Hi,
Time for an article about a great trip to the Payottenland.
A day-trip organized by the local Bruges' Autonomous Beer Tasters.
About 30 people were present.
Also the BBB participated that great intitiative, and captured things for your enjoyment.

First address: Brewery Den Herberg

               Brewery Den Herberg - O. De Kerckhove D’ Exaerdestraat 16 - 1501 Buizingen

Brewery Den Herbeg is raised in 2008, so quite a new brewery.
Firsty mentioned here on the Belgian Beer Board inside article: Belgian Beer Pub Map Update dd 13 Feb. 2008

This is my first visit, and it may be said, this was a great visit, which already gave some great quality beers!

The beautiful, and clean looking, brewing installation.
Everything is hand-made by brewmaster Bart Devillé. A great job!

Brewmaster Bart Devillé, and BAB member Tony Dauwens, who organized the trip.
Tony has done a tremendous job with this day-trip to the Payottenland.
A really fantastic choice of addresses has been selected. This has been done with knowledge and sense of timing, which made it a  true joy to have participated. A day to remember. Tony, GREAT job!
Note that Tony also occupies with the Bruges' Beer Fest website (www.brugsbierfestival.be).
He's the guy who does the updates, and most important, the construction of the beer list / breweries-beer firms list on that website.

Brewmaster Bart Devillé gave all the details about his new brewery, and this with all the information we wanted to hear.
The picture shows the small electronic brew-steering box (how would you call this in English?), hanging on the wall. Makes the life of a brewmaster much easier.

Brewery Den Herberg has 4 beers on offer.
Notice the magnifying glass on some pictures. You can click for big.
Additional, they also brew that hoppy house beer Sodalitas for beer pub/restaurant De Heeren van Liedekercke (www.heerenvanliedekercke.be).
This was previously done at Kerkom, but these days here at this brewery.
Sodalitas is a 7.0 vol% blond and hoppy beer beauty brewed with local hops from Aalst.
A must-try when hitting Liedekercke.

The complete beer menu. Great choice of about 45 beers, including some local Oude Gueuze.

All beers from Den Herberg were tasted, and greatly approved.
Their four beers are about 5 to 6 vol% strong. Indeed not that strong, but the flavours are so amazing.
Pure natural products here, brewed on an artisanal way with a good dose of fresh hops, and this can be tasted ofcourse.
The picture shows the Den Herberg Blond at 5.2 vol%, poured from tap.
A most refreshing hoppy beer this is. Look at that foam.... its' damn amazing !

At noon, we headed towards Boelekewis for lunch. (www.boelekewis.be)
Boelekewis is located in the Senne valley on the border of the Payottenland.
A place which is a www.beerpubmap.be entry more than worthy.
A tavern specialized in offering an amazing choice (40+) of local spontaneous fermented beers !

For instance this Oud Beersel Lambic.
Flat, wild-yeasty, and surprsingly not that sour!
A great local beer to start with.

Hanssens Oude Gueuze, paired with that famous farmers bread with white cheese (we say platte kaas) and seasoned with radish and chive. A delicacy.

Later on we moved to café De Kring in Lembeek which sports a 70 beers, and is also a beer pub map entry.
Geuze Mariage Parfait was tasted along with other tastings.
Interesting to notice that this Oude Gueuze is 8 vol% strong, which is quite strong for this type of beer style.

A great visit to brewery Boon was scheduled.
This always gives great shots. For instance the big lagering room, with those big barrels containing different aged Lambic.

We ended at 3Fonteinen.
Our guide was Guido Debelder (brother of brewmaster 3Fonteinen Armand Debelder)
Brewing is not done anymore over there, and this due to that catastrophic accident, that happened last year
See: 100,000 bottles of gueuze destroyed at Drie Fonteinen

Good to see that blending is still the main occupation these days.

Guido gave us a tremendous guidance with a lot of passion and love for the product.
For instance this Oude Gueuze pouring ritual:

Note that Guido Debelder runs the restaurant that is located next door.
Later that evening we had some truely excellent beer cuisine at Guido's restaurant.
For instance this dish of veal olive. We call this 'blinde vinken' (blind finches).
Here in Bruges we say "vogels zonder kop" (birds without head). Yes, really.....
Anyway, great beer cuisine made with their local Oude Gueuze, vastly - deliciously - present in the sauce.
I paired with a dry-hopped Beersel lager, a bottom fermented hoppy beauty, specially made for 3Fonteinen at the 'Proef'brewery. A perfect beer to pair with food.

Well, that's a bit of what we enjoyed that day.
A full report with much more pictures can be seen when clicking the picture here above or just click here...

Cheers,
Filip

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