How things change

Looking at the list of beers for this post, and at lots of beer lists in Belgium during my last visit, I was struck by the international dimension. It's not that long ago that the only beers I found in Belgium were from Belgium. That has changed not only in the generically international craft joints, but in some of the more traditional venues too.

Take De Ware Jacob and Oud Arsenaal, for instance: brown cafés in Antwerp, as traditional as you'll find. On my visits to both, I drank Dutch beer, albeit in a Belgian vernacular. Both were from the second Trappist brewery to open in the Netherlands, Zundert. Both are named for their ABV. Zundert 8 is a ruby red colour and surprisingly bitter for this sort of thing, leaning heavily on the liquorice. There's an unsubtle crunch of brown sugar next to this and the two sides aren't well integrated, fighting for the drinker's attention. It lacks the mellowness that the Belgian Trappists do best; maybe that will come with time.

Above the 8 there's Zundert 10. This had a lot of the same features, more of them even, but it worked altogether better. I'm still shocked by how dry and bitter it is, having almost as much in common with stout as quadrupel. There's enough quality dark fruit esters to get by: plum, fig and raisin balancing the liquorice, plus a velvety dash of high-cocoa chocolate. I still think the Belgians have the edge on it, but if you're picking a Zundert it's well worth upgrading.

If you want to hit the international stuff in a big way, Billie's Beer Kafeteria is a must. Despite the name it's definitely a pub, all varnished wood and bric-à-brac in the proper Low Countries style. My eye was immediately caught by a beer from one of my emerging favourite breweries, Ca' del Brado from Bologna. Û baccabianca is a grape ale and, unusually, a white one. It presents in the glass like a witbier: the hazy lemon yellow with a thick layer of foam. The peachy aroma is highly inviting while the flavour blends perfectly elements of juicy white grape, acidic sour spritz and mature barrel funk. Despite 7.9% ABV there's no heat here, just clean fruit matching spicy saltpetre. Exactly what a grape ale should be, and exactly my sort of thing in general.

An English double IPA to follow: Wake & Bake by Mondo in London, in collaboration with J. Wakefield of Miami. This delivers what so many of the style only promise: juice. A mandarin aroma leads on to mandarin and jaffa flavours; soft, not acidic and building to a long cordial finish. Here's another strong one (8% ABV) where the alcohol is completely hidden under the fruit flavours. While there's a tiny amount of yeasty grit and pithy bitterness present, they act more as balance than interference. This is a double IPA to restore one's faith in double IPA.

That evening finished up in Gollemke, an outpost of the Amsterdam bar chain. It's another bright and modern craft bar, though the selection is more traditional than most. I went mainstream on the first round: De Koninck's Triple d'Anvers, available all across Antwerp. Unsurprisingly, I guess, it's rather plain: clear gold with a honey sweetness up front, followed by wholesome oat cookie and golden syrup. There's no spices or heat, like all the fun has been filtered out of it. Tripel for people who don't like tripel, perhaps.

There was one beer on the menu I didn't recognise: Blinker, a saison by Siphon. They generally make good stuff so I took it for a spin. Halfway through it I noticed the bottle I got was a few months past date, but I still couldn't say whether that was the cause of this beer's problems. There was no fruit or spice in this; none of the things that make saison fun, and which aren't normally features that fade with age. Instead it was earthy, slightly funky, and with a harsh acidic burn. Though it's only 5.5% ABV I found it tough going and disappointing.

My nightcap was December Flower by White Pony of Padua, though presumably produced by their contractor in Belgium. This is a winter strong ale of 13% ABV, deep amber in colour; almost ruby. There's lots of heady sherry notes, like a super-strength lager, plus warming sugar and treacle. It's not subtle, or particularly complex, but it's clean, tasty and more-ish. Just what I needed at that stage in the evening.

One last beer in Antwerp, which came with a late-night burger in the Jack's fast food chain. It's called, imaginatively, Jack's, and is a bottle-conditioned pils. Hazy yellow and watery looking, it's very dry, tasting mostly of rice crackers. There's no substance, which is fatal for a food beer; no hop character and far too much fizz. Clean but boring, is my conclusion.

We departed Antwerp on Sunday morning, to grab a few finishers in Moeder Lambic in Brussels before the early evening flight home. It was here I discovered that Dieu du Ciel! has a range of variants on its excellent Péché Mortel coffee imperial stout. Pouring was Péché Morte Cerise and I went straight for that. The cherries don't really add much to the picture and the coffee remains dominant. There's maybe an extra Black Forest gateau note, but otherwise it's the same smooth beauty it always was. I like how this beer is becoming more readily available in Europe.

Over three years ago I visited En Stoemlings in their tiny premises near Brussels Chapelle station. They've moved since and the range has expanded beyond a single beer. This was my first time trying a new one: Tanteke, a saison. It's very unusual for the style, being sweet and creamy rather than dry and crisp. There are notes of lemon meringue and a floral perfume. I found it charming and very sinkable, dangerous given the substantial 6% ABV. That it has nothing in common with any other saison I've tasted matters little. I'll need to put more effort into finding more Stoemlings beer, if this is anything to go by.

Beside it is another coffee imperial stout: Whack!, by No Science, who share a building with Stoemlings. Though the texture is creamy, the flavour is quite a severe coffee-grounds bitterness with overtones of cooked green veg. I prefer this sort of thing to be rounded and less harsh. It's only 8% ABV so maybe it just needs a malt boost to smooth the edges off.

I'd not had a Kernel beer in ages so wasn't going to pass by the cask engine serving Imperial Brown Stout. Here we have a lot of the same things as in the previous beer -- big coffee, a vegetal or metallic tang -- but much better balanced and integrated. That it's 9.1% ABV perhaps adds credence to my theory that if you're going to make these, you have to make them big. The most surprising thing is that it smells and tastes more like coffee than the beer with coffee in.

The purple lad in the Cantillon glass is Mourvèdre/Carignan, a grape lambic from the Brussels brewery, utilising the two named varieties. It's come out well: 6.5% ABV with a pink peppercorn spice from the beginning. The fruit element is mild -- this is a classic geuze all the way down, with the bricky nitre and saltpetre I enjoy so much. I don't think it's been bottled so you'll have to seek it out on draught, and you should.

A final pair before we leave. I was intrigued by an offering from Austrian brewery Alefried, their Mikrozircus 12 Old Stock Ale, a 7.1%-er, fermented with Brettanomyces and aged in red wine barrels with cocoa nibs. There's an equally intriguing spicy-sour aroma while the flavour is a mix of lavender and cream sherry, finishing clean with a delicious sour flourish and a waft of leathery funk. There are elements of the geuze flavour profile in here, the waxy bitterness for one thing, and it's just as complex yet easy-drinking. Weird, but brilliant.

John went Brett too, picking Frappadingue Brett IPA by Brasserie des Garrigues in southern France. The non-Brett version of this double IPA is 9.1% ABV, and when the voracious yeast is let at it that climbs to 9.5%. It's a murky orange colour had has the orangey boiled-sweet aroma of many a Belgian IPA. It's thick and heavy but not hot or difficult to drink, just a bit on the sweet side. I didn't get any Brett character, nor much by way of hops, so it's less than the sum of its parts, perhaps, but an enjoyable warmer on a chilly spring afternoon.

That's a lot of beer and a lot of pubs covered this week. But Belgium: I'm ready to do it all again this weekend. Let's go!

Seef and sound

This year's spring meeting of EBCU was hosted by the Antwerpse Brouw Compagnie at its shiny new brewery and restaurant in Antwerp's renovated docklands. The company was founded by a former director of Duvel-Moortgat, Johan Van Dyck, with the intention of recreating Antwerp's indigenous beer style, Seefbier.

I reviewed Seef in 2014 when it was contract-brewed and a clear orange colour. Now it comes from the brewery's own plant and is a hazy yellow. Though it's a supposedly faithful recreation of a unique local speciality, it tastes a lot like a weissbier: big sweet bananas and a heady buzz of butane. The texture is similarly soft, while 6.5% ABV intensifies those weissbier qualities, almost to the point of making it difficult to drink. I'm informed by Johan that this was the beer consumed in quantity by the dockworkers of 19th century Antwerp. Feeling heavy when only half way down a 33cl bottle, I found that difficult to imagine.

It's not the sort of style one would think to barrel-age, but they do that, producing the beer called Xperimental. Still only 6.5% ABV so it somehow avoids picking up extra alcohol. It's a dark rich gold colour and shows a luscious white grape foretaste, followed by a wisp of smoke. The very typical Belgian yeast spices are present also, but they're subtle, hiding behind the fruit. I really don't see the resemblance to Seef but it's a much better beer; subtle, complex and very moreish. Perhaps this is closer to the historic original.

There's a range of other beers produced by the brewery, and we'll begin with Bootjes Bier, a rosy amber ale of 7% ABV. A healthy pillar of foam builds as it pours and stays in place. From the look of it I was expecting sweet toffee as the opener but it was a pleasant surprise to get a peachy buzz up front. The heavy texture and low carbonation give it the feeling of an English strong ale, as do the subtle esters and slightly tannic tea brack flavour. The only fly in this ointment is a slight whiff of chlorophenols right at the back. It's all good up until that point, and the bleachiness doesn't last. Overall quite a fun one.

John next to me was drinking Tournée Antwerpen, a 6.5% ABV blonde. It's spicy and herbal, like a witbier, with a similar lemony note, but heavier and slightly hotter. Bready density and herbs gives it an inescapable feel of sage and onion stuffing. Luckily that's something I enjoy, in real life and as a beer flavour analogy. The flavour is quite intense and busy, which might make it difficult to drink more than one in a sitting. One was fine, though.

Blonde ales are something of a stock in trade here. At the taproom bar they were pouring two more. Mr T is the strongest of them at 8% ABV, infused with grapefruit and tea. It's a clear yellow, presenting like a pils with its big thick head. There's a smooth sweet flavour, like vanilla ice cream with possibly a ripple of raspberries too. A spark of ginger and nutmeg runs alongside this, but neither element is particularly strong and the whole thing is quite plain. Initially I misread the strength as 5% and fully believed it to be that light.

Hussy is a step down further, in strength (7% ABV) and flavour. Here we get just a mild dusting of black pepper and some slight floral perfume. It's inoffensive, with just enough character to be pleasant to drink, but no more than that.

A dry-hopped lager is next: Super Cadix. Crystal clear, a deep yellow colour, and with a decent but not excessive head. The carbonation is quite busy, but at 5.6% ABV there's plenty of heft. That does mean the lager side of the equation is a little lost -- there's no crispness and not much to distinguish it from a standard American-style pale ale. The main flavour comes from the hops: lightly fruity, with notes of kiwifruit and cantaloupe. A mineral dryness finishes it, but -- again unlagerlike -- the hops echo long into the aftertaste. It's quite nice, but more lager character would be my preference.

The big guns are Nonkel Pater, badged, playfully, as a "qua-dubbel". It's 9% ABV and purest black with a thick layer of foam the colour of old ivory. The aroma is a heady mix of toffee, milk chocolate and squashy banana. On tasting the chocolate intensifies and, along with everything just mentioned, there's also a gingerbread spicing which helps put an edge on all the dark sugar and balance the overall picture. I had been warned in advance that it was horribly sweet, but it's not. It's an unapologetic dark and boozy Belgian beer.

Not far from the brewery, in the shadow of the ten-story MAS museum, is a small bar called Dr Beer. Though it's starkly decorated and runs big on long tables and unvarnished wood, it still manages to feel cosy. The beer list is carefully chosen.

It was here I found my second Kromme Haring beer, a saison called Les Perles du Homard. This is a big one, at 8% ABV and is a clear dark gold colour. It smells rich and sticky while it tastes wholesome: of grapefruit on toast. The alcohol doesn't interfere with the crisp and clean flavour, and while it's not what you'd call thirst-quenching, it is well-balanced and very good.

The grand-sounding Ministry of Belgian Beer is a lager specialist, and Pils 13 is their flagship. Microbrewed Belgian lager is a rarity and this lot seem to be making a concerted effort at reclaiming the style from the industrial brewers, eschewing adjuncts and shortcuts. It works too: although the beer is only 4% ABV it's very full-bodied and is flavoured with a strong bitter herbal taste. I had bought it thinking it would be low-effort drinking, but it really makes you pay attention, and is all the better for that.

My nightcap on my first visit to Dr Beer was De Molen's Ali & Baba, a bourbon-aged imperial stout of 12.7% ABV, brewed in collaboration with La Pirata. It's luscious, tasting powerfully of whiskey and truffles. Warming without being hot, it has a strong peaty character which lasts on the palate after everything else has faded. The odd thing is that there's no smoked malt involved; the only outré ingredient is roasted sesame seed, so I guess that's what produced the smokiness. It works quite well, making it taste like it was aged in an Islay cask.

I was back for one more Dutch beer at Dr Beer later in the weekend: Bru(u)t IPA on the Dutch Bargain label of Brouwerij Brouwerslokaal. I think it's time I just started avoiding this style altogether: I can't remember the last one that was any good. This one was very characterless, vaguely grassy, like a basic lager. Doubtless it's exactly what the brewer wanted it to be -- dry and clean -- but all the joy has been fermented out of it too.

On that downer we'll go off and do some further pub exploring.

Not the Toer de Geuze

The 2019 Toer de Geuze is coming up this weekend. I'll be returning to Belgium for it, but before that I need to clear the notes from my last trip a few weeks ago, for the spring meeting of EBCU. Arriving in Brussels on the early flight on a Thursday morning, Dr John and I had an afternoon to kill. I had wanted to return to the 3 Fonteinen Lambik-O-Droom since the last Toer, to see it on a normal day, not packed with Toer-goers, and this seemed like an ideal time to do it.

The train from Brussels arrives at Lot and it's a short walk from the station, over the river Senne, to the boxy taproom. It feels a little like a primary school inside, with the brightly-coloured furniture arranged around large tables made from foudre lids. We opened our account with Cuvée Armand & Gaston 2018. It was fabulous: a bright red-gold colour and with a rich warm oaky flavour contrasting with a sparking flinty sourness. There's a bitterness in there too: hard wax and and an unusual-for-geuze citrus note too. The finish leaves a pleasant acidic woody buzz. This smooth and mellow chap is a beer for relaxing into, not that we had time for that sort of thing.

The cask engines were pouring 3 Fonteinen Faro, so we got a couple of those before leaving. This was much classier than I was expecting: sweetened geuze has a tendency to be harshly sugary but this retained an Orval-like funk next to a sherbet sweetness and a kind of fruity, spicy, brown-sauce tang. A slight soapy note was the only part not to like. Although it's not saying much, this is the best Faro I've tasted.

Our destination for the weekend was Antwerp, and changing trains at Brussel Zuid we had time to nip in to Cantillon where there were a couple of new-to-me beers. One was 50˚N-4˚E, a geuze aged in Armagnac barrels. It's quite sweet, in a funky/fruity way. There's a peppery spice and quite a severe waxy bitterness. Nothing that I could detect suggested the brandy barrels, and overall it's an OK but quite dull lambic. Not Cantillon's best work.

Neither is Magic Lambic, blended from Lou Pepe kriek and a blueberry lambic with added vanilla. Highly unorthodox. It looks wonderful: a clear ruby red. The aroma is sweet, like ripe and squashy raspberries, and there's a fair bit of that in the flavour too. It's not jarringly sweet, however, and the blueberries bring a significant balancing tartness. There's a strange herbal and floral quality too, part Parma Violets, part urinal cakes. Thankfully there's no vanilla taste, but I'm guessing it's working in the background, accentuating the fruit sweetness. Overall it's easy drinking and the quality of the base beer is still discernible, but it's maybe just too much of a nod towards alcopop lambic for me to approve of it.

To Antwerp, then, and at the back of the grand station is a small off licence, Station 1280, with a couple of draught taps and drinking-in space. The selection is very much Craftonian: brightly-coloured cans from the UK and Scandinavia, and even a handful from Ireland. Colourful cans of Belgian IPA are a rarity, but they had one of them: Nonkel Hop from Gistgeest. 6.5% ABV, it's brewed with Citra and Hallertau Blanc. It may not have been the freshest as it tasted a little stale, with a sharp bitterness and sweaty malt. There's a trace of apricot and passionfruit, but nowhere near as much as one would expect from something purporting to be in the New England style. If it was fresh the brewer has bigger problems.

I'd never had a beer from England's DEYA Brewery before, so took the opportunity to try Into the Haze since it was on tap. It's hazy all right: the de rigeur orange-juice yellow. There's a strangely minty aroma and the flavour isn't sweet as these often are, but herbal and quite bitter, with notes of satsuma and melon rind. At 6.2% ABV it's quite a big beast, but it doesn't taste its strength, slipping down indecently easy. It's a good take on the style, though not a terribly exciting one.

In the tall glass next to it is Bizarre Love Triangle by Finnish brewer CoolHead. This sour one looks even juicier, a lurid shade of orange from the inclusion of mango, passionfruit and peaches. There's a massive tropical hit in the aroma and it tastes more like a cocktail than a beer: thin and flat; tart and salty, with lots of passionfruit flavour. I enjoyed it, and was shocked to learn it's a whopping 7% ABV. Handle with care.

Before we move on, just a taster of an imperial stout from Yorkshire. Turning Point's Aggressive Hospitality is brewed with figs, almonds and golden syrup so I guess qualifies as pastrified. It's lightly textured for all that, and does a good job of hiding its 10% ABV. I would have sworn there was coffee in it as that's the dominant flavour, along with some fun and fruity pipe tobacco. I would have liked to become better acquainted with this one.

That's Station 1280, then. Worth a look if you're passing through Antwerp, with plenty of beers you wouldn't normally expect to find in Belgium.

We kept things craft with the next stop: Beer Lovers Bar is a bright corner pub with the IKEA aesthetic common to beer specialists the world over. I opened with an unfamiliar De Ranke beer: Franc Belge. It's 5.2% ABV and a hazy orange colour. A little like the classic XX Bitter, it's dry and pithy. There are subtle floral notes of honeysuckle and jasmine, but the bitterness level builds as it goes, eventually drowning that out. I found it just too acrid to really enjoy, preferring XX's superior balance.

Finally for now, one of several Dutch beers I had over the weekend: La Truite II by De Kromme Haring of Utrecht. It's a Bretted pale ale of 6% ABV and really shows the specialist yeast at its best: the gummy, fruity mango and cedar effect, and a dusting of floral lavender. The base is dry, like a waterbiscuit, so the Brett and hops can work their magic on the palate unhindered. While complex it's very easy going, everything subtle and balanced. Delicious.

We'll have more from De Kromme Haring in the next post.

Just passing through

Time to put the hammer down on the whirlwind tour of northern Belgium I've been reliving on the blog this week. But first a slight rewind. Before Ypres and Poperinge we landed in Brussels on a Friday night. Herself had picked an hotel, one of her favourites, in the European Quarter. I was braced for a quiet night on dead streets between the darkened office buildings. Just around the corner, however, Place Jourdan was hopping. There are a number of bars and cafés, with crowds of weekend revellers letting off steam inside and out. The beeriest of them is called Le Beer Bank ("Invest in Happiness!") and we set up at one of the outside tables to watch the evening unfold.

She opted for Big Nose Tripel by NovaBirra. It's a dark and murky amber colour, 9% ABV and smelling weirdly of pineapple and nail varnish remover. The flavour is thick with earthy yeast, hiding a fruit salad sweetness -- pineapple and white grape in particular -- deeper down. There's an acrid wisp of smoke as well, which doesn't belong. Overall it's quite hard drinking and, despite the Pythonesque name, devoid of fun.

Summer was still just about clinging on so I drank a last-chance Chouffe Soleil. 6% ABV instead of 8% and tasting every inch like the watered-down La Chouffe that it probably is. The signature peppery spice is still present, and there's the big fizz too, but there's just less heft to it all. This is probably deliberate: I'm quite prepared to believe that it answers a requirement for an easier drinking La Chouffe for use on warm afternoons, and I feel a bit guilty for dissing it because I drank it out of context. I'd still rather sip a proper one more slowly, however.

Ypres and Poperinge followed the next day, as described on Monday, followed by Bruges where I left you on Wednesday. I stumbled upon another La Chouffe brand extension there.

The Provincial Court building, a grey neogothic pile, sits on Grote Markt, overlooked by the more famous Belfort at the opposite end. An interactive immersive historical exhibition occupies the ground floor while a room upstairs, and the adjoining terrace, have been leased to Duvel Moortgat as The Duvelorium. A changing range of beers from their stable is available on draught and bottled, all at a reasonable price and with a lovely view of the square below. Beer of the Month on our visit was Cherry Chouffe.

According to the description, La Chouffe's scotch ale MacChouffe is the basis for this, so it's the full 8% ABV and the boozy toffee is still perceptible. Everything is drenched, however, in a massive sweet cherry flavour, making it taste like an amped-up version of those candystore lambics. I loved the silliness and would happily have had another.

On a subsequent visit I chose De Koninck's Wild Jo, not sure what it was going to be and half expecting a dull blonde ale. It's not, though. They've piled a load of Brettanomyces into this 5.8% ABV golden ale giving it a powefully musky and alluring funk, very much like in Orval. There's a lemon pith complexity, a bouquet of meadow flowers and a more serious herbal rasp of urinal cakes, with a dusting of cinnamon for good measure. The body is heavy and slightly greasy, which does make it a little difficult to drink but doubtless helps the flavours be so prominent. It really is all over the place but highly enjoyable once you get used to it. It's certainly a brave move by such an established brewer.

De Koninck is, of course, the signature beer of Antwerp, and that was the next destination. For the journey I had a bottle of Brugse Bok which I picked up at the Halve Maan brewery. I strongly recommend doing this tour if you're in Bruges, even if like me you aren't particularly fussed about the Brugse Zot beers. The manner in which they've squeezed a museum, an antique brewery and maltings, and a modern production facility into one vertical space is architecturally impressive, if nothing else.

Anyway, the beer. It's pretty much as expected: a clear copper colour, 6.5% ABV and smelling like a toffee apple. The flavour is a little more subtle, but along the same lines: light caramel balanced by tangy and bitter green apple skin. All suitably autumnal and warming, but not madly interesting beyond the basics.

We only had one night in Antwerp, and I only had one pub on my agenda: the legend that is Kulminator. More like an antique shop than a bar, beer and breweriana crowds every surface. The counter has long since fallen beyond use, covered in empties selected for retention on I know not what basis. What ought to be a choice table in the corner has been commandeered by proprietor Dirk van Dyck (yes, really) as his office, where he sat among stacks of papers,  punching away at his calculator while we drank.

The menu is vast, much of it made up of multiple vintages of classic Belgian ales, some going back to the 1980s and even earlier. If it's Westvleteren that takes your fancy you'll need to ask for the "special" menu, a single laminated card kept behind the counter and shared furtively with those in the know.

None of that for me, though. I just went for the beer of the month: De Dolle's Dulle Teve. It's a 10% ABV tripel which manages to keep things nicely clean despite being warming and slightly syrupy. There's a fruit salad flavour which assists with the easy-going quality, and while the alcohol is certainly present it doesn't grow or become unpleasantly hot. De Dolle's output can taste a bit overwrought at times, but this one is masterfully put together.

Keeping things local, that's De Koninck Imperial Stout next to it, another 10%-er. This starts well, all creamy and coffee-like, and there's a bitterness which is entirely appropriate and enjoyable at first. But it increases in intensity as the flavour goes along, eventually becoming a hard metallic edge which makes it quite tough to drink. This tastes like a beer from a rougher age, when consuming a luxury drink was something to be earned by hard grown-up labour. Too much work for me.

My last one here before we moved on was chosen based on a poster above our table: Inglorious Quad from local client brewer Inglorious Brew Stars ("Hops your brain!") brewing at Anders! in Halen, east of Brussels. More stout than quadrupel say my notes on it. There's a rich dark chocolate quality which gives it a bitterness, but no typically Belgian esters or dark fruit flavours. It's nice for all that: maybe a little one-dimensional, and at 10.3% ABV it ought to be pulling more daring moves, but it's fine as-is.

Tonight's hotel nightcap, best of a bad lot in the local supermarket, was Grimbergen Optimo Bruno. 10% ABV yet again but this time the sweetness is absolutely piled on, pushing beyond caramel into diabetes-inducing banoffee. There's the tiniest of hop twangs in the finish but mostly it's a very straightforward onslaught of brown sugar. At least it didn't keep me awake.

We departed Antwerp's glorious railway station the next morning, making our way further east and over the border into the Netherlands. Nijmegen had been chosen for our next overnight more or less randomly, but it was a great choice. It's the oldest city in the country, dating back to Roman times, and more recently was briefly the centre of attention during World War II when the failure of Operation Market Garden extended the war into 1945. There's an excellent choice of eateries (we dined well at De Bok) and it's home to the fascinating Dutch bicycle museum. And, in a charming old mansion on the edge of the city centre, there's the stadsbrouwerij, De Hemel.

It was a pleasantly balmy afternoon in the beer garden, with the first leaves coming off the trees. I began working through the range with Luna, the pils. It's a hazy gold colour with a worty aroma and not much going on flavour-wise. There's kind of a malt-loaf quality as the main taste, and a minor waxy kick in the finish. It is nicely full-bodied, but otherwise pretty basic, leaving me with the impression of a perfunctory pils made by someone who desn't really like the style but has to have one in stock.

Mariken, to the left of it, is described as a blonde ale but is definitely a copper colour. An aroma of hard candy leads on to a spicy mix of humbugs, aniseed, mint and eucalyptus in the flavour. It tastes old-fashioned and wholesome, helped no doubt by the 6.5% ABV, but is still enjoyable with it.

Round two brought Nieuw Ligt (right of picture), a 10% ABV barley wine. There's no heat to this one, nor much by way of bitterness. Instead there's a fresh mix of citrus fruits: orange, lemon and lime, but in their chewy Starburst sweet forms rather than the real thing. It's fun and quite easy-going, if lacking a little in complexity and subtlety.

Next to it is Moenen, the murky red smoked beer. I'm never sure whether smoked beers are a good idea or not but this was superb: a rich hammy aroma and a sweet but clean flavour, tasting like smoked sausage plus a gentle burnt caramel edge. Very nicely balanced and getting great use out of the smoked malt without overdoing it.

That's all the ticks for Nijmegen. Next stop Bodegraven and the Borefts Beer Festival which I'll be telling you all about next week.

3-Pak

Not to be confused with the excellent restaurant of the same name in Ghent, ' t Pakhuis in Antwerp is the city's only brewpub, and I paid a visit on Friday. The décor is in the northern European faux-industrial style of brewery-pub-restaurant, all mezzanines and glass and steel. There are three beers in the repertoire. Antwerps Blond is a cloudy wheatbeer, similar to a German weiss. It's fruity with a hint of dry spice, though a little watery overall. The same problem affects Antwerps Bruin which offers a curious mix of sour Flemish red flavours and caramel notes on top. The latter comes out more as it warms and improves it considerably. Finally, there's Nen Bangelijke, a deceptively powerful clear golden ale. While the strength, colour and glass all resemble the typical Belgian golden ales, the flavour in no way does. This is warm and bitter rather than fruity, and carries overtones of almonds in the aftertaste. Very tasty indeed.

Like any brewpub, 't Pakhuis is one of those places that it's nice to have, just for something different. I wouldn't recommend beating a path to it on arrival in Antwerp, however. Go look at some Rubenses instead.

Year-end pints

This month makes it ten years since Mark Dredge and Andy Mogg suggested categories that beer bloggers might like to use for an annual run-down of the best in beer. I've stuck with it steadfastly since, even if I do change my criteria for the winners each year, and sometimes during the process of writing that year's entry. It's not meant to be taken seriously or considered meaningful, is what I'm saying.

2019 has been a dramatic year in beer, in Ireland and abroad. To mull it all over I've chosen something with a bit of wintery heft: Abbaye de Vauclair Biere Ambrée, a large bottle I picked up for loose change in Lidl. They're not lying about the "ambrée", it's a very ambrée hombre indeed: a beautiful clear polished-copper colour with a generous head which expertly laces the glass. I wasn't prepared for how sweet it is; it is extremely sweet, suggesting treacle, muscovado sugar and similar cake-baking ingredients you're not meant to eat raw. I was a few sips in before I noticed the balancing factor: a dry and slightly bitter tannic twang, which I'm guessing has both a hop and malt component. It doesn't stop the sugary onslaught but it does make it manageable, rendering the beer drinkable as a result. The sum total is a beer that's quite light-bodied for 6.1% ABV and tastes like a cup of very sweet cold tea. I quite liked it, but it's not one you can rush, which suited my needs perfectly. And so...

The Golden Pint Awards 2019

Best Irish Cask Beer: Porterhouse Yippy IPA
The decision to replace heavy, resinous Hop Head with pale dry Yippy was not without controversy. For the record I still miss HH's clean punchiness. To begin with, I treated Yippy like a newborn younger sibling, resenting its usurpation. It was some months later that I first encountered it on cask at Porterhouse Temple Bar and finally got it. I suspect the brewery has sneaked a Yorkshire bitter onto the Irish market dressed as an American. On cask it has that same blend of honeyed pale malt and waxy hop bitterness. It's clean, elegant, moreish and generally a fiver a pint. 5% ABV is a bit too high for a proper guzzlable session beer (bring back TSB!) so you have to pace yourself, but the result is very rewarding.

Best Irish Keg Beer: Land & Labour Coolship (2018)
The sour and the funk may become a bit of a theme in this year's edition as some Irish brewers are getting extremely good at this sort of thing. This one, sampled at this year's Hagstravaganza, was damn near lambic-grade and a very clear indication that local brewers are approaching that standard. There was also a blueberry version showing just how easy it is to mess up something this delicate. Steer your Coolship straight and true, and everything will be OK.

Best Irish Bottled Beer: Wide Street Saison Sunday
It's their only bottle, but still the best beer they've released so far. I reviewed it here only a couple of weeks ago, but I hope I can avoid accusations of late-year bias by pointing out that I drank relatively few bottled Irish beers this year now that the can is king. I can see this category becoming the purvue of barrel aged beers. That said...

Best Irish Canned Beer: Wicklow Wolf Pointy Shoes
The canned Golden Pint has to go to a dark beer as we have had a slew of worthy examples from various local breweries in recent months. Larkin's Morrigan, White Hag Festa Nuda, Lineman's Astral Grains and Wicklow Wolf's own Apex and Locavore all deserve a share in this prize. But Pointy Shoes, brewed to mark Wicklow Wolf's fifth anniversary, and as the valedictory beer from the Bray premises, went beyond what any Irish stout barrel-ager has managed to create thus far.

Best Overseas Draught: Ca' del Brado Û baccabianca
Chasing the grape ales has become a travel pastime for me, one which doesn't always land great beer. I hit the jackpot in Billies in Antwerp, however, with this one from Emilia-Romagna. Ca' del Brado is a brewery now firmly on my drink-on-sight list.

Best Overseas Bottled Beer: 3 Fonteinen Cuvée Armand & Gaston 2018
Every year should involve ticking a few things off the list, and I was happy to realise an ambition I'd had since the 2017 Toer de Geuze to go to 3 Fonteinen's tap room on an ordinary day and drink some beer there. And I did, and it was this, and it was very impressive. How much of that was down to the occasion? Who cares.

Best Overseas Canned Beer: Crooked Stave Sour Rosé
I had to go all the way back to the start of the year to dig this one out. It's another super-complex mixed fermentation job, this time from the US. And it's permanently available in, among other places, the 4-for-€12 fridge at Stephen Street News. You're in a much better position to argue with me about this one than the previous two, but you have to buy it first.

Best Collaboration Brew: Jackie O's/Cycle Anything And Everything And Nothing At All
The runaway standout beer at the Fidelty beer festival during the summer. You think you've tasted everything that's possible to achieve with barrel-aged imperial stouts, and then along comes this. Fascinating and delicious in equal measure.

Best Overall Beer: Û baccabianca
I know. I'd love to have given this to something local, or to something readily available, but I look back on the finalists and think of my reaction to first tasting each of them, and this was the one that induced the cartoon-character-in-love effect. A-wooo-ga!

Best Branding: O Brother
The brewery's Off The Wall series of collaborations with graffiti artists began last year and has now clocked up two dozen beautifully designed cans.

Best Pump Clip: Five Lamps Tilted Drum
I liked the badge Five Lamps came up with for the Convention Centre's house beer, blending the building's distinctive shape with a beer keg.

Best Bottle/Can Label: YellowBelly Bushido
Well of course it was going to be a YellowBelly one. In picking a pastiche style for this black IPA, artist Paul really excelled himself. The beer was pretty damn good too.



Best Irish Brewery: Third Barrel
This was a tougher call than usual, with quite a few breweries doing amazing work. I'll save a special mention for Larkin's who've had some real stunners coming out especially in the latter half of 2019. But Third Barrel has really been putting the graft in. This year was the first time I found beers to impress me released under their Stone Barrel brand: Slammer and Awesome Sauce in particular. Third Circle's Needs More Cowbell and fruited Brett IPA were highlights, and then all the hyperactive hop activity under the Third Barrel label itself, as well as launching The Format, Pleasuredome and other client brewers. I'm exhausted just writing it down. I hope the pace is sustainable.

Best Overseas Brewery: Tilquin
Our dalliance was brief, but I had a lovely couple of sessions at the Tilquin blendery during this year's Toer de Geuze trying all their various experiments. They've never struck me as a particularly playful producer and perhaps it's the market that's pushing them into doing new things. Regardless, they're generally very good at it, that maple syrup lambic notwithstanding.

Best New Brewery Opening 2019: Wide Street
The promise of this all-wild-fermentation brewery in Co. Longford is enormous and the beers, in general, have been great so far.

Pub/Bar of the Year: La Venencia
Since I first visted this Madrid pub in 2009 it's been a firm favourite. I was actually apprehensive on going back last October, for fear it would disappoint. It didn't; it's still amazing. The best feature is that it doesn't serve beer, only sherry, so I get to put my notebook away.

Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2019: BrewDog Outpost Dublin
I've only been once and I haven't written about it yet, but I respect the sheer commitment of BrewDog in taking on 1,100 square metres of bar and restaurant space in the Dublin docklands and adding an in-house brewery to it. It's a big place and big things are expected.

Beer Festival of the Year: Fidelity
As usual I feared the worst: big queues and braying edgelords. But Ireland's first all-inclusive beer festival, organised by Whiplash and The Big Romance, was quite chilled in the end. There were lots of amazing beers and, if you didn't spend too long chatting, it was quite easy to get one's money's worth.

Supermarket of the Year: Fresh, Smithfield Square, Dublin 7
It's not what it used to be though I have found myself increasingly coming back to the beer section here, often finding things I couldn't source anywhere else. Supermarkets in general seem to have done away with continuously updated beer ranges -- it mustn't have been sustainable for anyone. Fresh is clinging on, though. Turnover isn't as rapid as you'd find in an independent, though I rarely leave empty-handed.

Independent Retailer of the Year: Redmond's of Ranelagh
I always have to make a special effort to go over, but it's always worth it. The exclusive beers created with DOT are what tipped it into the winners' enclosure for me this year. Shouts-out, of course, to my regular haunts DrinkStore and Stephen Street News.

Online Retailer of the Year: The White Hag
They sent me a free case to test their website, which was nice. It arrived very quickly after I ordered it, which was also nice. And the beer was good. Other than that, I had no cause to buy beer online this year, as usual.

Best Beer Book or Magazine: Pierre Van Klomp Says No: Life, Death and the Meaning of Beer
Another default award this, being the only beer book I read this year, and that was in ten minutes over breakfast on the morning it arrived. It's still a beautifully put together piece with evocative photos as well as earthy Belgian wisdom. Thanks to Pierre's literary agents Boak & Bailey for sending it to me.

Best Beer Blog or Website: Food For Thought
You may have noticed the occasional snarky morning tweet from me about the drinks industry. And the occasional genuinely interesting industry news story. Many of these are fuelled by the daily email from FFT, so this is just by way of thanks to the team there for all the hard work they do collecting and presenting Ireland's hospitality news.

Simon Johnson Award For Best Beer Twitterer: @BeerFoodTravel
Liam has been a bit quiet on the long-form front recently, but his snippets of Irish brewing history throughout the year have been enlightening. He takes a good beer photo too.

Best Brewery Website/Social Media: Galway Bay Brewery
I don't think I've ever given the pub taplists on the Galway Bay website a nod, and they deserve one, even if they're not always up to date (has somebody lost the keys to the Against the Grain page?). The Black Sheep is generally spot on, I get a Twitter notification when something new is tapped, and I find that very useful.


And that's another year over. Thanks for reading, if indeed you still are.