Beer Consultant Evan Kaye and Regional Manager Chris Brower had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity fall into their laps:  a week long beer education trip to Belgium. Not surprisingly, the two couldn’t say, “yes” fast enough.

So the duo is off in the land of beer, tasting and learning and bringing you along with them—even if it’s only virtually. This marks the first in a weeklong series of the Brew Hops and Wine Stops:  the Belgian Beer Blog. A new post will appear every evening at 6pm. 

Day one started with a quick sightseeing tour of Belgium. We saw the site of the old world’s fair, the King's residence and eventually made our way into the Grand Palace Square to see the Belgium Beer Museum and brewers association. Lionel, the brewer at Brouwerij Silly, was our host and poured us the lovely beer to kick off our trip. We then saw the famous peeing boy statue and took a pit stop into Mort Subite (a top 5 beer bar in the world) to have a glass of their white lambic. This beer had such lovely notes of mango, pineapple and white peaches. I couldn't help but think how well this would pair with Florida seafood and tropical cuisine. 

On the way to Antwerp we stopped for our brewery tour at Brouwerij Boelens where the owner, Chris and his wife and children were great hosts. We learned that his grandfather first brewed beer on this property in 1908 and the first brewery was destroyed in the First World War and then raided for copper in the Second World War. They began brewing beer here in 1993 and the brewery is still very small with production annually of around 15,000 barrels. Just seeing the small mom-and-pop operation here, it was amazing to think that their beer finds its way around the globe to us. The Tripel Klok and Dubbel Klok went well with the homemade meal of beef stew, salad and fries (yes, mayo was the condiment here). I was also impressed at how these beers truly are a global work of art; the barley comes from France and is malted locally, while the hops come from America. The cascade hops gave the Tripel a little more hop charter than most Tripels which was a nice change.

We then left the good folks at Boelens and found our hotel in Antwerp. Tomorrow will be another great day.

Evan Kaye, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits Regional Manager and Beer Consultant – Palm Beach area

Follow him on Twitter @abcbeerevank