The St. Bernardus brewery is amazing
I love Belgian beers. They’re flavorful, and the perfect balance of sweet and bitter for my taste. I drank St. Bernardus before today, but after staying at the bed and breakfast on property and going on a tour today, I have a more passionate love for their beers.
The B&B next to the brew house is beautiful. It’s three stories and as I said in yesterday’s post, reminded me of an adult hostel. There is a living room with mini fridges full of beers and games, encouraging the introduction of travelers and backgrounds.
We played a game (no idea what it’s called **edited later to add it’s called Toad in the Hole) where you throw brass coins into holes on a box and you get points depending on where it lands. The other group staying at the B&B was on a beer bike tour. They bike around Belgium and go from brewery to brewery. Very cool!
This morning, we ate breakfast in the greenhouse and made our way to a brewery about 20 minutes away, St. Sixtus, that the bike group told us about. It is a Trappist brewery, meaning the beer is brewed by monks. Ian, dad and I ordered the blonde, the number 8 and the number 12 to try as well as the hops ice cream.
The number 12 is my favorite. When the recipe was first created, the numbers refer to the proportion of sugar to water. Nowadays the number is symbolic of the past. The ice cream was also so incredible!! I will be looking for a recipe when I get home. It was served with a meringue cookie and whipped cream on top. The ice cream tasted like a bolder vanilla bean, but it was hops. It’s a very adaptable flavor.
In contrast to St. Sixtus, St. Bernardus was a Trappist brewery but in the late 1990s, the brand was sold and could no longer identify as Trappist. It was renamed as an abbey ale. We saw the original tank where the beer was brewed until a few years ago, which I found quite surprising. It takes eight hours to brew one beer, so they would only be able to make one at a time. St. Bernardus has seven beers year round and two seasonal beers: the Christmas ale and Extra 4.
The brewing area and warehouse are being expanded. They now have five tanks to brew multiple types. It is expected to be completed in 2020 and I want to come back!
The beer bottles in Europe are shipped back to the brew house for recycling from bars and pubs. Same with the kegs. The bottles in America are not as it’s too expensive to do so. After being received, the bottles are washed in ridiculously high temperature waters and cleaned of their labels. Our tour guide, Anna, informed us that the brews are bottled but not labeled until an order has been placed. This allows them to put on appropriate information, such as the surgeon general warning for the U.S. and the kosher labeling for Israel.
Fun fact: ALL St. Bernardus beer is kosher!
Ian was gifted a limited edition bottle from 2015. Anna was using it as a talking point and he asked if they had any empty bottles for sale. So she gave it to him!
After the tour, we had a tasting. Unlike other beer tastings I’ve attended, the “taste” was actually a full cup! We picked up some merchandise in the gift shop and got in the car to make our way to Brugge.
Our time in Brugge was brief for now. We stopped for dinner and a quick look around the town’s main square (even though it’s actually a circle). We ate Flemish delicacies and stopped to get waffles for dessert. It was delicious!! I felt horrible I couldn’t finish mine, but next time!
Tomorrow we will visit Antwerp and see the Duvel brewery. I hope we can visit some shops as well. I love immersing myself in the culture, and observing the style is another way to do it!
