So here's how I'll do it... first the best of it. Then the also-rans.
BREWERY VISIT - The Best: Straffe Hendrick, Quadruppel, from the Brewery Halve Maan (half moon), 11%
I tried like fucking hell to mentally teleport Loog or Derris here by sheer willpower, I really did. If it were possible, I would’ve done it. My god man. You could just smell the cooking wort right over the wall, you sat under the vats in a lush courtyard, and you get to drink maybe the best Belgian beers I’ve ever had. I had the dubbel Straffe at the belgian beer fest last time in Boston, so I know of them. But the quad was fresh, cool, and perfect. This was my pick. Top dog.



And speaking of Brewery Halve Maan, their “blonde” (because they follow that classic 4 format, so they make one) is actually branded as a local beer for Brugge, the city where the brewery is. It’s called
Brugse Zot, and it is goddamn GOOD.

Honest to god I didn’t know they were linked, and I had the Zot first – I had one sip and looked at First Mate and said “whoa, this is not like everything else. Something’s up here, this is
really good.” Turns out there was a reason. This is the best brewery here that I had anything from. These guys have it Nailed. Down. Tight.
BREWERY VISIT - Brewery De Prael (Amsterdam) – Dubbel Blonde, 7%

Found this brewery in Amsterdam, and it was the best of the 2 I visited there. Sadly I only got a chance to have this one beer, but when you’re traveling with family, them’s the breaks. This was cloudy, sweetish, complex, packed a good hit, and got me really interested in having more… which I can’t. They’re pretty small, and I never saw their shit for sale anywhere else. Fuck me. These guys showed promise. It didn’t taste like the “classic 4” you see everywhere else, the Blonde, Dubbel, Trippel, Quadruppel. Next time.
BREWERY VISIT - Brewery t’Ij (pronouced “t’ EYE”)

I was chatting up my waitress one day in A’Dam telling her about my beer lust, and she tipped me off to another brewery nearby in a windmill. She showed me these three bottles on the wall behind the bar (“come back here and check them out!”)…

…pulled out a laptop, showed us the map, and off we went.


I have to say, getting these beers found and tasted is not simple with a wife who can’t drink beer and a 2 year old girl in tow, but it was so well worth the effort. SO worth it. Fuck. These were really good beers.
Achel – Blonde
The craft beer bar guy was telling me that there are only 7(?) real, commercialized trappist monesteries making beer. The rest are breweries that name themselves after local monesteries. This is one of the legit ones. I’m not just saying this because of the back story, but I swear to jebus
this was the best bottle I had, other than the Hendrick Quad. I almost can’t describe it. It mean, it’s a blonde, and you can sort of imagine what it was like, but it was… different. More spice, more layers, and the yeast was different. It was not like the rest of them. I never saw another one or I would’ve had these with every meal. Incredible. This was what I was hoping to find on this trip. If you can find it, stab/rape/pilliage to get it. Really really great beer.
Orval – Trappist
This is maybe number 2 or 3 on the list, it was very very fucking good. On the sweeter side but not too much so. Went great with a giant bucket of fresh mussels. If you can find this, buy it.
Augustin – Blonde, about 7%
Had this after a LONG day of biking, on the windowsill of an over-priced hotel in Brugge looking at a canal. I recall it being hoppy, but little else, because I downed this fucker in about 90 seconds.
I forget which brewery does this – Gentse Tripel
Whatever brewery is right outside Gent does this and brands it for the city, “Gent tripel” essentially. It was ok, I don’t recall much about it. I thought it was Green’s Brewery, who does the gluten free beers, but then I later thought maybe not. I was told whatever brewery it is is in the midst of expanding so the tours and tasting are closed.
Gandavum – Mamalekker
Another small local brewery does this one for this craft beer bar (!) we went to a few times in Gent. The name means “breast drinker/licker.” The story in town is that a guy was sentenced to starve to death in public, and got shackled up in the square. To keep him alive, every night his daughter would sneak up and breast feed him. The beer tasted better than boobymilk (I would imagine), but the vessel it was in was less fun to hang onto.
Ciney – Tripel
Never seen these guys stateside, and it was very good, if still directly in line with the classic 4 formula. Malty, big, strooooong kick, great body, I’ll have 3 more please and then a cot and a pillow.
Steen Brugge – Tripel
Ie, “stone bridge.” This one also stood out, in that I cannot get it here, and that it was good / different. It’s sharper, a little hoppier and more spicey than other more malty, sweet tripels. Great shit to find at a bike/kid friendly café in the middel of motherfucking Nowhere along the bike paths. The next 2 customers who stopped in came in on 2 massive black farm horses. Srsly.
Grimbergen
Another one at the kid-friendly café (well shit there were like 5 places like that but this one was massive, 2 trampolines, a ball pit with slide, apple trees to pick, etc). I’d seen Grimbergen all over, but finally had one here. For a thick heavy beer, it’s very sunny and sweet.
Leffe – Radieuse
You know what goes well with this red beer from Leffe? Hand-made Brugge chocolate, a happy/tipsy wife, and a sleeping daughter. Man what a great fucking trip this was.
5 beers I had in my room over the course of 3 days
I hit up a store and grabbed everything I hadn’t had yet.
Hi, do you take amex, and do you ship? Also do you have a kleenex or maybe an old sock or something?

And then there’s the ones you probably already know...








And the light / forgettables:Bintang – The kind of light shit they have at the Indonesian Rijstaffel joint
Zzzzzzzz
Wieckse – Wittbier
A witt I can’t find here. Tasted just like everyone else’s. They do witts here instead of german weizens, I guess, to fill that –other- taste range of sweeter, lighter beers.
Hertog Jan – Lentebock
This is sorta like the Sam Adams of that area, I guess. They don’t do the classic 4, they’re mid-tier, the beer is malty and ok. Big difference is that “normal” alc % over here is like 7%. Lighter stuff has 6%.
Gull – Icelandic lager
On the flight there, via Iceland Air, I had several of these courtesy of the “Economy Comfort” tickets that got us bumped up into 1st class. “You don’t have to ask, you can just keep ‘em coming.” Thin, clean, german style boring blah blah. It’s “beer.”
Jupiler – Swill
This is the Bud of the Netherlands. Avoid it unless you’re looking for something incredibly light and flavorless. This is beer for people who don’t actually like beer. But it was free. And they didn’t have anything else in the first class lounge at A’Dam, somehow.
Hertog Jan – Lager
I needed something light for the 4th of the evening, and this was it. Light enough, in fact to have more than one. -shrug-