Express de Lyon

Another recommendation from Simon at Cave á Bulles.  This was actually five minutes from my hotel, and I had actually walked past it without giving it a second glass glance.
As location is everything in a city like Paris, the street right in front of the Gare de Lyon is filled with brasseries serving food and [...]

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Paris – Au Trappiste

One advantage of France is that it’s close to Belgium. (Most French would raise their eyebrows, and many Belgians would point out that its misfortune is that it’s close to France. But there you go). Beerwise, that is.
This means that the logistics of importing Belgian beers should be easy. In fact there is no excuse [...]

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Festival time

The White Horse on Parson’s Green, London, has a Belgian beer festival starting today. 15 Belgian Cask ales. They promise:
• Pure unfiltered lambic in cask from the Oud Beersel and Bockor breweries.
• Alvinne Podge Stout, Gouyasse Tradition, Barbar Honey and ten other Belgian beers all in cask
• Bellegem Oude Bruin, St.Bernardus Prior, Tripel and 12 on [...]

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Beer destinations

Amsterdam: A highlight of my visit to Amsterdam three years ago was ‘tArendsnest, a bar focusing on the best Dutch beers, served in a civilized setting with staff who are both service minded and has the required beer knowledge.
Well, the owner, Peter van der Arend, is not content with this. In September, he is opening de [...]

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Credit when credit is due

Finally we heard from the insurance company about our trip to Manchester. We got most of our extra expenses back. Here’s to Codan Insurance, formerly TryggHansa, buy their annual travel insurance if you need one.

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Blueberry wars

Jeppe at Ølbutikkenin Copenhagen has a problem – his beers are too popular. Besides importing the best beers available around the world and making sure they sell some of the best Danish micros to be found, he also commissions special beers. Some of them from his brother Mikkel, some of them from Cantillon in Brussels.
Jeppe drives [...]

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Chapter 3 – The last two legs

Boarding the Eurostar is like boarding a plane, with security checks and passport control. It would be very convenient if the Brits could join Schengen.
There was plenty of space on board, the seats were comfortable, and I had bought a bottle of Jupiler Tauro, InBev trying to make something similar to Duvel. Frankly, the beer was [...]

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Chapter 2 – getting closer

The alarm rings at 05:30, I stumble out of bed and into the shower. There is time for a quick breakfast before we jump into the car again. I locate a clean shirt as well. In ten minutes we have parked and we drag our bags over to the terminal.
I have a loyalty card with [...]

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Three from the Scheldebrouwerij

The Scheldebrouwerij seems to do its brewing in Belgium and its marketing in the Netherlands, but their web site is in Dutch only, so I cannot get into the details.
A tutta Birra in Milan had a number of their beers at a reasonable price, and, unlike the Italian micros, they were of modest size, suitable [...]

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A new beer in town

There is a nice bunch of new beers at the Vinmonopolet stores today. Maybe it shows my good taste, then, that this one is available in selected shops a month after I’ve dragged a bottle home from Italy.
The Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor is one of a series from the Broouwerij Het Anker in Belgium, the most [...]

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