Black Beer Tour II

Wednesday 06 September 2023 - Sunday 10 September 2023

A tasty Hommelbier.

We are based in Chelmsford in Essex and we use Le Shuttle (Eurotunnel) from Folkestone to get to and from Belgium in our UK hired coach. Most of our Travellers join the Tour at our main pick up point outside The Woolpack Pub, 23 Mildmay Road, Chelmsford CM2 0DN and most come from other parts of the UK, and some from further afield, especially USA. Lots of our Travellers stay the night before a Tour (and often the night of our return) at Chelmsford Travelodge only a few minutes walk from The Woolpack or at the Premier Inn near the Railway Station, about a 10 minute walk to the pick up point at The Woolpack. We all usually pop in to The Woolpack the night before departure for a meet, greet and a few beers with Siobhan who is your Tour Manager, Tour Guide and drinking pal for the duration.

Our Galloways luxury coach (49 seater coach with toilet) starts from Suffolk and on the way to Folkestone (or occasionally Dover) picks up at several points, as agreed with Siobhan, as below:

Ipswich, Bus Stop, Tesco Store, Pinewood, Ipswich IP8 3TS.

Colchester, McDonald's, Tollgate West, Stanway, Colchester C03 8RG

Chelmsford, The Woolpack, 23 Mildmay Road, CM2 0DN.

Dartford, BP Garage (formerly Esso) 474 Princes Road, DA1 1YT. On the return leg we drop off at Dartford Railway Station DA1 1DR

Swanley, Unit 4, Moreton Industrial Estate, London Road, BR8 8DE.

Ashford, pull in Outside Dobbies Garden Centre, Opposite Premier Inn, Ashford Eureka Leisure Park, Rutherford Road, Ashford, Kent, TN25 4BN.

Folkestone, Shell Garage, Stop 24 Services, J11, M20, Kent, CT21 4BL.

Arabier from De Dolle Brouwers, Esen.

The final detailed and timed itinerary is posted below. If you would like to join us please send Siobhan an email or call on +44 (0) 7722 724 558 for details on how to secure a place and pay the £140pp deposit for this Tour, or if you have any questions about this Tour. Should your plans change, we are happy to return your deposit to you in full provided the date of the return request is more than six weeks before the departure date of the Tour.

Day 1 - Wednesday 06 September 2023

05.00hr Coach pick up The Woolpack, Mildmay Road, Chelmsford CM2 0DN.

06.45hr Coach pick up at Shell Garage, Stop 24 Services, J11, M20, Kent, CT21 4BL.

07.00hr Arrive Le Shuttle (Eurotunnel), Folkestone.

08.50hr Le Shuttle (Eurotunnel) Train Crossing from Folkestone.

10.30hr Arrive Calais.

11.45hr Our first call is at the excellent beer cafe 'Hof Van Hemel in the pretty town of Veurne. They have a superb beer list in a historic building next to where Marie Curie worked with X-Rays in the First Word War. We'll have an aperifif beer here and then proceed the short distance on foot to:

13.00hr Lunch stop at the Flandria Cafe Restaurant in the town of Veurne. This is a historical café in front of the St Walburga Church and on the prettiest town square in West Flanders. We’ll have a meal here and a beer (or two).

15.15hr Leave Flandria in Veurne.

15.45hr We are paying a first-time visit to one of Belgium’s quirky museums, the Automuseum Old Timer Bossaert in Reninge. Officially in the EU a vehicle which was registered at least 30 years ago is an old timer. This place has been here for years and contains a unique collection of 95 old-timers from 1899 to the 1970s plus about twenty old motorcycles. They have old timer memorabilia, advertising and …wait for it… an old oil can collection! The oldest car in the collection is a red 1899 Decauville. In terms of Belgian cars they have a 1930 Minerva and the Minerva Jeep of Prince Karel of Belgium (1903-1983). They have classic/vintage BMW, Mercedes, Pierce Arrow, Rolls Royce 1935, Jaguar XK 140, Buick 1908, Unic 1912, NSU-FIAT 1936, Maico 1957 and a 1963 Corvette. They have some militaria including a 1946 Aeronca Reconnaissance Plane. Best of all they have a comfy café offering over 30 local beers, so we can have a bit of a sit down. Should you need anything whilst you are away, the same owners have, next-door, the following: “a Shopping Center of 6,000 m² where you can find EVERYTHING for EVERYONE: furniture, kitchens, textiles, shoes, toys, school and office items, lighting, tools, garden furniture, perfumery, DIY items, car supplies, household appliances and household items, maintenance products, gift and fantasy items, fishing equipment, garden tools, lawn machine, bicycles...”. Well, that’s comprehensive.

18.00hr Leave the Automuseum Old Timer Bossaert in Reninge.

18.15hr Check in at our hotel the Oude Abdij in Lo, our base for the next four nights. This was the site of an abbey and later home of the once the thriving St Louis Brewery which closed in the 1960s. There is a beautiful stained-glass window above a doorway near the bar incorporating the brewery’s name. The huge dove cot in the hotel grounds is a relic from the old monastery buildings. We will have an evening meal at the hotel and the rest of the evening is at leisure in the hotel’s well-stocked bar, or there are a couple of little bars in the village if you are still thirsty. Hoppecruyt

Hop Harvest at Hoppcruyt in Proven, West Flanders.

Day 2 - Thursday 07 September 2023

10.00hr After breakfast depart Hotel by coach.

10.30hr Pay a visit to Belgium’s National Hop Museum in Poperinge which is the centre of the traditional Flemish hop-growing district. This town was always behind allied lines in the First World War and always packed with thousands of soldiers going up and down the line and back home on leave from the train station here. We will have a tour around the National Hop Museum* and after the tour we can relax with a Poperings Hommelbier* in their tasting café which is brewed by Leroy Brewery in Boesinghe (formerly known as Van Eecke Brewery). This beer was conceived in 1981 for the Poperinge Hop Festival held every three years and is made with local hops. In those days this was considered a very hoppy beer, but now with the advent of a plethora of Belgian, and especially American IPAs it is not so noticeably bitter!

12.30hr Leave Poperinge Hop Museum.

12.45hr Arrive at Brasserie Restaurant De Rare Vos in Loker for a meal and a beer or two from their well-picked list of 35 or so. The ‘Curious Fox’ is a popular name for a pub in Belgium. This one offers local Flemish cuisine and a beer list which includes my favourite – Saison Dupont, plus some local St Bernardus beers, 3 Monts, Caracole from Wallonia and Boon Oude Geuze.

14.40hr Leave De Rare Vos in Loker.

15.00hr Arrive Hoppecruyt Hop Farm in the village of Proven owned and run by the Desmyter family since 1893. Here we will have a tour* by the owners of the farm during its busiest time of the year at hop picking season, plus a special beer tasting* in their tasting room on the farm. They have available three Single Hop Beers brewed at Proef brewery for them being Saphir, Spalter Select and Perle from hops grown on this farm. The current owners are Wout and Bendedikte, who often regales visitors with tunes on her Flemish accordion. They farm ecologically by focusing on carbon farming, mechanical weed control, integrated crop protection, agroforestry and solar energy. All hops are picked, dried, processed and packed in house within 24 hours, from hop flowers to pellets. They also have a herd of Dutch Zwartbles black sheep and let them in to the hop fields for much of June and July and again in October and November to graze on the weeds and hopleaves. They also sell their lambs here too.

16.45hr Leave Hoppecruyt Hop Farm & Tasting room.

17.15hr Arrive in the immortal city of Ypres. Free time for something to eat, chocolate shopping and a beer or two. Travellers will be armed with a copy of Podge’s Ypres Bar Guide and map*. I suggest finishing up with a visit to the wonderful Kaffee Bazaar which is owned by Black Beer Nut Joeri and his wife Nancy. They stock heaps of Belgian Black beers, plus lots from respected dark brewers elsewhere in Europe, Scandinavia and especially the Omnipollo Brewery in Sweden. We will drop off and pick up at the same point near the Menin Gate. You can also take in the moving last post ceremony at the Menin Gate, performed by buglers from the local Fire Brigade at 20.00hrs each night. This is an imposing memorial gateway inscribed with the names of more than 54,896 men whose have no known grave and who died in the Ypres salient in the First World War up to 16 August 1917.

20.30hr Leave Ypres.

21.00hr Arrive back at Hotel Oude Abdij in Lo.

Sint Sixtus Westvleteren

Westvleteren Blond 5.8% (Siobhan's fav) at In de Vrede, Sint Sixtus, Westvleteren.

Day 3 - Friday 08 September 2023

09.45hr Leave Oude Abdij Hotel in Lo by coach.

10.15hr Arrive at the Belhop Farm just west of Poperinge. Hop growing has been traditional for hundreds of years in this area, and numbers of hop farms have reduced, but this is a farm which has been in the hands of the Boeraeve family for 5 generations, since 1903. The young current owner is passionate about quality hop growing for beer. They currently have 8 hectares of hops, both aroma hops (Goldings, Cascade, Fuggles and Centennial) and bitter varieties (Target and Magnum). The mild maritime climate and the Poperinge sandy loam soil give the hops a unique taste which can be detected in the beers brewed with these hops. We will have a visit here* and they like to take you into the hop field, the hop barn and we can taste their home grown hops in their house beer Saison Lokaal* which they describe as an aperitif beer made with 100% Belhop hops. Look out for the Belgian Hop logo which can be used on beer labels where the beer is made with Belgian hops. In order to promote and showcase Belgian hops, the logo was created in September 2011 at the annual “Lekker Westhoeks” festival. The main condition for this use is that at least half of the hops used for that beer are of Belgian origin. In January 2017 a variant of the logo coloured gold was created only to be used where the beer is brewed with 100% Belgian hops. Also from 2017 Belgian hop growers signed up to quality conditions which allow them also to use the "Belgian hops" logo to commercialize and promote their hops.

11.45hr Leave Belhop Farm in Poperinge.

12.15hr Arrive at Wijndomein Entre-Deux-Monts in Heuvelland – which translates as the ‘hilly land’ and the vineyard name translates as ‘between two hills’. The vineyard is planted between the Red Hill and the Black Hill. The owners chose a French name for a Belgian vineyard partly because they are close to the French border and partly because as they say ‘we don’t wish to hide our ambition to become as indisputable as the top wines of France – the wine country par excellence’. Martin Bacquaert is the current owner, who inherited the land from his grandfather and the vineyard business from his father. Martin is a bioengineer and has a master’s degree in viticulture and oenology in France. He and his father planted their first vines in 2004, the first harvest was 2008 and the grapes were of excellent quality. The cool climate is perfect for making sparkling wines. The wine estate extends for 18 hectares, employs just 5 people and they produce around 100,000 bottles per year, sparkling, white, red, and fortified wines. So, we’ll have a Tour* and a little tasting* here.

14.00hr Leave Wijndomein Entre-Deux-Monts.

14.15hr Arrive at the Heksestoel in Loker. This is a lovely Flemish cafe with wooden floors and a crackling wood stove. It was an estaminet during the First World War, popular with the Irish troops billeted near here, and attracted by their young female piano player. There are 68 beers on menu including a good tap range including St. Bernardus Triple, Hommelbier, Trois Monts, Que de charrue Triple and a changing guest. They are Trappist (La Trappe) Gouverneurs, which means they serve Trappist beers well and you can expect a few of these here. We will have a meal and a beer or two here.

16.15hr Leave the Heksestoel in Loker.

16.35hr Arrive at the café Au Nouveau Eloi in Watou. This lovely rural café is situated on the road that forms the border with France – the café is on the Belgian side! It is a huge place and full of old agricultural implements, a coffee grinder collection and general picturesque stuff. They have loads of local Flemish games to play which often involve throwing things and best of all a beer menu of 190 well picked beers. Great place.

18.30hr Leave Au Nouveau Eloi in Watou.

19.00hr Return to Hotel Oude Abdij in Lo. Hoppecruyt Hop Farm Proven 2014

Hoppecruyt Hop picking September 2014.

Day 4 - Saturday 09 September 2023

10.00hr Depart by coach from Hotel.

10.50hr Call in at Vanuxeem Beer Warehouse in Comines-Warneton. This is a big place with loads of bottled beer at good prices, so we’ll pay a visit for an opportunity to take some of your favourite beers home.

12.00hr Leave Vanuxeem Beer Warehouse in Comines-Warneton.

12.15hr Arrive at Café Boutique in the picturesque village of Kemmel. This area is popular with cyclists because of the hills and this café is popular with cyclists because of the beer. Like many cafes near the border it offers homemade picon. They have 50 beers with some unusual (good) choices including Anosteke, Plukker, De Dolle & Klootzakske (Meester) beers with the rude labels. Also offer the cyclists' favourite beers Kwaremont and Vélo. Lovely rear terrace garden. The owner Pieter is a cyclist and racing fan. TV screen showing all the races. Cycling memorabilia on the walls and bike caps on the ceiling. We will have a beer here and for those who wish to, I can walk you round the corner to see the 15 Million Year Old ‘Original’ Stone. Some years ago three huge ancient stones were uncovered on the Kemmelberg and the only person who had a truck to transport them was the local coal merchant, Oswald. He transported the stones to the village and one had been in his garden for years. The municipality recently purchased the original stone which is now outside the visitor centre in Kemmel. There was a Celtic fortress here on the Kemmelberg between 500 and 250 BC and perhaps those three large primordial stones formed a dolmen, a kind of prehistoric burial chamber. The local tourism office wants to showcase these stones and have been asking people who have primal stones in their gardens to contact them!

13.50hr Leave Café Boutique in Kemmel.

14.15hr Pay a visit to the best café in West Flanders, the beautiful Cafe ‘t Molenhof in Oostvleteren. The café has an impressive beer menu of over 120 choices including a huge range of beers from De Struise Brouwers across the road, usually a dozen or so on tap and some real rarities too. Beautiful traditional interior run by the fabulous beer expert Bjorn & chef Pascal. So, we’ll stop here for a meal and a beer, then.

16.15hr Leave ‘t Molenhof in Oostvleteren.

16.20hr Call in at Deca Brewery in Woesten for a visit to their new tasting room at the brewery and we will have a beer tasting*. The current brewery was rebuilt in 1920 after the old one was destroyed in the First World War. The brewery has been run by the Christiaens family for the past five generations, and the sixth generation in the form of twin boys made an appearance in 2020. All generations called their first son Georges, and the current brewer/owner is known by his middle name Nicolas, but is really called Georges. His father built breweries in Africa and bought Deca brewery to show his African customers a small-scale brewery in action, but took over himself here in 1991 beginning the Vleteren and Antiek range of beers. I remember these on visits here on early Tours, the labels featuring a cartoon of a barrel and a lounging, toga-ed Roman. The dark beers to look out for are the Vleteren Alt 8%abv, the Vleteren 8 Bruin and Vleteren 12 Bruin both aged for one year in oak barrels. Quality beers here, lovely family. They have a shop where you can also buy their range of beers. Here we will have a little tour and a beer tasting*.

17.50hr Leave Deca Brewery in Woesten.

18.00hr Arrive at Sint Sixtus Abbey at Westvleteren where the monks still brew in the monastery and we will call in at In de Vrede (Peace) café attached to the monastery where we can sample their world famous beers. This place has been internationally renowned for years and the monks only brew a small quantity each year, but things went stratospheric in 2005 when website Ratebeer ranked the Westvleteren 12 as the ‘best beer in the world’. Our friends across the water in America went nuts for this beer, but the monks refused to brew on a commercial scale. You can try it here, in its place of origin. The Trappist Abbey of Saint Sixtus in Vleteren was founded here in 1831. They brew three beers, all in bottles, never on draught, two of which are dark and the top one, the Westvleteren 12 (sometimes known as the Flemish Burgundy) is considered by many to be the best beer in the world. These beers never had labels, just a coloured crown cap, but last year acquired an unobtrusive label. You might be able to buy a limited number of bottles (12, I think) from the shop, but you never know which one will be available.

19.45hr Leave In de Vrede, Sint Sixtus Abbey at Westvleteren.

20.00hr Arrive at Hotel Oude Abdij in Lo.

Podge Bourgogne Barrel Oak Aged Beer

Podge Bourgogne Barrel Oak Aged Beer, from Alvinne Brewery.

Day 5- Sunday 10 September 2023

10.00hr Check out and depart from Hotel.

10.30hr Arrive at the lovely cafe Estaminet de Peerdevisscher attached to the National Fishing Museum in Koksijde. This is a pretty traditional single story whitewashed building with green wooden shutters. The owners, both male and female are third generation Peerdevisschers, which are the unique horse fishermen who specialise in these parts by fishing for North Sea Brown Shrimps whilst mounted on a sturdy specially trained horse which ploughs majestically through the sea water. The inside is as lovely as the outdoor terrace and they serve around 30 beers including Rodenbach on draft, two house beers being the ‘n Peerdevisscher (a brown beer) and the ‘n Roaten, a blonde beer. They also serve in bottles the excellent Rodenbach Grand Cru, Hanssens Oude Geuze (one of the best lambic beers out there) and a good price here! They also offer Omer, Rochefort 8, Three St Bernardus beers, La Chouffe, Fourchette and a new beer called Zeevonk (Zoo-Plankton) which is a blonde beer made for the Belgian coast, the brainchild of two passionate amateur brewers. Apparently part of the profits from the sale of the beer goes to the Clean Beach association ‘Proper Strand Lopers’. So better have one of them, then. We’ll stop here for a brief breath of sea air and a beer. Dried fish and herring available.

11.45hr Leave Estaminet de Peerdevisscher in Koksijde.

12.00hr Arrive at Sint Idesbald Brewery in Koksijde. St Idesbald is a village within Koksijde, named after a 12th century Cistercian monk and abbot of Ten Duinen Abbey (The Dunes Abbey), the ruins of which are just north of this site. We are visiting Ten Bogaerde domain which was one of 25 abbey-owned farms supporting the monks at the height of their power. The site we are visiting has a church which is now a cultural centre, but we will be going to the former monastery piggeries which have been recently converted into a brewery and tasting hall with a lovely terrace with views over the Ten Bogaerde domain. The brewery was built by Huyghe Brewery (who brew the Delirium Tremens beers). Apparently they are hoping to sow 2.5 hectares of summer barley here on the Ten Bogaerde estate, which will be used in the brewing.

13.15hr Leave Sint Idesbald Brewery in Koksijde.

13.40hr Arrive at the Hof van Commerce in Stavele. Found on the small bridge over the infamous River Ijzer. This place is amazing. It is an old butchers shop now a café restaurant and is furnished in old West Flemish style, complete with vintage underwear hanging up, as if drying. The interior is beautiful, with the original painted shop/bar counter and authentic old world charm. It is famous for its breughelbuffets and the larger than life landlady called Iris. We will partake of their buffet here and wash it down with a beer from their small but perfectly formed list which offers Sint Bernardus beers and those brewed for Vanuxeem.

16.00hr Leave Hof Van Commerce in Stavele.

16.30hr Arrive Veurne Railway Station, Statieplaats, Veurne.

17.20hr Arrive Le Shuttle (Eurotunnel).

18.50hr Leave Calais on Le Shuttle (Eurotunnel) train. (To Be Confirmed).

18.30hr Arrive Folkestone.

18.45hr Coach drop at Shell Garage, Stop 24 Services, J11, M20, Kent, CT21 4BL.

20.00hr Coach drop off Dartford Railway Station DA1 1BP.

20.45hr Coach drop Junction of Lady Lane & Mildmay Road, Chelmsford CM2 0EA.

21.00hr Coach drop Travelodge Hotel, 128-136 Parkway, Chelmsford CM2 7GY.

21.15hr Coach drop Premier Inn Victoria Road, Chelmsford CM1 1NY.