintings that still glow with a clarity undiminished after over 500 years. And of course there are the chocolate shops – almost everywhere. Although this can hardly be a selection based on a wide experience of Bruges chocolate shops, the best, and also surprisingly the cheapest, of the few tried was Leonidas, 4 Steenstraat.

So we returned home a few £’s lighter, and a few lbs heavier. We left the non-beer drinkers in Bruges and brought back new converts, eager to find out more about beer. We were all eager to return too, although we felt that a reasonable period of time should be left before the next trip – a week possibly, or maybe two at a pinch!