Pub Crawl Guide and Beer Discussions

In Antwerp we ended up in a bar after we left the kids to watch one of the tablets with the third Sonic movie. It was hot outside and very hot inside, a cube of wood and posters. There were four patrons, the bartender, and the two of us. Of the four, two were Americans visiting from a cruise, their pub crawl guide, and his friend, who had shown up to help out, or just join his buddy and his crew. Since that crew was just a single couple, it had been a very personal pub crawl.

Once we all started talking, we ended up learning some things from the pub crawl guide.

He told us a story about how Belgium became the king of beer countries, in that, the country with the most brewers per capita was Belgium.

After the French left, and after the final breakup with the Netherlands was consummated, in the new Kingdom of Belgium it was apparent that elections needed to happen. The two main factions were the conservative Catholics and the non-conservative others. But the elections showed the reality: the most popular folks up for election were brewers. 

The brewers won the first elections. They were the most popular candidates, they had the most name recognitions and positive vibes. To win in Belgium, people realized, you'd have to be a brewer. More people joined the ranks of the beer makers, just to be more palatable for political votes.

And this is why Belgium is the King of Brewers.

We drank plenty of beer while in Europe, and we tried more Belgian beers than normal. They were complicated and pleasant. 

At Mikkeeller's the second time I had a Bubblegum Bottles from the Scottish brewer Vault City Brewery:

I didn't take this picture

We were talking to the very cool bartender for a while. The young lady was local and her boyfriend was from London. He didn't like the fresh fruit, which led me to think he may have been south Asian. He was trying to learn Dutch. Maybe he did okay with listening and understanding, but speaking wasn't there yet. She seemed happy and content.

She'd had another boyfriend that got married somewhere crazy, or had someone close to him married somewhere crazy. It helped with her backstory.

She helped me understand the hard-I (ee) "ij", and we talked about language, like what she was forced to learn (German and English). 

When I ordered this beer she smiled. "Yeahp. That's a good one." She poured the shot of beer, 25cl, a cup, her back to me. She turned, "And the color. The color gets people." And she put it in front of me.

Blue. It was blue. The foam was like spirulina foam. 

But it was good. So good. It was just...refreshing and acidic and sweet, and balanced. Bubblegum, but, like, sour, and balanced. I've even looked at getting some since we got back. No dice.

They don't have La Chouffe here either:

This one either

And...that makes me sad. Maybe I should actually look. 

In Germany I bought beer from the gas station across the main street up from where we stayed. Used coins. I bought Bitburger, Carlsburg BIG, and whatever else random 1.69 € pint cans they had.

And now we're back to big IPA country. And brewers maintain a safe distance from politics.