Beer Caps and Coasters

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Beer Caps and Coasters

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22/05/2025

In the early 1900s, Antwerp, much like today, saw everything come through its port. Spices, chocolate, to***co, tea, beer. If it could be shipped, it passed through here.

John Martin, a British expat, saw an opportunity. In 1909, he began importing English ales into Belgium—pale, bitter, and nothing like the beers locals were used to drinking.

Belgian drinkers weren’t sure what to make of them at first. But Martin stuck with it, even bottling Bass Pale Ale on Belgian soil. When WWI made imports tough, he brewed his own: Martin’s Pale Ale ().

Belgian in origin, inspired by English ales, it was one of the first cross-cultural beers on the continent.

20/05/2025

What began in 1850 as a farm brewery making beer for seasonal workers grew into a full-time family operation.

During World War I, Brasserie de Silly () weathered barley shortages. In World War II, they pivoted to soda production just to stay afloat. When the war ended? They picked up right where they left off — brewing rich, characterful beers that still carry that farmhouse soul.

The cap — a farm worker with a scythe, most likely sipping a saison — isn’t just a logo. It’s a quiet homage to the workers who made the beer worth brewing in the first place.

11/05/2025

It’s the original—and the rarest.

Rochefort 6 was the first beer brewed and sold by the monks of Rochefort Abbey, released to the public in 1953. It’s also the least produced of their three classics, making up just 1% of total output and reportedly brewed only once a year.

At 7.5% ABV, it’s the lightest in the lineup—but don’t mistake that for ordinary.

While Rochefort 8 and 10 often steal the spotlight, Rochefort 6 is the one that started it all—and remains a quiet favourite for those who know.

09/05/2025

Up until the early 1980s, it was commonplace—and legal—for children to be served table beer (tafelbier) at school, especially in Catholic schools and rural areas.

These beers were extremely low in alcohol (typically 1-2% ABV) and were considered a healthy, nutritious alternative to sugary drinks or unsafe water.

Table beers, like the Chimay Dorée (), play a different role in society today, though. They’re no longer served at the kid’s table, but still find their place on yours.

06/05/2025

52 minutes into the Lambic Documentary, Bottle Conditioned (), we hear Raf from explaining how he doesn’t buy Lambic—he buys Lambic wort.

The difference being that Lambic wort has yet to ferment, but it will soon.

The scene in the documentary is somewhat tense as Raf and a colleague are stacking barrels, inserting pipes, and filling barrels rather quickly. I could feel the tension as I filmed the scene near midnight in his Hasselt warehouse.

The wort was, somewhat unexpectedly, already fermenting as it was being pumped, which called for even more haste in prepping the barrels.

The speedy wort? Well that came from Brouwerij De Troch, where I filmed earlier that same day as Pauwel Raes, head brewer at De Troch, filled a plastic tank and trucked it out to Hasselt as you see at the 54 minute mark.

04/05/2025

In Antwerp, ordering a beer is as simple as asking for a “Bolleke.”

This refers to both the distinctive round glass and the amber ale it holds—De Koninck’s signature beer. The brewery’s origins trace back to 1833, when it was established on the site of an old inn near a stone boundary post adorned with a sculpted hand.

This hand symbol, historically marking the city’s toll boundary, now serves as the emblem of both the brewery and Antwerp itself.

02/05/2025

Tucked away in a small Walloon Brabant village, there’s a brewery packed inside an 18th-century farmhouse.

Brasserie Jandrain-Jandrenouille takes its name from its location—Jandrain-Jandrenouille—a town of roughly 1,200 people that was born from the merger of two small municipalities in 1812 when they were still under Napoleon’s control.

The beers here are brewed with water drawn from the village, and the barley is sourced from nearby farms and malted by Mouterij Dingemans.

You’ll also find mostly American hops throughout the range, too. Maybe not what Napoleon had envisioned 200 years ago.

30/04/2025

In July 2021, while filming for the Lambic documentary, Bottle Conditioned (), we ended up at the home of Jean-Pierre Van Roy and Claude Cantillon for some archival photos of their son, Jean. I’ll never forget it. There were four of us in the kitchen eating sandwiches Claude had just made from tomatoes in their garden, and we were looking at old photographs scattered across the table.

Jean-Pierre walked down to his basement to fetch a few bottles for us to open, and he returned with a 2017 and a 2011 Geuze—two bottles any Lambic fan would be lucky to enjoy. And being served by Jean-Pierre was an added bonus.

He grabbed four glasses and then I’ll never forget him saying in French with a smile, “we’ll clean these with the 2017.”

Enjoy Quintessence to everyone heading there today and tomorrow!

28/04/2025

Some believe the origin of Duvel’s yeast is from a Scottish brewery—William McEwan’s Fountain Brewery in Edinburgh. Whether this is entirely true or not plays into the allure of this iconic Belgian beer.

What is true is that during the first World War, Albert Moortgat and his brother, Victor, were looking to reinvent the brand and a new yeast strain was the answer.

Famously at the time, during a tasting of this new beer at the brewery, a local shoemaker exclaimed that the beer was “nen echten Duvel,” or in English, “a real Devil”.

Such was born the brand () that now is synonymous with the Belgian Golden Strong Ale.

26/04/2025

🌾Saison Day🌾

In 19th-century Belgium, saisons were seasonal farmhouse ales—brewed in winter, cellared, and served to farmhands in summer. Each batch was different, rustic, and meant to hydrate more than impress.

Then in 1920, the Dupont family took over a farm-brewery in Tourpes. A few years later, they brewed a holiday saison that was so good, they kept making it.

That beer became Saison Dupont—the benchmark for the entire style. Bone-dry, spicy, bottle-conditioned, and still brewed on the original farm with open fermentation.

22/04/2025

An enclave is a piece of independent country in another independent country, completely surrounded by that country.

There are 64 in the entire world—and 30 of them are just over the Belgian-Netherlands border in the Baarle region, home to Brouwerij De Dochter van de Korenaar ().

In the region, many homes and buildings are cut in two by the border lines, so they use the “front door rule” to determine in which country the home lies.

Famously, an elderly woman awoke one day to newly drawn up borders, and her front door now was in the Netherlands, not Belgium. Her prideful, and creative solution, was to swap the window just to its left, moving her front door—and house—back into Belgium.

20/04/2025

In 1838, the citizens of Plzeň dumped 36 barrels of beer into the street.

They were fed up. The beer was inconsistent, often spoiled, and perceived as embarrassing compared to what was being brewed in Bavaria.

So they formed a brewing collective to find a solution. Local brewers pooled their money, hired a Bavarian brewmaster named Josef Groll, and built a brand new brewery from scratch.

Groll showed up, took one look at the soft local water, Saaz hops, and pale malt, and brewed something nobody had seen before: a crystal-clear, golden beer with a crisp bitterness.

On November 11, 1842, Pilsner Urquell was tapped for the first time. People didn’t just like it—they absolutely loved it. And so began the global pilsner revolution.

Today, over 90% of beers in the world trace their roots back to that one bold protest pour in Plzeň.

Adres

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