Years ago, when
the festival was still held in Sint-Niklaas, I had already atended the
festival. I had liked it for it offered a direct contact between brewers of all
types of beer and of all size of installation and its – potential - customers,
it was great value and people could get there easily without the need to use
their proper transport, but one could tell that the event was growing beyond
Sint-Niklaas´capacities.
Since a number
of editions, the festival is held in Belgium´s unofficial beer capital,
Louvain. Louvain is not only the home town of Stella Artois and Interbrew (now
AB-Inbev), Belgium´s major industrial brewer, it is also the capital of
Belgium´s most diversified beer province (lambiek
and witbier have their origins
here, and it also has its more than fair share of producers of spéciale belge, abbey beers etc.), it
even houses the oldest brewpub in the country, Domus. …And it´s my home town as
well ;-)
Nowadays, the
festival is the start of the city´s (and province´s) beer month. A lot of
activities are organised, like beer tastings, beer-food pairings, beer walks
and also one can visit most of the microbreweries in the area. Moreover, at the
end of April and the beginning of May at the end of the lambiek brewing season, the lambiek
brewers and –stekers tend to organise
all sort of events as well (more in another post shortly). The beer month ends
this year at the end of May with another smaller scale festival, the Leuven Innovation
Beer Festival organised by Hof ten
Dormaal in the installations of the original site of Stella Artois, namely Den Hoorn. About 15 of the most
innovative craft brewers from all around the world (but mainly Europe) will be
presenting beers of theirs.
This year I had
planned to be at my parents´ place at the end of April, so I travelled a few
days before and attended the festival. Although it can be fun to attend a
festival in large groups, I prefer to go in small groups of max 3, in order to
avoid practical problems (not being able to stand all together in the crowd, to
hear what the others have to say, less occasion to talk to the brewers or to
make contact with other festival goers).
On Saturday, I
went with an old friend of mine and the Brabanthal
was packed. We queued at some places (to pay for the starters pack, to go to
the toilet, to have some food), but we deliberately went to stalls where I
didn´t know (well enough) the beer(s), and where we could easily get to the
counter. As the festival has about 100 stalls, this is certainly no problematic
task. Although some beers we tasted weren´t really to our liking (and in one
case, that of Brouwerij Weldebrouck,
I thought the beers served weren´t “ready” yet), most were solid. My personal
top3 of the day, in no specific order whatsoever : La Grognarde, a blonde hoppy
and fresh beer of 5,5% brewed by Brasserie Sainte-Hélène in Virton – Schuppenboer, a balanced tripel of 8,5%
from Hobbybrouwerij Het Nest brewed
at Brouwerij Anders in Zandhoven – Estivale, a very refreshing blonde beer
of 5,2% brewed by Brasserie Artisanale de
Rulles in Rulles. I must admit that in order to call it a day at the
festival I had an Oude Quetsche Tilquin à
l´ancienne, which I didn´t consider when writing down my top3. 
On Sunday,
through circumstances (another friend who would ´ve come along finally couldn´t
because of a close relative passing away) I went on my own, after having
followed the cycling classic of Liège-Bastogne-Liège on TV (once a Belgian,
always a Belgian indeed, not only when it concerns beers!) and I must say, it
was a lovely experience : with the festival nearing its end, one could feel the
sigh of relief being taken by a lot of volunteers that it had been a success,
as well as the brewers being more relaxed to have a chat about their beers. As
far as the brewers of Flemish-Brabant were concerned, I had the impression that
quite a few had been busy on Saturday at their brewery to show people the
installations, while they were now on duty at the festival stall. My personal
top3 of the day (again in no particular order) : Amitié, a hoppy almost spicy IPA of 7,0% from Brouwerij Hof ten Dormaal brewed at Brouwerij De Dochter van de Korenaar in Baarle-Hertog (waiting for
the brewing activities to restart at HtD after the fire of January) – Obelis
2015, a spicy saison with a dry aftertaste brewed by De Struise Brouwers in Oostvleteren – Triest IPA Dry Hopping, a
balanced IPA with mosaic dry hopping of 7,0% brewed by Brouwerij Den Triest in Kapelle-op-den-Bos. Also this day, I ended
the festival with a sure value, this time a Framboise
by Geuzestekerij De Cam.
Looking back at
this edition of the festival as another visitor, I can say that the reasons for
which I had liked the festival when it was still held at Sint-Niklaas, are
still valid. Although the Brabanthal
isn´t located in the centre of Louvain, there were free regular (every 10-15
minutes or so) shuttle buses to the railway station (and centre) of Louvain,
where the party could go on, considering the many bars and restaurants. The
festival is still really great value and details like a very detailed festival
brochure or the fact that you can hand the festival glass in at the end of the
day to get a full refund are well appreciated.
For a more in-depth evaluation I
can recommend the one given in the blog Belgian Smaak. Don´t forget to listen
to the opinion of Zythos´president. What he says about the synergy between big
and small brewers is very interesting, if you ask me…and in the nowadays boom
of craft beers we tend to forget this. http://www.belgiansmaak.com/zythos-beer-festival/
Other links : www.zdf.be – www.leuvenbierstad.be
– www.verliefdopvlaamsbrabant.be
– www.innovationbeerfestival.be
