BELGIAN BEER: UNESCO INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE

Some Belgian beers

The Grandma is a great fan of beer. When she is in Barcelona, she likes enjoying beer in the Moritz Factory, in the centre of the city.

Today, she has decided to travel to Brussel, the capital of Belgium to drink some beer with Claire Fontaine who is spending her summer holidays in the Flemish city. 

Belgian beers are recognized as the best beers around the world and they have been named as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

During the flight, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate  Language Practice manual.

More information: Making Comparisons I & II

Beer in Belgium varies from pale lager to amber ales, lambic beers, Flemish red ales, sour brown ales, strong ales and stouts. In 2016, there were approximately 224 active breweries in Belgium, including international companies, such as AB InBev, and traditional breweries including Trappist monasteries. 

On average, Belgians drink 84 litres of beer each year, down from around 200 each year in 1900. Most beers are bought or served in bottles, rather than cans, and almost every beer has its own branded, sometimes uniquely shaped, glass. 

The Belgian flag with beer

In 2016, UNESCO inscribed Belgian beer culture on their list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

Brewing in Belgium dates back at least the 12th century. Under the Catholic Church's permission, local French and Flemish abbeys brewed and distributed beer as a fund raising method.

The relatively low-alcohol beer of that time was preferred as a sanitary option to available drinking water. What are now traditional, artisanal brewing methods evolved, under abbey supervision, in the next seven centuries.

More information: UNESCO

The Trappist monasteries that now brew beer in Belgium were occupied in the late 18th century primarily by monks fleeing the French Revolution. However, the first Trappist brewery in Belgium, Westmalle, did not start operation until 10 December 1836, almost fifty years after the Revolution. That beer was exclusively for the monks and is described as dark and sweet. The first recorded sale of beer, a brown beer, was on 1 June 1861.

In the 16th and 17th century, a beer termed crabbelaer was the most popular beer in Ghent; at the peak of its popularity, more than 50 different breweries produced more than 6 million liters a year. Other kinds of beer brewed in Ghent were klein bier, dubbel bier, clauwaert, dubbele clauwaert and dusselaer.

In Belgium, four types of fermentation methods are used for the brewing of beer, which is unique in the world.

Claire, The Grandma & the Manneken Pis, Brussel

However for good understanding of labels of Belgian beer and reference works about Belgian beer often use different terms for the fermentation methods based on archaic or traditional jargon:

-Spontaneous fermentation with beers that are unique in Europe, Lambic and the derived Faro, Gueuze and Kriek beers.

-Warm fermentation is referred to as Top or High Fermentation for Trappist beers, white beers, ale, most other special beers.

-Mixed fermentation for the type old-brown beers.

-Cool fermentation is referred to as low fermentation for Lager or Pils.

More information: UNESCO

Belgian beers have a range of colours, brewing methods, and alcohol levels. Beers brewed in Trappist monasteries are termed Trappist beers. For a beer to qualify for Trappist certification, the brewery must be in a monastery, the monks must play a role in its production and the policies and the profits from the sale must be used to support the monastery or social programs outside. Only eleven monasteries currently meet these qualifications, six of which are in Belgium, two in the Netherlands, one in Austria, one in the United States, and one in Italy. 

The Trappist certification

Trappist beer is a controlled term of origin: it tells where the beers come from, it is not the name of a beer style. Beyond saying they are mostly warm fermented, Trappist beers have very little in common stylistically.

The designation abbey beers, Bières d'Abbaye or Abdijbier, originally applied to any monastic or monastic-style beer. After introduction of an official Trappist beer designation by the International Trappist Association in 1997, it came to mean products similar in style or presentation to monastic beers.

In 1999, the Union of Belgian Brewers introduced a Certified Belgian Abbey Beer, Erkend Belgisch Abdijbier, logo to indicate beers brewed under license to an existing or abandoned abbey, as opposed to other abbey-branded beers which the trade markets using other implied religious connections, such as a local saint. 

The requirements for registration under the logo include the monastery having control over certain aspects of the commercial operation, and a proportion of profits going to the abbey or to its designated charities. 

More information: Belgian Smaak

Monastic orders other than the Trappists can be and are included in this arrangement. The Abbey beer logo and quality label is no longer used for beers given the name of a fictitious abbey, a vaguely monastic branding or a saint name without mentioning a specific monastery. Some brewers may produce abbey-style beers such as dubbel or tripel, using such names but will refrain from using the term Abbey beer in their branding.

What connoisseurs now recognize as Trappist breweries began operations in 1838. Several monasteries, however, maintained working breweries for 500+ years before the French regime disrupted religious life (1795–1799). Even then, some Abbey beers such as Affligem Abbey, whose name now appears on beers made by the Heineken-owned Affligem Brewery, resumed brewing from working monasteries until the occupation of most of Belgium in World War I. 

The Grandma and the most selected Belgian beers

Commercial Abbey beers first appeared during Belgium's World War I recovery.

Although Abbey beers do not conform to rigid brewing styles, most tend to include the most recognizable and distinctive Trappist styles of brune, Belgian brown ale, aka dubbel, strong pale ale or tripel, and blonde ale or blond. 

Modern abbey breweries range from microbreweries to international giants, but at least one beer writer warns against assuming that closeness of connection with a real monastery confirms a product's quality.

Belgian special beers, stronger or bottled beers, are often served in elaborate branded beer glassware. Unless the bar is out of the specific glass that goes with that beer it is more often than not served in its own glass. Most bartenders or waitresses will apologize if the beer comes in a different glass.

More information: Beer of Belgium

One of the more common types is the tulip glass. A tulip glass not only helps trap the aroma, but also aids in maintaining large heads, creating a visual and olfactory sensation. The body is bulbous, but the top flares out to form a lip which helps head retention.

A vessel similar to a champagne flute is the preferred serving vessel for Belgian lambics and fruit beers. The narrow shape helps maintain carbonation, while providing a strong aromatic front. Flute glasses display the lively carbonation, sparkling colour, and soft lacing of this distinct style.

Chalices and goblets are large, stemmed, bowl-shaped glasses mainly associated with Trappist and Abbey ales. The distinction between goblet and chalice is typically in the glass thickness. Goblets tend to be more delicate and thin, while the chalice is heavy and thick walled. Some chalices are even etched on the bottom to nucleate a stream of bubbles for maintaining a nice head.

In addition to the profusion of glasses provided by brewers, some Belgian beer cafés serve beer in their own house glassware. 

More information: Belgium Beer Tourism

He was a wise man who invented beer.

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