Sunday 27 February 2011

De Helleketel and Houblon.

Now for something a bit special, whilst in Brugge back in January me and Linda were lucky enough to meet up with a couple of good friends - Filip and his lovely wife Katrien.
Filip runs what is without doubt the webs number 1 site dedicated to Belgian beer, the fantastic Belgian Beer Board (please visit this site the wealth of information is mind blowing)

Back to the trip, Filip took us around the beautiful west corner of Belgium, in particular the region of Watou. We were lucky enough to visit several outstanding bars (more on them later) possibly my favourite was De Helleketel (the oldest bar in the Watou region)
A very busy rustic place and despite being filled with happy cheerful locals we were welcomed with open arms and room quickly found for the 4 of us - even though not a word of English was spoken the friendliness shown by the land lady and regulars was heart warming.



Both Filip and i chose the excellent Houblon Chouffe IPA, a hazy pale yellow beer with a large pillowy white head. Very floral and spicy hoppy aroma with a sweet citrus taste followed by hop bitterness and a dry finish

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Linda and Katrien both had Picon, a local drink of red wine infused with citrus and other magical ingredients.



A thoroughly enjoyable time was had and on my way out i noticed something old and dusty in the corner of the room - a 1.5 ltr bottle of Helleketelbier.....sadly empty or i'd have been asking how much.












2 comments:

  1. Hi Jay,
    Brings back great memories !
    We should do this again !!
    Cheers
    Filip

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Filip,

    That was a really special day out, to see the area of Watou was fantastic.
    Would love to do it again

    Je bent zeer vriendelijk

    Jay.

    ReplyDelete