Het Anker Brewery - Mechelen

We arrived at Het Anker brewery shortly before 1pm on Saturday 23 March, 2019.

The building on the left of the entrance gates is now the brewery's hotel. The doorway on the right leads to the shop where we needed to pay for the brewery tour places booked online via www.hetanker.be/en/visit-the-brewery. Having paid 9 euros each we were directed to the starting point of the 1pm tour in English. Our group included Spanish students and an American couple. After an introductory talk with some film, Marc De Knijf, our genial host, led us up the first stairway to an area of the old maltings.

Marc described the main beer ingredients: water, malted grain e.g. barley, hops and yeast. Taken from a rear table, dishes of malted barley were handed round so that tour members could take a few grains for tasting. Six other ingredients used by Het Anker for brewing were also introduced. From right to left on the front table in the photo above, these were: Licorice, Anis, Chamomile, Dried peel of Curacao oranges (sourced from Spain), cumin and coriander. Marc mentioned that Licorice and Anis are only used for Het Anker's strong, dark ruby red Christmas beer. Chamomile has the effect of softening the flavours from the other ingredients.

From here we were led through to the main brewing hall which has large windows and is next to the the old maltings building.

The top parts of three copper kettles are visible in this area. Marc explained that these were installed in 1946 and that nowadays one of the two smaller ones is not used, the second is used for introducing hot water to the malt and after filtering this wort is transferred to the larger kettle, on the left of the photo, for boiling and the introduction of bittering hops.

After further filtering, the wort is cooled by the modern heat exchanger, on the left of the photo, to 22-25 degrees centigrade before transfer to 'yeasting tanks' for 6-7 days. The yeast is then removed and the beer is transferred to storage tanks. The new bottling hall is in Mechelen's industrial zone and beer is transferred there by tanker vehicles. Each brew is 12,0000 litres and there are two or three brews a day (Monday - Friday).

In a nearby area with a timeline display, Marc discussed the history of Brouwerij Het Anker, situated in the Beguinage, which began as a brewery for the beguines but was later purchased by the family Van Breedam. It is still an independent family firm.

Marc showed us an earlier 'open' heat exchanger which was once used as the second stage of a cooling process.

He then led us up more steps to look at the cooling tank on the roof which was once used as the first stage of a cooling process taking the temperature down to 72 degrees centigrade.

Note that unlike Lambic breweries, this tank was not used as part of a wild fermentation process. From here we could look east above the rooftops to the centre of Mechelen.

We took a different route on the way down passing several floors of Gouden Carolus single malt maturing whisky. Marc explained that there was not enough room for storage at the whisky distillery on the family's farm in Blasveld.

The final stage of the brewery tour was a tasting in a first floor room with a bar at one end.

Tim with Gouden Carolus Tripel

Our first 15cl glass was of blonde Gouden Carolus Tripel (9% ABV, EBU 22). Marc challenged us to identify the ingredients which included coriander, chamomile, cumin and orange peel.

The second sample was dark Gouden Carolus Classic (8.5% ABV, EBU 16).

There was an opportunity to give Marc a copy of West Berkshire CAMRA magazine 'Ullage' which he was interested to read.
It was after 2.30pm when we left the tasting room to visit the brewery shop and then some of the best pubs and bars in Mechelen.
We did not visit the brasserie at the brewery but this is open daily from 10am.

Thanks to Marc and Het Anker Brewery. A visit to the brewery is recommended.

Leuven - Saturday night

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The sun had already set over Leuven when we left the Ibis Budget hotel and crossed under the railway station to walk into the city centre on our last night (Saturday 24 March).

There was no room for us at Domus, a popular brewery restaurant where waiters skilfully ignored anyone not already seated at a table.

We headed to Oude Markt 37 where L-Cafe had been listed as a good place to find traditional Belgian food, run by two sisters - Liesbet and Lori. However, we were too late to eat as the kitchen closes at 20.45.

Belgenius - Citrus Strong Golden Ale

We were encouraged to stay for a beer and as beers from Belgenius were stocked we were easily won over. The small space downstairs was chilly so we decided to sit upstairs despite a warning about having to share the space with 'loud Dutch men'.

The pale wood furniture and lampshades give a Scandinavian feel to the upstairs room. Simon had the sensible idea of asking for a restaurant recommendation when we paid the bill for a bottle each (10 euros).

De Nachtuil, Krakenstraat 8, was only a minute's walk away and its Night Owl name reflects the late opening hours (until 2am Tue-Thu, 3am Fri-Sun).
We ordered mixed olives as a starter and main dishes which came with a separate large serving of Belgian frites to share.

We also ordered bottles of Cornet, as recommended on Friday night by Gunter. The Brouwerij De Hoorn tasting notes mention 'Cornet is an oaked, strong, blond Belgian beer (Alc. 8.5% Vol.). Its subtle touch of vanilla is achieved by adding oak chips during brewing. Brewed in honour of Salomon de Maldeghem, Knight in the 11th century.' I will look for Cornet again when in Belgium.

Metafoor

Having enjoyed a visit to Metafoor on Thursday night and finding it too busy on Friday night we decided to try and revisit this bar set back one street from Oude Markt at Parijsstraat 34.

Arthur's Legacy 13 - Aerts 2016 / Brouwerij de Hoorn

Simon found a spare seat at the bar and I stood next to him until another seat became free. The bar was very busy but the bartender was expertly serving customers as fast as they could present orders. We watched as he selected the correct glass, rinsed it, quickly filled it with beer from a bottle or tap, dunked the glass into a sink of cold water to rinse off any residues before serving. A craftsman at work and captivating to watch!

Another favourite Leuven bar to return to was De Blauwe Kater and on the way we passed an interesting looking comics shop - Het Besloten Land - just a few doors along from Metafoor.
We reached De Blauwe Kater around midnight and were glad to find a free table on the ground floor.

My first beer here was a Houblon Chouffe, the hoppy 9% ABV version of La Chouffe from Brasserie d'Achouffe (4.40 euro). This was a favourite beer on the trip and three bottles were purchased on Sunday from the essential Carrefour Express at Brussels Midi station before heading home.
The music volume was turned up and SoundHound was deployed to detect The Levee by Belgian band Blues Lee.

As previously observed, beer and music go well together especially the Blues! By the time I was drinking (green label) Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor, brewed in Mechelen by Het Anker, the tunes were authentic blues from John Lee Hoooker - Mr Lucky. Indeed I was!
Tasting notes from the Het Anker website describe the 8% ABV Hopsinjoor as 'derived from “Opsinjoor”, the typical character of Mechelen and also because of the use of 5 different kinds of hops. These hops are fractioned at a different time during the cooking process in order to conserve a maximum of aroma.' This is another beer that I will seek out again, perhaps even at the brewery in Mechelen where the station conveniently lies on the railway line between Brussels and Antwerp.

After 1am, as Simon was slowly drinking a quadrupel beer and my check on buses revealed an imminent departure it was time for me to leave and save the walk back to the hotel - on a bus that cost another 1.60 euro clip on my Lijn Kaart. The female bus driver cheerfully coped with everyone who boarded.