CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

Lambic Land, Belgium

This time we have a Roy Rides with a difference! A 4-day tour round Payottenland in Belgium, home to lambic beer.

For anyone like us who is interested in Belgian beer, the definitive guide since 1992 has been Tim Webb’s Good Beer Guide to Belgium, the latest edition of which was published in May 2005. In 2004 Tim, with co-authors Chris Pollard and Joris Pattyn, went one step further with Lambicland, a guide to “the world’s most complex beers and simplest cafes”.

Briefly, lambic is a beer style unique to an area of Belgium called Payottenland to the south west of Brussels. Lambic beer is different in that it spontaneously ferments from natural yeasts in the air and not from cultured yeast.

Reading this book could not fail to whet the appetite, and one statement in particular caught our eye – “the most pleasurable way to travel through Payottenland is by bicycle”. Now we are keen cyclists so for us there could not be a better way to experience all those complex beers and simple cafés.

Twelve months in the planning, our trip took place in July 2005, and this is the journal of our 4-day pilgrimage.

Thursday: Leave on the 08:39 Eurostar from Waterloo. Arrive Brussels Midi at 12:10 and soon we are on a train to the town of Halle, in the heart of Payottenland.

A brief walk from the station and we are at Cambrinus – sadly it’s closed for the owner’s annual vacation. We move swiftly on to the Grote Markt (main square). At De Met, a long thin traditional bar with dark wood walls, we start with lunch - a double Crouque Mousiuer washed down with a St Feuillien Blonde. Next we cross the square to Sleutel, another traditional café, where we sample draught De Koninck, and our first lambic, Boon Gueuze.

To explain the terms, traditional lambic beers are available draught from the cask either “yong” when they slightly sweet, or “oude” when they take on characteristics similar to traditional cider. Gueuze is produced by blending oude and yong lambic, the sugar in the latter creating a secondary fermentation that after a long maturation period creates a beer with a spritzy, champagne like character. Fruit lambics have that same character, and are prepared in a similar way, but using the sugar of fruits like cherries and raspberries to stimulate the secondary fermentation.

We cross the square to Klein Stadhuis, an old style tavern with wood-panelled walls, bench seating, and marble topped tables. Here we try Boon Duivel, not a lambic but a dark brown ale with a pronounced liquorice taste.

At this point our bikes arrive, being delivered to us by a local hire company. We have a 6-mile ride to our first night stop, Beersel, most of the journey along the banks of the broad Brussels-Charleroi canal, and the last part up a very steep hill.

Beersel has been the centre of the lambic revival over the last 50 years, and was until recently the home of two lambic brewers and gueuze blenders. Our primary reason for being here is to have dinner at Drie Fonteinen, the source of some of the very best gueuze and kriek. But first, we drop off our luggage at the hotel Centrum and set off to visit Beersel’s other cafes.

First Camping, so named because it adjoins a camping site. This modern bar with Formica tables is the HQ of the football team, and the local pigeon fanciers – a village institution! It’s late afternoon and we are the only customers. We try the draught Boon Kriek – this is not an “oude kriek” but unlike many of the commercial lambics it has an intense natural cherry flavour, and is very refreshing. Next we visit Oude Prium, a traditional café with bench seating around the walls. Again we are the only customers allowing us to have a conversation with the café owner. We try a bottle of Girardin Oude Gueuze, and then for something completely different, the beer list includes Guinness, but this is 8% ABV and is brewed locally.

Now for the main event - Drie Fonteinen. We start with an aperitif, a spicy wit beer Tarwe. Our soup arrives, and we order a lambic, an old example with a good citrus character. Our main course is guinea fowl in kriek with cherries, which we have with the Oude Gueuze, which is spritzy, dry and lemony. The waitress wants to know if we want dessert. Of course! We have a special edition Oude Kriek made with real Schaerbaekse cherries – it is excellent, but at £10 a bottle it should be.

Our plan had been to return to the Centrum, but we tarry too long at Drie Fonteinen, and the Centrum bar has closed, so we return to Camping, which has now become the hub of the village, with many customers deep in conversation about football and pigeons!

Friday: We retrace our route back to Halle, and continue along the canal to Lambeek. There we visit De Kring, an excellent old bar in the shadow of the town’s church just off the square. After a Maes Pils (just to wash away the dust of our cycle ride) we try the Boon Oude Gueuze - very smooth with a pleasant lemon nose. The other town’s bar, Centrum in the square, is closed for July (another vacation?) so we go to visit the Boon Brewery, just out of the town. The brewery is only open for visitors on Wednesdays, but we at least look round the brewery yard and marvel at the huge oak barrels used for maturing the lambic beer. Then it was back to De Kring for a Boon Oude Kriek.

Our next destination is Sint-Pieters-Leeuw north of Halle, but since we are cycling through Halle, we stop for a sandwich and an Orval at the Klein Stadhuis in the Grote Markt.

We meander along quiet country lanes until we reach the edge of Sint Pieters Leeuw and Oud Smis van Mekinge, a small roadside café. This is like the front parlour of a farmhouse, with simple wooden bank seats around the walls. The café has connections with the defunct local lambic blender Moriau, now owned by Boon, and we share a 75cl bottle of Moriau Oude Geuze, smooth and lemony. It starts to rain, so we take the opportunity to sample the Moriau Kriek. As we sample, a number of locals call in for a drink, and a chat, and then leave. The rain continues so we enjoy a Boon Kriek. If the rain continues, we might stay for weeks, soaking up the atmosphere. But dry weather arrives and it is time to move on.

We had planned to call in at several cafes in the centre of Sint Pieters Leeuw, but in the middle of a wet Friday afternoon, Sint Pieters Leeuw is closed. Belgian cafes only stay open if there are paying customers! But we will return here later.