It’s impossible not to love a country that is known almost exclusively for its waffles, chocolate, French fries and beer. Belgium beers display an almost infinite diversity in taste, styles, brewing methods, added flavors and spices as well as quality and alcohol content. Unlike their strictly regimented neighbors to the South, the Germans who adhere meticulously to a set of precise brewing standards and practices that limits the total ingredients to just 4 items, Belgians encourage vast creativity. While a German Hefeweizen will almost always have the same quality taste regardless of the brewer, Belgian beers can have flavor profiles informed from added spices like cardamom, chili pepper, cinnamon, citrus, clove, coriander…and that’s just the spices they’ll add that begin with the letter “C”. If you can imagine it the Belgians have tried to add it to their beer often with fantastic outcomes. They are truly some of the most masterful brewers on the planet.
When you think of Belgian beers, the image that immediately comes to mind is that of the brown-robed monk getting slightly tipsy off his own brew in a large ornate chalice. This image comes from the tradition of monastic brewers, monks in the church, that would often brew their own beer and sell off the excess to fund their monastery along with their charitable endeavors.
The largest known group of monks known for brewing beer are the Trappists. Officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (originally the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe), these cloistered monastics follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, a Christian order of monastic life based around a brotherhood of monks, dedicated to prayer, spiritual reading and manual labor.
These monasteries have been around for over 1500 years. Today fourteen monasteries remain, six in Belgium, two in the Netherlands, and one each in Austria, England, France, Italy, Spain and the United States. In Belgium the monasteries that still produce beer are Brouwerij Der Trappisten van Westmalle (100,000 bottles/year), Brouwerij Westvleteren/St Sixtus (4,050 bottles/year), Bières de Chimay (105,000 bottles/year), Brasserie de Rochefort (15,000 bottles/year), and Brasserie d’Orval (61,000 bottles/year).
Trappist beers are mostly top-fermented and mainly bottle conditioned. Trappist breweries use various systems of nomenclature to denote the relative strength of their beers, but the most well known and widely used is a system that refers to the beers as either Enkel/Single, Dubbel/Double, Tripel/Triple or Quadrupel/Quadruple. These terms roughly describe both the amount of malt and original gravity (relative density compared to water) of the beers.
Enkel
Enkel, which means “single”, is the term that Trappist brewers use to describe the basic recipe for their beers. Often times, though, Trappist brewers will use the term Blonde to describe their lightest beer. These light beers are refreshing and typically have relatively low alcohol content as they were intended to be consumed by the monks themselves who practice moderation in all things.
Dubbel
Dubbels are slightly stronger with an ABV of around 6-8%. These are almost exclusively brown ales with understated bitterness, slight sweetness, fruitiness and a fairly heavy body. The brown color comes from the caramelized beet sugar. Chimay, who uses a color code to denote its style of beer calls its Dubbel, Chimay Red.
Tripel
Tripels, as I’m sure you figured out by now, are slightly stronger than their Dubbel brethren with ABVs ranging from 7%-10%. But, Tripels are not dark in color like Dubbels. While they both use ample amounts of beet sugar, the sugars in Tripels are not caramelized. This un-caramelized sugar along with lightly kilned malt imparts a beautiful golden hue on these beers. Expect beers with hints of fruit flavors like apple, pear, citrus or banana along with clove and pepper notes. Chimay, who uses a color code to denote its different style of beers, calls it Tripel Chimay White.
Quadrupel
Not all Trappist breweries make Quadrupels. These are your strongest and most bitter beers with strong hops and dark complexions. Some of these beers approach ABVs that are almost wine like at 10-12%. These are basically just hopped up versions of Dubbels.
FARMHOUSE ALES
Outside of the monasteries, the farmlands of Northern France and Belgium are also well known for their beer production. Farmhouse ales like saisons and bière de garde are seasonal beers brewed by the farmers of this region.
Saison
Saison, which translates literally to “season” from French, is a beer that was born from necessity. Farmers during the harsh winter months would take excess grain left over from the previous harvest and brew it into this seasonal beer to feed their winter workforce while feeding the spent grains to their livestock.
Saison is a pale, highly carbonated and super dry beer famous for is citrus aromatics, expressive floral and peppery tastes along with an earthy happiness. Brasserie Dupont’s Saison Dupont Vieille Provision, known simply as “Saison Dupont” is considered the benchmark for that a classic saison is supposed to be.
Bière de Garde
Bière de garde, which translates to “beer for keeping,” served a similar purpose as saison. These were beers designed to be stored until the summer months when farm life is busy and brewing beer is difficult.
This beer is renowned for its heavy malt tones and its strength of flavor. There are diverse offerings within this classification raging from blonde, to amber to a true brown beer each with widely different flavor profiles. Blonde versions tend to be doughy, honey-like, and lightly caramelly, ambrée examples emphasize that caramelization, and brune versions supplement the caramel with a toasty, more dense malt complexity.
OTHER BELGIAN ALES
Belgian Blonde
Blondes are relatively light by Belgian standards with ABV around 6-8%. These beers are slightly sweet with less bitter notes than some of the others and a plethora of fruity flavor profiles. These are often made with un-caramelized beet sugar much like Tripels.
Belgian Strong Pale Ale
This is a more recent invention in the Belgian beer scene. Pioneered by the brewery Duvel (which means “Devil” in Flemish), this golden yellow beer is crisp, strong and highly carbonated. They are similar in style to Tripels as they use the same un-caramelized beet sugar in their brewing process.
Belgian Pale Ale
Despite their similarities in names Belgian Pale Ale and Belgian Strong Pale Ale have almost nothing in common. Belgian Pale Ales are very similar to English pale ales, with amber to copper complexions and a toasty malt flavor profile. They are moderately strong with ABVs around 4.5-6%
Witbier
Witbier, also known as bière blanche or white beer, is brewed with unsalted wheat, coriander and orange peel. This citrusy, refreshing beer is tart with a light body and moderate alcohol content with ABVs ranging from 4.5-5.5%.
Sour Ales
If you hate yourself and want to punish your taste buds, feel free to indulge in the rare Belgian Lambic. Originally brewed in the area around Brussels, this tart, sour concoction is a rare delicacy owing to the difficulty in its production. Often it takes many years to properly brew a Lambic. These beers are incredibly funky, full of shockingly sour flavor profiles, a byproduct of their unique production method. Lambics utilize what is called “spontaneous fermentation.” Instead of using lab-cultured yeasts and sanitized stainless steel vessels to carefully regulate the fermentation process, Lambic brewers create this funky brew by leaving it out in the open, often in wooden barrels where wild yeast and bacteria that constantly float around in the air do the job of fermenting the sugars.
SOME OF THE BEST BELGIAN BEERS
Orval Trappist Ale
Widely considered one of the best beers in the world, Orval is a proper Trappist Dubbel with tasting notes of malt, fruit and hops. It is elegant, complex and slightly funky, while also being crisp, brisk and refreshing. You can also visit the Orval Monastery which is a great stop if you are in the area. The grounds are magnificent and the beer is incredibly fresh.
Blanche De Bruxelles
This witbier is often considered Belgians best wit, with its hints of coriander and orange peel it is incredibly refreshing. It has been brewed for decades to showcase some of Belgiums best wheat harvests. This is the quintessential Belgian Wit.
Omer Traditional Blonde Ale
One of the most people beers in Belgium, this well balanced blonde beer is brewed with malted barley from the Loire region of France and three varieties of hops. It has a fruity aroma with a bit of a bite on the back end.
Saison Dupont Farmhouse Ale
This is a luscious special occasion beer that is found in large wine bottles, sealed with a cork. It has a malty sweetness with notes of orange peel and flowers with a crisp, dry finish. This is considered by many to be the best Saison in Belgium.
Westmalle Trappist Dubbel
Considered to be the gold-standard of Dubbels, the Westmalle Trappist Dubbel is a dry, crisp, dark beer with notes of chocolate, coffee and dark toffee with a hint of red fruit. You can fist Westmalle when you’re in Belgium and right across the street from the Abbey you can enjoy a glass of their finest brew at Cafe Trappisten. Here locals drink a one-to-one blend of the Westmalle Dubbel and Tripel that they refer to as Trip-Trap. It’s a delicious must have if you are ever in the region.
Tripel Karmeliet
Another special occasion beer, corked in a large wine bottle, with ABVs around 8.5%. This Tripel comes from a recipe that has survived unchanged since 1679. The heavily guarded, secret recipe combines barley, oats and wheat to give the beer a creamy texture and layered well balanced flavor profile. The beer is very effervescent, like champagne and should be enjoyed in a large glass.
St Bernardus Abt 12
This is a fantastic Quadrupel if you dare to drink one of these beasts. It is spectacularly well balanced for as strong as it is, with notes of graham cracker, toast, caramel, plums and banana. Overall, this is one of Belgium’s richest, most elegant and complex beers around.
La Chouffe Golden Ale
Bright, sweet, hoppy, with notes of honey and flowers, this golden ale is easy drinking and the perfect beer for a summer day.
Gouden Carolus Classic
A dark, rich brew that feels more like drinking a glass of burgundy than a beer. Strong flavor profile filled with malt, toffee and fig.
Brugse Straffe Hendrik
This small brewery in the center of Bruges is known for their two styles of Belgian ales, their Blond and their Bruin. Their Blond is a light and tangy pale ale, whereas the Bruin is a classic brown ale with a full body.
Chimay
Made by the Trappist monks of Forges-les-Chimay in southern Belgium, Chimay beers are widely regarded as being among the best in the world. Of the several brews they produce, these two are the most readily available, fruity and strong, deep in body, and somewhat spicy with a hint of nutmeg and thyme.
Corsendonk Pater Noster
The creation of Jef Keersmaekers, this bottled beer is easily the pick of the many Corsendonk brews. It is known for its Burgundy-brown colour and smoky bouquet.
Delirium Tremens
Incredibly popular amber ale with strong spicy notes, known for its fantastic bottle artwork which depicts the stages of alcoholism withdrawal.
Leffe Blonde
A strong malty, blonde beer that is both bright and fragrant with a slight orange aroma.