This post is a continuation of the 2015 New Beer Every Day Beer Diary Challenge, #ottbeerdiary. Over the course of 2015, I drank at least one new beer every day. Please read the background in the link above, and enjoy reading about the most recently tasted beers below. This year I may deviate from the diary format in some posts, hoping to concentrate more on the locations and the breweries I am enjoying. If you’d like to join the challenge as well, let me know in the comments below. You can catch up on all of our posts as part of the challenge under the tag ottbeerdiary.
Day 368: January 3, 2016
Diary entry:
Imagine my surprise when I picked up my brother at the airport on Wednesday and he informed me he had never been to Belgium before!
We made it a point to rectify that today, with the intent to combine some beer, some food, and some Christmas market in one single visit.
One great thing about the Brussels Christmas market is that it extends beyond Christmas, ending on the first weekend after New Year’s, this year being January 3. Which was perfect!
After a breakfast of poffertjes at home, we did a brief walking tour of the thriving metropolis of Boxtel, where I call home, and then made the drive down to Brussels to get in as much walking tour and Christmas market before the sun went down the clouds opened up (yeah, rain in the forecast. Yay!)
Unfortunately, Cantillon is closed on Sundays, so we only did a quick drive-by there, and then down to Dansaert, near the Brussels Beer Project, to park and walk to the markets.
I was pleased to see that all the booths were still open…no one seemed to have closed shop early, being the last day with bad weather forecast. Score one for us!
We got some Gluhwein and Tartiflette Savoyarde, my favorite Belgian/French Christmas market snack, and then began some sightseeing and beer tourism.
We popped into Delirium Cafe, since it wasn’t yet overly crowded and it was on the tourist route, with the Janneke Pis and all, and sampled the Delirium Tremens and Delirium Nocturnum on draft.
And then we continued on to sightsee the royal palace area before heading back down to the Grand Place. I was surprised to find out this morning that I never purchased a hat from the Hard Rock Cafe in Brussels! I just didn’t realize that the cafe opened a few years after I started going into the city, and I just never popped in for a hat when it did! An of course…they were sold out of hats! Something for the next journey.
Continuing on, we popped for a Belgian Waffle at my favorite shop near the Mannekin Pis, and then ventured down to Moeder Lambic so my brother could try some beers from Cantillon. I tried a saison from BFM (See below) and a smoked beer from De Dochter van de Korenaar, the Bravoure, a 6.5% smoked beer. Definitely not Bamberg style. Some smokiness, but not in the rich, bacony way. More bitter base. But pretty good!
With the beer out of the way, and a hotel booked for my brother so I wouldn’t have to drive back to Brussels in the morning to drop him at the airport, we went on a mission for Frites.
First stop: Fritland, next to the Bourse. These sometimes make the list for best fries in town, but mainly because they do happen to be one of the better places directly in the center, while most of the “best” frites stands are located in the more outlying regions of the city. The fries are good here, but perhaps a bit “old-greasy”. But servicable during a night at the beer bars in the Brussels Center.
Our second stop, however, was a driving detour on the way to the hotel, at Frit Flagey in the Place Flagey of Ixxles. A no-frills frit shack, this was my first time trying this location, and I was not disappointed! They were delicious, even if we did have to eat them in the car to stay out of the pouring rain!
The Beer:
Name: √225 Saison
Style: Saison
Producer: BFM (Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes)
Alcohol content: 5%
Bottle size: 0.25 l draft
Purchased from: Moeder Lambic Fontainas in Brussels, Belgium
√225 Saison by BFM (Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes). A pleasant surprise. Nice sour and fruity balanced beer. Delicious! According to BFM, the √225 saison is their “house bitch” because it can be paired with almost any good meal. Slightly sour, aged in oak barrels for 4-5 months.
BFM is brewery that has impressed me with every beer of theirs that I have tried. They’re located in Saignelégier, Switzerland, in the Jura Canton, northwest of Bern.
They have an annual open visitation day of the Brewery each November, with the next BFM Brassin days scheduled for 4-5 November, 2016 and 4-5 November, 2017.
Aside from the Brassins, they do have a shop and pub open throughout the year.
The BFM Boutique is open Monday through Wednesday from 8 AM to Noon and from 1:30 PM to 5 PM. Thursday through Saturday hours are 9 AM to 12 AM with a break for lunch.
The pub, serving 8-9 BFM beers on draft and local snacks, opens at 4PM Wednesday through Saturday, closing at 8PM on Wednesday and somewhere in the vicinity of 11PM – Midnight Thursday – Saturday.
