Only an hour by train from Brussels, West Flanders is renowned for its picturesque medieval towns replete with belfries and beguinages, sandy North Sea beaches, verdant open fields, and a harrowing First World War history. Bruges is West Flanders’ heavily visited capital, but the region is also home to the Poperinge hop district and some of Belgium’s most unique beers in a country famous for unique beer. Roeselare, Vleteren, and Vichte are but a few of the towns and villages that conjure up visions of Trappist brewers and the sweet-sour beers of the region. If the bucolic Payottenland due west of Brussels is known for lambic, the western part of the country answers with Flemish red ale and the oud bruin of East Flanders.

What follows is just the tip of the iceberg in a region where you can’t go wrong walking into just about any beer café on the village square or around the next corner. After a few afternoon drinks in Kortrijk’s beer cafés, I’ll end with a list of beers that’ll take you beyond the regional classics like Rodenbach Grand Cru, Duchesse de Bourgogne, and Liefmans Goudenband. (Keep an eye out for some history sprinkled throughout the beer list.) I’ll also try to untangle some of the differences between Flemish red ale and oud bruin along the way. Wish me luck on that front.

Several Generations of Omer Vander Ghinste in Bellegem

Back in Belgium for my second visit in as many years, I made for the train station with my Brussels-based friend after a night exploring the beer cafés of Brussels. We boarded a train for the hour-long trip to Kortrijk, continuing on to the nearby village of Bellegem. Bellegem was quiet in the morning sunshine, the small collection of bakeries, restaurants, and other sundry businesses along the short main strip just opening up for the day. A few steps down from main street winding its way through Bellegem, we found what we were looking for: Brouwerij Omer Vander Ghinste.

Omer Vander Ghinste founded his eponymously named brewery in this rural West Flemish town near the French border in 1892, absorbing his father-in-law’s Brasserie La Fort in 1901. Renowned for its line of La Fort beers and its popular Omer Tradition Blond launched in 2008, Omer Vander Ghinste also brews two spontaneous/mixed fermentation beers: Cuvée des Jacobins, a Flemish red ale, and Vander Ghinste Rood Bruin, which bears more than a passing resemblance to an oud bruin.

Fun fact: Omer Vander Ghinste was a forward-thinking soul. Sensing that the intricate glass signage he commissioned and installed in local beer cafés across the region would be too expensive to replace when his heirs would eventually take over the brewery, he named his son Omer. Thus began a tradition of naming sons born in successive generations Omer. The brewery is currently headed by Omer Jean Vander Ghinste. His son is named Omer Gery.

Now, if you’re not a Belgian beer fanatic — or even if you are, for that matter — you might be wondering what the difference is between a Flemish red ale like Omer Vander Ghinste’s excellent Cuvée des Jacobins and their Rood Bruin. As it turns out, the two beers are siblings of sorts. Both the Vander Ghinste Rood Bruin and the Cuvée des Jacobins start off as the same “Jacobin” lambic before being pumped into enormous wooden aging vessels called foeders. When the time is right, the beers are blended into distinct bottlings, with the Cuvée des Jacobins featuring a blend of young and old lambics, and the Rood Bruin combining aged lambic with a young, malty brown beer. While the Cuvée des Jacobins is decidedly more tart, the Rood Bruin is a throwback to Omer Vander Ghinste’s original beer called Ouden Tripel, a spontaneously fermented dark beer that was not very high in alcohol content. (Contrast that with the Belgian tripel style we know today, a golden-hued beer typically north of 8% ABV.)

Flemish Red Ale, Flemish Oud Bruin

So, if Vander Ghinste’s Rood Bruin and Cuvée des Jacobins are siblings, what’s the difference between, say, a Rodenbach Grand Cru produced in Roeselare 30 km to the northwest of Bellegem and a Liefmans Oud Bruin produced in Oudenarde about the same distance to the east? Put simply, oud bruin is a maltier beer that is typically fermented in open squares with a mix of saccharomyces and bacteria before being transferred into stainless steel tanks for aging. Flemish red ales, by contrast, see time in foeders. Aging in wooden vessels like these allows oxygen and acetobacter to seep slowly through the wood and into to the beer, creating favourable conditions for the formation of acetic acid. Too much, and the beer turns to vinegar. When the level of acetic acid is just right, it imparts the characteristic zing (sometimes akin to balsamic vinegar) of Flemish red ales. The foeders also harbour Brettanomyces, those “wild” yeast strains that lend any beer they meet a funkiness sought after by aficionados of all things sour or spontaneously fermented. The key to both beers is the blending of younger beer with older beers typically aged 18 to 36 months.

Splitting hairs? Perhaps. But I’ll let you indulge in the fun of judging for yourself.

Beer Cafés in Kortrijk (Courtrai)

Time to stop speculating about beer styles and drink some beer. After a stop at a classic old-timer café right across from the Omer Vander Ghinste brewery (Sporteweld — you can’t miss it), we set out for the taverns in nearby Kortrijk. Kortrijk may not have quite the charm of Bruges or Ghent, but it is home to an eclectic array of beer cafés. This diversity of drinking establishments makes Kortrijk an ideal staging ground for renowned breweries such as Rodenbach and De Branbandere (brewers of Petrus), experimental breweries like ’t Gaverhopke, and youth-driven breweries like ’t Verzet — all within a comfortable 30-km train ride, or a short 10-km bike ride.

Kortrijk is also a compact city. You won’t have to wander far before you come across a place to build up your energy for the next few hundred meters you’ll have to walk in search of your next fine beer. We began our café tour at Gainsbar, a hip establishment on Kortrijk’s Vlasmarkt. Gainsbar welcomes visitors with a colourful tiling scheme that evokes Piet Mondrian and the artists of De Stijl. If Gainsbar pays tribute to a single musical muse (Serge Gainsbourg), its beer selection is expansive, with a menu offering everything from lambics to bottlings from breweries located within a bike ride of the tavern. Ten beers on tap round out a hundred beers in bottles.

Take a moment to stroll through the white-washed buildings surrounding Kortrijk’s peaceful beguinage before heading to ’t Fonteintje, a memorable Belgian beer café with a history to match. The street corner on which the tavern house finds itself was the scene in medieval times of a stockade where criminals were locked up in shackles or executed by public hanging. Today, a table by the window at the front of the house rewards you with a more subdued spectacle: the imposing yet stately Broeltorens (Broel Towers) bridge across the Leie River. Even with its wrap-around floor-to-ceiling windows, the bar area and back room quickly recede into the shadows, lending the café an old-world mystique. The beer list is not nearly as extensive as the one at Gainsbar, but you’re sure to find something to tickle your fancy, from more well-known offerings such as Duchesse de Bourgogne to local beers like Ename’s Abidjbier Dubbel. ’T Fonteintje welcomes a mixed clientele consisting of older folks, stylish people in their thirties stopping in on their way home from work, and the occasional traveler off the beaten tourist path.

After a quick stop at the upscale ’t Moutertje, a one-time malting facility that boasts a pleasant elevated terrace, we headed off to catch our train back to the bustle of Brussels.

A huge thanks and dank u wel are due to my good friend Martin for hosting me in Brussels, and to Jasper Stragier of Omer Vander Ghinste for the informative tour and beer tasting afterwards.

A Few Beers for You to Try

Some of these breweries are relatively new to the vibrant Belgian brewing scene, while others boast a history dating back nearly five centuries.

Le Fort Tripel (Omer Vander Ghinste). The colour of lemon custard and topped with a pearl-white cap of meringue-like foam, this richly aromatic tripel characterized by plush Belgian yeast engages the senses with an ensemble of clove-cinnamon spice notes, subtle vanilla combined with hints of ripe banana, and a floral honeyed malt sweetness. The palate is full-bodied and complex, with softly spicy hop flavours, a reprise of the Belgian yeast notes, and a banana custard kind of lusciousness. Finishes dry despite the richness. Consumed at the brewery. Two Tankards.

Adriaen Brouwer Dark Gold is brewed by the oldest family-owned brewery in Belgium, Brouwerij Roman in Oudenaarde, just over the border in East Flanders. This hefty beer pays tribute to a seventeenth-century painter from Oudenaarde who apparently found great enjoyment in his tankards and inspiration in the kinds of country drinking scenes that animate Brueghel’s paintings. Figs, dates, and brown sugar make an appearance in this amber ale, along with soft caramel notes and a subtle spicy “Belgian yeast” character. Smooth and creamy, the 8.5% worth of alcohol provides just a touch of warmth in the dry finish. An understated and unobtrusive accompaniment to conversation. In bottles at Gainsbar in Kortrijk.

Ename Abidjbier Dubbel. Stretching back fourteen generations, the Roman family has seen its share of beer styles come and go, including the venerable abbey-brewed beers of yore. The pastoral fields around Oudenaarde weren’t quite so bucolic over a millennium ago when the area was the fractious meeting point of empires, kingdoms, and duchies. With the ninth-century signing of the Treaty of Verdun (843 C.E.), the Scheldt River running through Oudenaarde became the frontier that divided the Frankish Empire into West Francia and East Francia. A fort was eventually erected at Ename on the Germanic side of the river to deter the troops under the command of the Count of Flanders from getting any funny ideas about crossing the river. After two centuries’ worth of tensions subsided, Benedictine monks moved into what was now an obsolete fortress town and busied themselves transforming parts of it into an abbey dedicated to Saint Salvator. And as thirsty monks of the time were wont to do, they began brewing beer. Seven salubrious centuries of brewing came to an end with the secularization and dismantling of the monastery in 1795 during the French Revolution. But the memory of the beer lived on. The long-established Brouwerij Roman stepped in about fifteen years ago to revive these abbey brews. Alas, Roman’s Ename Dubbel is not quite as scintillating as the history of the abbey at Ename. Expect subtle notes of caramel, a dusting of cocoa, and an undercurrent of rum-raisin accented by delicately spicy Belgian yeast notes. Served in bottles at ’t Fonteinje in Kortrijk.

Sarne Bruin is a self-styled “Belgian craft beer” created in 2015 by five friends in the West Flemish town of Zarren. Exceedingly smooth despite its 7.5% ABV, Sarne Bruin adds wheat malt, candy sugar, and herbs to the usual suspects you’d find in a chestnut-copper brown beer that walks and talks like a dubbel. Sugar beet, plum, rum-raisin, and honeyed figs mingle with complex spice aromas of anise, earthy root beer, cinnamon, and coriander seeds. Fruit joins the ensemble with spiced ripe banana and dark cherry, while malt shines with notes of roasted hazelnuts, caramelized brown sugar, and spiced chocolate. The off-dry beer is medium-full bodied and silky on the palate, with a vigourous carbonation and subtle herbal bitterness that counters the ample maltiness. Sarne currently brews one beer and one beer only. Here’s to hoping they roll out a few new beers. For sale in bottles at Les Fleurs du Malt, a carefully stocked bottle shop in the Woluwe-St. Lambert district of Brussels. One Tankard.

Brouwerij ’t Verzet Oud Bruin. I had heard much about this upstart brewery, so I was pleasantly surprised to find this bracing oud bruin on draft just a few hours before my flight back to Vienna. And it was nothing short of stellar. Barely into their thirties, the folks at ’t Verzet in Anzegem near Kortrijk have been on a mission to inject some youthfulness into Belgian beer culture. In a departure from what has now become the “traditional” approach to inoculating oud bruin with bacteria during primary fermentation and aging it in stainless steel tanks, the brewers at ’t Verzet start their oud bruin off as a sweet brown ale fermented with saccharomyces. After primary fermentation, they rack the beer into oak barrels or foeders and inoculate it with lactobacillus. Bottlings consist of young beer blended with beers of one to three years of age. Neither filtered nor pasteurized, this garnet-copper beer ripples with the freshness and vitality of a mountain spring. Caramel, oak, cherry, green apple, balsamic vinegar, and bright sour cherry all cascade gleefully forth from the glass. Sea salt-infused liquid caramel and cocoa (not unlike the filling of some Belgian chocolates) crest before the wave subsides into a kaleidoscope of elegant vanilla and a nutty character straddling the line between Amontillado and aged saké. Full-flavoured despite its light body, the palate is reminiscent of a sunny afternoon, finishing with a tart green apple and citrus zippiness. On draft at Moeder Lambic in the St. Gilles neighbourhood of Brussels. Three Tankards.

Related Tempest Articles

Belfries and Beers in Bruges

Where the Wild Beers Are: Brussels and Flemish Brabant

Of Coolships, Cobwebs, and Cantillon

A Rodenbach Grand Cru in the Fridge, or a Six-Pack of Lesser Beer in the Fridge?

A Twist of Sour: New Belgium’s 2013 La Folie and Verhaeghe’s Duchesse de Bourgogne

Sources

Belgian Beer Tourism (a wealth of information on all things Belgian beer).

Ename, Wikipedia entry.

K. Florian Klemp, “Flanders Red and Brown,” All About Beer Magazine 35:5 (November 1, 2011).

Breandán Kearney, “Reforming Anarchy: Brouwerij ’t Verzet in Anzegem, Belgium,” Good Beer Hunting (October 19, 2016).

See also the websites of the various breweries mentioned here. (Follow the hyperlinks in the text above.)

All images by F.D. Hofer.

© 2018 F.D. Hofer and A Tempest in a Tankard. All rights reserved.