See how they brew

A full 15-beer travel post covering only two breweries? It's fair to say they've both been busy. An early presence on the new Brussels brewing scene has meant Brussels Beer Project and Brasserie de la Senne are now sizeable operations, and that's very obvious from the selection visible in bars and shops. Their bottles and their branding are everywhere -- a heartening sight for anyone whose own local breweries are struggling hard to find a foothold among the multinational giants. It can be done.

The new Brussels Beer Project brewery is still under construction but even before that comes on stream the range is significant. Here's what I got through, following a little supermarket browsing and a sweep of the shelves in the taproom shop.

Wedding Season is not a saison but something called a "fruit salad sour" at 3.8% ABV. It's quite a salad too: pear, blueberry, blackberry and raspberry are joined by rosemary, sage and thyme. The end result is cocktail-pink and smells quite herbal but not of anything distinctive. The sage flexes its oiled muscles in the foretaste: it's very sage, with the rosemary also running loudly alongside bringing a savoury Sunday-roast aspect to an otherwise light and easy beer. The berry subtleties get lost under that, and there's merely a light tartness in the finish which could equally be the fruit or the sour culture. The berry flavours themselves only emerge when it has warmed up a little, and this is very much designed to be quaffed cold. I like herby beers so it suited me enormously. I can see how others might have an issue with it, however.

BBP cans are new (for me), and first up it's Now or Never, a 4.3% ABV "Belgian session IPA" -- a style designation I would deride were it not from an actual Belgian brewer. It looks like a witbier, being a pale yellowish green in the glass with a fine white froth on top. Pith and peel is the long and short of the aroma; they don't tell us what hops are used, just that there are "loads" of varieties and all Belgian. Fair enough. A twist of lemon rind and a shaving of coconut is what I get in the flavour, creating a kind of cocktail effect, and similarly medium sweet and very easy to drink. A texture which is light without being thin helps it slip back very easily. This is another very decently constructed beer, simple but flavoursome. There's nothing explicitly Belgian about the taste, but then redefining what "Belgian" means for beer is one of the project's stated aims.

You can see that slogan -- "Leave the abbey, join the playground" -- at work in the next one. Lime Crime purports to be a lime meringue pale ale. It's easy to set expectations when the customer has no idea how that should taste. The answer turns out to be: rather good. It's 4.7% ABV, hopped with Centennial and Columbus, plus added lime and lemon zest with vanilla. That seems like it'll be a mostly sweet fellow, but while it's another smooth one, it's not really sweet. The surprise first flavour is a nutmeg or peppercorn piquancy which dries it all out before the vanilla essence gets to work. There's a mild tang of citrus on the end and I don't know if that's enough to placate the drinkers who wanted big zest from this; I thought it all worked very harmoniously. It doesn't taste like a dessert or any other sort of novelty, just a pleasingly spicy pale ale.

Doubling down on the novelty is Petite Pépite, a habaneros gose. This one tastes of lime, with lots of salty margarita vibes alongside. I looked hard for the chilli but couldn't find any, though there's a clean, green, watermelon rind quality in the mix late on. Halfway down I noticed a certain, subtle, waxy dryness, which might be chilli-derived, but it may as well not be there. This is a beer for the sourness and the citricity, and that's fine. I've tasted many like it and, at 4.8% ABV, this one is basic quaffable fun with a modest amount of daftness involved.

They have embraced the haze at Brussels Beer Project, and I don't know how that flies with the normal Belgian beer-drinking public but if Juice Junkie is anything to go by they have absolutely nailed it. This is a New England IPA of 5.4% ABV, a bright sunshine yellow in the glass and a marvellous tropical fruit mix in the flavours. Lychee and passionfruit start us off, turning towards even softer cantaloupe and honeydew. With the juice levels in danger of going off the charts it reins things in a little in the finish where it turns slightly danker and bitterer, with a hint of fried onion at the very end. The texture is only a little fluffy and it remains drinkable and preposterously refreshing. A power combination of Citra, Simcoe, Nelson Sauvin and (I'm guessing lots of) Mosaic was how it's achieved, along with Belgian ale yeast S33. I give you this detail in the hope your brewery tries something similar.

Before you ask, yes, I did occasionally leave the hotel room to drink beer. Down on Boulevard Anspach, just opposite the Bourse and six storeys above the Delhaize cornershop there's a seasonal rooftop bar called Le Jardin. It's plainly designed for the late-night party crowd but it opens in the afternoon and it was fun to enjoy the views over Brussels in the quiet daytime.

They have a few BBP beers on offer, including Wunder Lager, a 3.8% ABV highly-hopped job. Even for the strength it's very pale with a very slight haze. And it lives up to its name, with a gorgeous bright and zesty hop character set on a light and crisp base. Very moreish and sublimely refreshing. There's a touch of witbier about the way it's constructed, minus any soapy characteristics, and it works far better than any so-called India pale lager I can think of. Beers like this should be much more commonplace.

It was Belgium Beer Week and a few venues had put on special events. At the BBP taproom on Rue Dansaert that involved putting a selection of their wild-fermented beers on the rotating taps. That sounded like my sort of thing so I went along for a nosy.

The first I tried was Nue, a saison with added yuzu, dry-hopped and Burgundy barrel-aged. It's another hazy yellow one with a fabulous aroma of lychee and capgun smoke. It tastes of 7-Up first: all syrupy lemon and lime. An oily rosemary bitterness adds a grown-up side, finishing on a peppery note which is the only nod towards classic Belgian saison. Overall it's a bit of fun; a novelty act rather than a serious connoisseur's serious mixed-fermentation beer. I had a lot of time for what it does, though.

A serious connoisseur might go for something with a gatekeepy name like MXD 692 next. I did too. This is a pale ale with the same mixed fermentation culture and is another clear golden one. There's a happy mix of funk and fruit in the aroma here: ripe plums and apricots in a mucky farmyard on a cold morning. Phwoar! Though only 5% ABV it has a very thick and gummy texture. That keeps the flavours intense as they bring an interplay of very dry and very sweet; sweaty woolly horse blanket see-sawing with luscious peach, plus a lacing of fungus and umami. "Very interesting, " I've written, then "grapefruit on toast" before I ran out of page. I think I liked it.

My one for the road here was Foeder Pils, once again looking identical to its shipmates. The aroma is nothing special here: a perfectly pils-y lemongrass effect. The mixed fermentation side is subtle. It's only 4.5% ABV and the immediate impression is of something light and clean. I caught a wisp of chamomile tea, elderflower and lychee. None of this changes its clean lager nature while still making use of the advanced flavour effects from the wild yeast. It's a very neat trick.

Suffice it to say I came away a big fan of Brussels Beer Project's Bretty efforts and I commend them to you.

One last beer before we leave them. Minotaur is a Flemish red which has served three years in a wine barrel and smells like a mince pie. The flavour retains the zingy summer berry effect which, for me, is the whole point of the style, and then there's a richer depth behind it, offering chocolate, perfume and spices. Labyrinthine? Not quite, but there's bags of complexity and, at 8.6% ABV, it rewards slow sipping. A suitable bookend to my exploration of the Project's beers. There were plenty more around but I think I've done OK with this brief snapshot, for now.

Not far from where Brussels Beer Project is adding the finishing touches to its new production brewery, its arch rival Brasserie de la Senne has already moved into its new home and thrown the doors open to drinkers. This canalside dockland redevelopment zone to the north of the city is in its early stages and most of what surrounds the brewery is still waste ground. It will be interesting to see that change over the coming years. The taproom itself is a spacious glass and concrete affair and there's lots of well shaded outside space too.

After trekking up there on foot on a warm afternoon, my first beer was Zenne Pils and I was overjoyed that it's available in a very unBelgian half-litre serve for a very uncraft €4 a throw. And throw I did. This is gloriously sinkable stuff. It's crisp as the day is long with only a little hazy fuzziness. A base of snappy waterbiscuit gets a layer of nettles and rocket in near-perfect imitation of classic German pils, including the creamy smooth texture. I really didn't expect de la Senne to be in this game at all but I'm very glad they are. Flood the bars with pints of this, please.

Something more in line with expectations was Bruxellensis Reserva, a wine-barrel-aged version of their Brettanomyces pale ale. It's still the same 6.5% ABV, mind, pouring a coppery pink shade. There's a very sharp and funky aroma -- back in the farmyard but this time with a jug of balsamic vinegar. The flavour is dry first, with an unsubtle splintery oak. It softens soon after to red grape, and all of it backed by a loud and stereotypical Brett funk. It's a bit busy overall and I think it might benefit from some ageing. But if funky Brett is your thang it's just the ticket.

Another barrel-aged Flemish red next: Ouden Vat. This is 6.7% ABV and a dark and brooding murky red colour. There's a fruity yet savoury quality to the aroma: tamarind, garlic and black pepper, like an exotic marinade. A slick and greasy texture leads us to a mellow flavour with notes of spicy incense and sweet black cherry. I tend to prefer this style to be fresh and light and brisk, but if you are going to go the opposite way, this is exactly how to do it, with no cloying sugars and all the spices.

Newly arrived on the bar was Saison de la Senne. They had brewed a light saison with this name several years ago but this seemed different: stronger and (big surprise) barrel aged. It goes heavy on spices, with quite a lambic-like gunpowder effect, plus added lemon zest, juicy grape, farmyard funk and stonefruit. In short it's all of the barrel and Brett goodness you could want, in a 6% ABV package and an unpretentious 330ml bottle. I love these sorts of barrel-aged saisons and this is one of the best examples I've encountered. The name looks quite flagshippy so I hope it goes far and wide. Edit: thanks to Eoghan Walsh for pointing out to me that the lambic-like barrel-aged quality comes from the fact this is blended with beer from Cantillon. That'll do it all right.

That was it for my visit though I do have one other beer to report from them: Schieven Enthusiasm. I'm not at all used to de la Senne beers at double-figure ABVs but this "barrel aged double farmhouse ale", if that means anything to you, is 10% ABV. I certainly didn't know what to expect. It's blonde and hazy like a saison but with a very active carbonation, threatening to escape the bottle between cap-pull and glass-pour. The aroma is on the sour end of farmhouse, with elements of vinegar amongst the earthy spices. The flavour is based on classic Belgian blonde elements; there's a core which echoes Duvel and La Chouffe Blond in particular: the honey base with peppery sparks on top. Overlaying that is the tartness. It doesn't automatically say barrels to me, but if I had to guess I would say they were ex-wine. The tang of a flinty white is in the topnotes here. The finish is a clean warming buzz, blending the comfy alcoholic depths of a well-made strong blonde beer with a sharp-edges crispness. This fellow was full of surprises: finely-honed for an overclocked saison and bitingly sharp for a big blonde ale. I enjoyed the journey it brought me on even when I was by no means sure of the destination.

And that's all I have to tell you about today. I am certain there are those who complain about the ubiquity of these two breweries in Brussels, especially as there are so many younger and smaller operations trying to make themselves seen. The sheer quality of the output from Brussels Beer Project and Brasserie de la Senne is something to aspire to, however. I felt that the city's beer is in safe hands.

One more blog post from Brussels, coming your way, next.