Brussels - the city

The day after the EBCU reception, I had 6 hours in the Brussels. Before catching my train back to Amsterdam. A chance to correct my neglect of the city.

Been away so long I hardly knew the place. And, due to me being an idiot, the maps I'd printed out of the centre didn't have Centraal Station marked on them. I spent some time wandering about searching for a street that was on my map. I was trying to find Mort Subite. Eventually, I found a street map at a junction. After looking at it for 10 minutes I realised that Mort Subite was just behind me, 20 metres away at most. I thought to myself "I knew it was around here somewhere." It's covered in scaffolding. That's my excsuse.

Inside, Mort Subite was just as I remembered it. Except the prices are now in euros. I had a gueuze. It really wasn't that bad. Nicely sour. Breakfast. It being just past 11 AM, it wasn't mobbed. Just me and another bloke in the opposite corner. Despite being outnumbered by the staff, it still took me the best part of 5 minutes to order. Not that it particulalry mattered. I was in no rush.

The Delirium Café is just around the corner. On a little dead-end alleyway off Rue des Bouchers. Rue des Restaurants would be more appropriate. It's wall-to-wall restaurants. Handy when you know you'll have to have lunch in an hour or so.

The main bar of Delirium is in the cellar. You probably already know that. I must be the last person in the universe to have not visited the place. Large and rather gloomy. I headed for the bar where there was a little more illumination. Already sitting there were the delegation from Danske Ølentusiaster. They'd shown less restraint than me the day before. I'd gone almost straight home (I did stop off for one beer) after the reception ended at 21:00. The Danes had continued on in the city centre for several more hours.

The beer list is very impressive. And pretty international. Where to start? I opted for Pannepot. "Sorry, we're out of standard Pannepot. Do you want the Grand Reserva instead?" Yeah. Go on. Not had that one. What can I say? I didn't think it tasted quite as good as the normal version. And I'm not a great fan of that.

The Danes were off before I was even halfway through my Pannepot. Some building site or other they had to go and look at. Either they have strange hobbies or I've some personal hygiene issues. You would tell me, wouldn't you? If I stank, I mean.

Restraint is my new middle name. After just two beers (the second was French), I went in search of dinner. Or lunch as poshoes insist on calling it. In my calendar of meals, there is no lunch. Rues des Restaurants is full of places offereing three-course meals for as much 13.50 euros or as little a 10 euros. Feeling flush, I opted for the latter. What to drink with it?

Here's another of my many admissions. Sometimes I prefer to drink wine with food. Depends what kind of food it is. German or Asian, and beer is perfect. With Frenchy type stuff, wine is often the better choice. It's probably a good thing I don't order wine more often. I have expensive taste. I won't tell you how much the bottle of Burgundy that accompanied my meal cost. Several times more than the meal. I'll just say that. I don't want Dolores to find out. "We could have had a weeks' holiday with that money, Ronald. Why are you so irresponsible?"

When I'd finished off my grub, I returned to Delirium for another beer. It really was just the one. I told you restraint was my new middle name. I'll admit that I did buy a couple of bottles of Guinness Special Export for the train. It's a three-hour journey. You wouldn't want me to die of thirst, would you?

Brussels

Don't ask me why I hadn't been to Brussels for so long. I have no explanation. The EBCU constitution signing/reception was a good excuse to put that right.

Brewers of Europe house, where the event was held, is in the European quarter of Brussels . An area filled with various Commission offices and embassies to the EU. To be honest, it's pretty dismal architecturally. Lots of concrete and glass. One of the few exceptions is the Brewers of Europe gaff, a rather classy old house.

They'd already started on the beer when I arrived. There was certainly plenty of it. Between 70 and 100 different types, is my guess. From several different countries: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the UK, Holland. Not a bad little beer festival. And it was all free. Exactly the type of beer I like best.

The only formal part of the gathering was the signing of the EBCU constitution. The chair of each of the constituent member organisations put their scribble on the bottom. Fourteen scribbles, to be exact. Each of the 13 member groups got a document, plus one for the EBCU itself. It took a while. But not only were you allowed to take your beer along, you were reminded to do so.

Once that was over, I had a chance to look around the building. It's decorated with some interesting memorabilia. A painting of the City of London Brewery. (It's one of the breweries that shows up in the Truman and Whitbread Gravity Books.) But obviously this poster attracted my attention most. Good to know The Brewers of Europe understand the importance of Barclay Perkins, too.

Being an obsessive, I even took notes on most of the beers I tried. And photographed the bottles. I really am rather sad. Even my fellow geeks were giving me pitying looks. But I need to fill this blog every day. The material doesn't create itself.

As hard as I tried, I couldn't get through all the beers. There were just too many. The most unusual was Diamond Beer, from Trumer of Austria. A vintage wheat beer. An intriguing concept. The concept was good. The beer couldn't quite match it. One for Mike. I've really gone off aged beers since I drank my way through the out-of-date bottles in my beer cellar. Now aged beers always remind me of three year old Alfa Super Dortmunder.

I mostly stuck to Stouts because, well, I could. Wasn't that impressed with the British one (Stoodly Stout from Little Valley), which tasted like slightly dodgy homebrew. Sourish in a not good way. Though that could have been because of the package, which was one of these big tin things. The Danish ones were better. I had a few of those. Kinterkongens Stout from Stevns Bryghus was entertainingly roasty. Hornbeer Russian Imperial Porter was a roasted bridge too far, for me. But I did drink more than one bottle. Knark Imperial Stout from Duellund Bryglade was so nice I brought one home with me.

And a Carlsberg. A Bock from their Semper Ardens series. Brøckhouse Esrum Kloster was another good Dane. Spiced in a very subtle way. I could only pick out aniseed. Laurent Mousson reckoned he could identify a couple of others.

I really liked the treacly-sweet Grand Porter from Polish brewer Amber. Very nice. I limited myself to just one. The Czech beers were all gone by the time I got around to them. Pity.

A special mention for the Saint Croix ESB from Switzerland. Also served from one of those big cans. Citrusy from the simcoes in it, but not overpoweringly bitter. Enjoyable. Even with those evil hops in it.

After 18:00 was the reception. Evidently there were several MEPs there. Can't say that I noticed. But I'm not the most observant. Especially when there's free beer about. That tends to monopolise my attention.

What I still haven't worked out is why I was invited. The others all seemed to be delegates from one of the member organisations or EBCU officials.I was neither, last time I looked. Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Just curious.