My Leuven Week In Beers 04.06.23

Just a 40 minutes train ride south of Antwerp, is the Belgian town of Leuven. One of the smaller, less discussed cities in Flanders, Leuven is home to over 100,000, a historic university and some of those gorgeous medieval squares that Belgium seems to offer up with generous ease. It is also home to the Stella Artois brewery meaning of an evening, the whole town smells like the hot spent grain familiar to anyone who frequents the odd brewery.

Now just imagine the smell of beer.

I arrived in Leuven on Sunday June 4th and instantly I could tell we were going to have a good time. Bars drop the prices to get students in and it’s competitive, especially in the square known as ‘the world’s longest bar’ because so many pubs are nestled in together. Naturally, after enjoying the obligatory Stella provided by our AirBnb host Peter-Jean, Katie and I headed straight there where I enjoyed another Tripel Karmeliet with a cheese and meat board that really punched above it’s weight. Karmeliet is sweet, spicey and sour all at once while still managing to go down a treat. This is a beer I will inevitably end up paying top dollar for outside of Belgium.

Yeah, I wear a rugby league jersey while overseas. Tell your friends about me.

To an Aussie, all Belgian bars are specialty joints, they have mile long lists of beer categorised by styles while wine has to fight for a tiny sliver of the menu. Malz, however focuses on the new styles both local and imported. Peter-Jean recommended it to us but I imagine we would have found ourselves there anyway.

The dark an mysterious type.

I started with a Belgian IPA called Kuitenbijter by Brouwerij de Coureur, the only Belgian IPA I my whole time there and the first of the trip. It was nice but not what I came for. The bloke at the counter (who could have trade wardrobes with me and it would have been weeks before anyone noticed) recommended a Port Barrel Aged Vleteren 12, a dark Christmas cake beer brewed right next to the famous Westvletern abby. I thought it was great and at 11% could probably benefit from some aging to become a bit more intense and more like it’s famous cousin.

The background is the ‘World’s Longest Bar’ by the way but focus on the beer.

The next day Katie and I caught up on some work and ran some errands and decided to reward ourselves with a trip back to the world’s longest bar. Johan at Malz recommended Cafe Belge where waiter Ziggy instantly started giving Katie and I recommendations from their mammoth, almost excessive, beer list. I hadn’t had a guezze yet, a salt sour style similar to a gose, often called the champagne of beer and Ziggy recommended Oude Guezze by Boon Brouwerij. Salty, sweet and refreshing, it reminded my a lot more of a gose or sour beer than it did champagne.

You can’t tell from the picture but it was a hot day.

We gave Ziggy full control for the next round and he picked a Supreme Raspberry Sour and a Vicaris Tripel-Gueuze. Anyone familiar with raspberry sours Aussie brewers do so well will love the Supreme Sour which is Cafe Belge’s best seller in summer, a claim that is easily believed after one sip.

As the name suggests, the Tripel-Gueuze by Vicaris is a weird mishmash of two conflicting styles that resulted in a fairly complex but pretty fun beer that I really enjoyed reviewing.

Me, a tourist: ‘Which way to the Abji van Park?’

The following day was a scorcher, causing me to pop out the short I didn’t think I’d been needing until Italy (and haven’t taken off since, write to your MP about climate change).

Katie had heard about the Abji van Park (eng. Park Abby) which is a near 1000 year old monastery on beautiful grounds you are free to explore. Amazingly, monks still brew beers here with local ingredients in strong Belgian styles. The cafe there has a nice outdoor veranda where we enjoyed two blonde beers, the stronger of the two somehow going down easier on a hot day (watch the video!). Seriously underrated.

We had to get back to work that arvo but rewarded ourselves afterwards with a Chimay Blue in town. Chimay is one of the most famous and widely available trappist beers brewed in Belgium and I hadn’t had one yet. I think it made me feel pretty happy.

Also saw a mural done by a mate of mine from back in Sydney like two metres from where I was sitting. Didn’t even know he’d been to Leuven!

At this point, I hadn’t had a beer free day in Belgium. I had tried to be professional and keep it to two a day because limiting your beer intake in Belgium is like going to Egypt so you don’t see as many pyramids. So for Wednesday, we decided to have the sort of night out that is ended with a decadent portion of chips and mayo.

We started at a sort of trendy bar in a greener area of Leuven that Peter-Jean recommended called Brouwerij de Hoorn, where the first Stella was brewed. If I’d have known that at the time I’m sure I would have ordered that and not a Leffe Blonde.

After that we headed to Malz where for their birthday week they were having a special event pouring blended lambics and ciders by a Belgian producer who usually sells in larger wine-sized bottles. I had a red wine and rosemary lambic which was nice and a quince cider I am diplomatically going to call interesting.

If you go to Malz I recommend you try their mystery tasting paddle that you get for three euros off if you guess all the beers and their cheese board of all Belgian cheeses.

Shit, how many footy shirts do I have?

I firmly believe that if you find a good pub you have to stick to it, or waste your time in inferior venues. For that reason, we headed back to Cafe Belge to try the Piraat beer that Ziggy recommended to me. At 10.5%, this amber beer had a mouth scraping punch that I was a little disturbed to realise I’d knocked back very quickly. And it’s served in a boot so that’s cool.

Yes, that is a normal and completely intentional amount of head.

I then had an Orval because I simply enjoyed it too much last time to not have again. Savouring the last heady gulps from the robust Orval glass, Katie and I wondered if we’d have another round, a question that was easily answered when I spied on the menu something called Chimay Green. The last beer of the night is always at a big advantage but at nearly 11%, this minty, eucalyptusy beer had this spirit of the Earth punch that made you feel as if you were pausing God to finish your sentence. At least that’s what the coherent parts of my notes say. Great beer to end the night with, no amount of mayo is too much on your chips after a Chimay Green.

Forgot to get a photo of Chimay green so here’s a shoutout to Pain Leuven, a friendly sandwich joint that kept me well fed 3/5 days were were there.

Sadly, Thursday was our last full day in Leuven a place I had loved from the start and was now realising it was the sort of small city I’d be happy to live in. Admiring the long afternoon sun and watching passing cyclists I ordered an Oude Kriek by 3 Fonteinen, a beer I had really hyped up via the beer books I read before the trip. I reviewed this one but I’ll repeat it here, it is super sour. Puckering doesn’t even begin to describe it, there’s a depth to this like eating pure Warhead dust. I’m sitting in my own saliva just typing this. I really liked it which just shows what sort of person I’ve become since I reviewed a Coopers Clear for a joke six years ago.

For this one, imagine the sound of a really loud table of Aussie’s sitting right next to us.

For dinner we went to a restaurant that is known for locals for doing classic Flemish cooking really well, the highlights for me being cheesey ham radicchio and beef stew. We ordered a Duvel because they didn’t have Orval which was confusing as they had Orval signs which were evidently purely decorative. Duvel is lovely though, a nice classic blonde with a flicker of heat.

My final beer in Leuven was another Chimay Green at Cafe Belge because I wanted to see if was as good as I thought it was while tipsy. Sadly, my theory about the last beer of a big sesh usually being perfection was proven right, although it still is a hell of a beer.

Walking home, I realised I hadn’t had a Stella on tap in Leuven. It had been explained to me that Stella seek out new local talent and offer to either buy them out or attempt to replicate their recipe. While it’s still enjoyed in Leuven, there is a small essence that a ‘Stella Mafia’ exists (what a hip hop group name that would be). It makes sense though. Why wouldn’t they feel threatened in a town offering so many great beers?

Next week Kolsch and beer free days are on the menu as we head to Cologne! Tot ziens!