Cantillon was one of my most anticipated stops, and it didn’t disappoint. From the musty almost sour aroma that seemed to dominate the air to the aged wooden rafters filled with cobwebs, it became immediately clear that this was the real deal. We spent most of our time ordering bottles to enjoy on their barrel table tops that weren’t available to for take home purchases. It was fun to watch people strategically order their take home bottles and worry if their suitcases were going to be over weight.

The drinking atmosphere most places in Belgium and definitely at Cantillon were completely different than anything I’ve experienced in the United States. Here, you might show up to a brewery and keep to yourself only to interact with your phone. At Cantillon, once a bottle opens it becomes a social affair. Both times we visited the brewery, we ended up sharing our bottles with those around us and they did the same. Whether people didn’t have cell service or they were just enjoying the atmosphere, phones were down, strangers were sharing beers and engaging in conversation in a way I wasn’t used to, but certainly enjoyed.

Traveling with only a small carry-on size suitcase, I had very little room to travel back with bottles. Being interested in collecting some of the yeast and bacteria that make these beers so special, I decided to travel around with sturdy pre-sanitized tubes for collecting dregs of some of the best bottles. My first victim came from a bottle of Cognac barrel aged 50°N-4°E from Cantillon, a name coming from the geographic location of the brewery. Several people spotted me doing this and it was pretty obvious who were the drinkers in the tasting room and who were brewers!

After spending some time in De Haan, a beach town in West Flanders and a enjoying a short stop in Bruges, a scenic and historic medieval-looking town, we continued our beer tour with a stop at De Dolle in Diksmuide, Belgium. Drinking a side-by-side of Oerbier and Oebier Special Reserva outside behind the brewery was hard to beat. All by ourselves, we enjoyed the view of farmhouses, cows, and more of that Belgium green. The relaxed nature of all these breweries was incredible.

The next highlight of the trip was visiting Brasserie Thiriez, a small brewery located in the countryside of France. Thiriez is owned by Daniel Thiriez and is famous among brewers for being the home of the popular French Saison yeast strain (Wyeast 3711). Lucky, we were led on a private tour of the brewery from Daniel and even stayed in their guest room that night as part of the bed and breakfast side gig (a very cool experience). How many breweries in the United States do you hang out and have beers with the owner, get a personal tour, stay in their home, and wake up and chat over their kitchen table over fresh sourdough bread, jam, and coffee? Both Daniel and his wife made this part of the trip extremely memorable.

The story of how the French Saison yeast originated was something I couldn’t help but ask Daniel about over a beer fermented with that very strain (which struck me as having a much larger hop spice and firm bitterness from the heavy hot-side hopping). It turns out when the brewery was in its baby stages, Daniel described the type of beer he wanted to make to a yeast lab and they gave him four to try, can you guess which one he liked the most? In further conversations, I couldn’t help but to speculate that the goal for Daniel was never to build a massive brewery that dominates the market, rather, to make enough beer and profits to get by comfortably while maintaining as much work-life balance as possible (something that had likely gotten better as the brewery matured). This concept is one I both appreciate and think helped pave the way for the relaxed and welcoming atmosphere they built. After all, if you’re too busy to ever enjoy your beer, customers, and life, what’s the fucking point of owning the brewery?! A lesson I hope to remind myself on a regular basis as Sapwood Cellars finds its footing in Maryland.

Thanks to a great recommendation from a commenter on a Facebook post I put up while on the trip, our next (unplanned) trip was to a small cafe called In de Verzekering tegen de Grote Dorst (In the Insurance against Great Thirst) in Lennik, Belgium. This place was awesome for so many reasons, one being that it had one of the best gueuze, kriek and lambic selections I’ve seen. It’s unique because it’s located across from a church and only open on Sundays and church holidays (and only from 10 AM to 1:30 PM), for “those on their way to church, and those who say they are going to church, but don’t make it.” It’s a fun mix of locals coming over after church to have a tart beer and beer fans from around the world. I talked myself out of ordering a €12,00 Allagash Coolship Resurgam and opted for some more location appropriate options, a favorite was a 2013 Cantillon Lou Pepe Gueuze (hopefully the bugs are healthy after 4 years in the bottle because I added the dregs to another vial!). Only a 30-minute drive from Brussels, I highly recommend checking this place out!

After a short trip to Cologne Germany, where we consumed a fair amount of kolsh and managed to get our rental car up to 125 mph on the Autobahn (not in that order) we then drove back to Belgium where we stayed a few nights in Brussels. The selection in the beer bars in Brussels was incredible. A favorite spot called Moeder Lambic actually had Cantillon Cuvée Moeder on tap, which Cantillon brews just for the bar. After ending up at Moeder Lambic on back-to-back nights, a favorite and maybe less hyped brewery that kept being one of my favorites of the night was from Gueuzerie Tilquin. A particular favorite from Tilquin was Oude Pinot Noir, a spontaneously fermented beer that spent time with 350 grams of Pinot Noir grapes by liter of lambic, exactly the type of beer I was daydreaming about while drinking natural wine in Paris. The combination and processes of natural wine and wild ales works so so well together!

Saving perhaps the best for last, our last brewery stop was a quick train ride away from downtown Brussels to Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen. There was a sophistication at 3 Fonteinen that stood out to me, perhaps it was in part their presentation of bottles and Armand Debelder himself insistence on pouring them for you in a wine-like way. Heavily carbonated bottles meant there was constant loud popping going on, which always made you look to see what was being poured. One of the best beers I had on the entire trip was their 2008 Oude Geuze (a blend of 2005, 2006, and 2007) and overall just some of the best consistent un-fruited acidic beers I’ve had in general.