belgian-beer

Trucks have long been the choice of transportation for beer. But for one Belgian brewer, the Bruges streets that lay between De Halve Maan's brewery and its bottling plant were too narrow for beer-carrying trucks, and traffic was starting to pile up. That’s when De Halve Maan owner Xavier Vanneste decided to build a two-mile-long…

New Belgium Brewing Co., which the Brewers Association ranks as the nation’s fourth-largest craft brewery by sales volume, turns 25 this spring. Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan, then husband and wife, started the operation from their basement in Fort Collins, Colorado, about an hour’s drive north of Denver.Lebesch was an electrical engineer who was able…

In 1957, the Tomsin Brewery in the central Belgian town of Hoegaarden closed. Breweries were regularly closing then in a Belgium still reeling from the Second World War and, more specifically problematic for the brewing industry, a flood of imports were gobbling market share from long-time domestic producers.So posterity might have not otherwise noted the…

Way back in the 19th century, so the story goes, a Brussels-based brewer of lambics, those beers made with a sizable volume of wheat as well as wild yeast, ran out of barrels just as a big shipment came due. To get his wares to the client, the brewer poured his lambics into empty champagne…

Greg Engert discovered the wonders of Belgian beer while working at the old Brickskeller bar in Washington, D.C., after burning out in graduate school at Georgetown. The Brickskeller’s beer menu famously contained hundreds of different selections, and the place was a particular hangout for the late, great beer critic Michael Jackson, whom Engert also got…

The only thing better than a great beer is eating the perfect food for that particular brew. Enter Beer Bites, a cookbook companion for your craft beer cravings by the dream team of cookbook author Andrea Slonecker and writer/brewer Christian DeBenedetti. Beyond your typical pub grub is enlightened fare for people who love good beer,…

At exactly 4 p.m. EST today, there will be a sharp drop in productivity for just about every person in the country. Office computer monitors everywhere will be split between [nondescript spreadsheet] and WatchESPN, and the hopes of an entire nation will be pinned on newfound heroes Bradley, Dempsey, Howard and Altidore (he's baaaaack!) Related:…

Utter the name Brasserie Cantillon and beer geeks worldwide start foaming at the mouth. Cantillon makes almost exclusively sour beer in the lambic or blended lambic style, known as gueuze. These unique beers have experienced a major renaissance over the last decade. A brand that once sat on shelves in the U.S. collecting dust is…

In Belgium, half the population is French-speaking (called Walloons), while the other half speaks, and is ethnically, Dutch (called Flemish). This unique cultural mash makes for a rich culinary landscape that borrows ingredients and techniques from both northern Europe and France. With that, Brussels (the country's largest urban center) may be one of the most underrated (and…

While the end of the government shutdown has been big news, a huge beer story broke yesterday, so we'll turn our attention to that. Belgium’s Duvel Moortgat, makers of the famous Duvel beer, has acquired Boulevard Brewing from Kansas City, MO. With an estimated value of $100 million, Boulevard is the most expensive acquisition of…

Many craft breweries have sustainability down, but a select few take it a step further, producing their beer organically. Organic craft beer is an industry on the rise; it’s grown by more than $30 million in the last decade. There’s even a North American Organic Brewers Festival in Portland, Oregon. The benefits are clear: it’s…

We recently interviewed Belgian chef Bart Vandaele about his plans to open a second restaurant in Washington, D.C. Being that he hails from one of the world’s leading beer producing countries, the chef is an expert in the field, often utilizing beer in his cooking. With spring craft beer seasonals just around the corner, we…

“Belgians need to stand up and say that the B stands for being the best!” says proud native chef Bart Vandaele. The former contestant on Season 10 of Top Chef attended culinary school at age 12, learning skills that would lead him to a stint in Belgium’s two Michelin-starred Restaurant Scholteshof and the role of…

Raise up your chalice, it’s time for a toast! Today marks the second annual Coast to Coast Toast, a celebration of the greatness that is Belgian beer. Belgium is much more than the place that brought us waffles and fries; it’s the Bordeaux of beer. It’s not uncommon for Belgophiles to make almost religious pilgrimages…

During Oktoberfest, a lot of emphasis is placed on sausage. And rightfully so: it's one of the most amazing pairings in the history of food and booze. But there's no beer in sausage. There's sausage cooked in beer, which is a wonderful thing. But I can't think of a sausage that uses beer as an…

I took my first sip of beer on a hot summer night. I was about 11 years old, at a Cincinnati Reds baseball game with my dad. A vendor shuffled near, hawking some variety of mass-produced suds, maybe Bud. My father extended an index finger. The vendor poured him a cup of something cold and…

Visiting Portland, Oregon, and not drinking beer is like hitting a steakhouse and only ordering a salad. The city is America’s craft brew Mecca, lousy with loads of top-flight breweries and bars flying against mainstream beer. In Portland, Bud is a four-letter word. So imagine my surprise when I read Food Republic colleague Matt Rodbard’s…

Moules frites is a serious classic in Belgian and French bistros, and for good reason: Mussels and crispy fries go together like chicken and grits, spaghetti and meatballs, ebony and ivory — well, you get the idea.The moules part — the mussels — are easy to make. The key is to clean these bivalves thoroughly.…

Summer has arrived as suddenly as a face slap, bringing with it sun, humidity, and this maddening question from bartenders: “Would you like a lemon with your wheat beer?” As always, the answer is no. Whether you’re drinking a spiced Belgian-style witbier such as Hoegaarden or Allagash White, or a cloudy, unfiltered hefeweizen hailing from…

I must make a confession: I’m in love with lambics. While bitter IPAs were my first craft-beer crush, I’ve lately turned my affections to the family of spontaneously fermented sour Belgian suds. To me, lambics’ pucker is pure pleasure. The tartness enlivens my taste buds, shocking them into attention—without bashing them into submission with too…