Beer: ‘Belgium is past its best before date’

If you were looking for the heart of European brewing, you wouldn’t necessarily start in the Netherlands. You’d probably look a little to the southwest, to Belgium, a nation whose tradition is generally regarded as Europe’s richest. The Netherlands, by contrast, is best known for two major lager brands, neither of which is likely to win any awards for complexity. But things are changing, and perhaps it’s time to rethink a few much-cherished assumptions about these Lowland neighbours.

Not least because the heart of European craft brewing may indeed be found in the land of Rembrandt and Cruyff, in a small town called Bodegraven.  It’s here that you’ll find De Molen (“The Mill”), a Dutch brewer that has made waves across Europe in spite of its modest size. One of the reasons for that is the annual beer festival hosted by De Molen that brings together many of Europe’s most interesting beer-makers – like The Kernel, Thornbridge and Marble from England, or Mikkeller from Denmark. Another reason is the high quality of the beer produced by De Molen.

That’s a testament to the skill of brewer Menno Olivier. Inspired by the burgeoning craft beer scenes in the USA and Scandinavia, he founded De Molen in 2004 in order to bring more interesting beers to the Dutch market. According to co-owner John Brus, De Molen’s expansive approach was and is much-needed in a nation where most beer is one-dimensional. Things are changing, though.

“I think we don’t fit in the Dutch brewing scene because we are different,” he says. “There are one or two breweries the last few years that have started making beers like ours – imperial stouts, barley wines, hoppy IPAs – we’ve been doing that for a longer time. Most of those breweries are tiny, though. After that there are a few private family-owned breweries – and then there are the big ones like Heineken and Grolsch. We are kind of like a black sheep!”

Black sheep is a good description, if only because many of De Molen’s most impressive beers are stouts. “We are both stout fans,” says John. “I think because of the complexity in a good imperial stout – it’s not beer that you drink ‘clok, clok, clok’ and it’s gone – you enjoy it. You sit down and have a glass and sip, it takes you two hours to finish your glass. And when you’re drinking it, it will change in aroma and flavour in your glass. It’s a wonderful style.

“We have a simple philosophy – we like to make beers we love, with respect for the environment and people. We don’t make organic beers but we try to – have fun, make good beers, the beers we enjoy.”

You might expect a Dutch brewery to take inspiration from Belgium, too, but Brus is disappointed by the current state of Belgian beer. He does not mince his words. “In my personal opinion, Belgium has past its best before date,” he says. “They kept the tradition, which is what made them a very good beer country. We didn’t have that in Holland; in the ’80s, there were maybe 10 big breweries making lager and maybe a bock in the autumn. That’s it.

“[By contrast] all the small Belgian family-owned brewers kept making good beers – but in the last ten years quality has decreased dramatically, even in beers like Duvel. It’s not like it used to be, or maybe my taste has changed. Beers owned by the bigger breweries, like Leffe, those beers are very dull now. They used to be very good beers. That’s why Belgium is going, unless new Belgian brewers pick up the mantle and make good beer. But that’s personal – I like hops and except for a few good Saisons, I don’t think you find many hops in Belgium now.”

British brewing, by contrast, seems to excite Brus. “There are so many good English brewers in my opinion,” he says. “Traditional ones like Samuel Smith, I really like them, but also new ones like Buxton and Dark Star. Thornbridge [I like] especially, and The Kernel as well. Thornbridge because they make absolutely wonderful, clean English-style beers, and The Kernel because they are experimenting and making good beers. I recently had a couple of beers from Fyne Ales in Scotland, they make great beer. Maybe we should invite them [to the beer festival] this year?”

If Fyne do receive an invitation, they’ll be among the elite of European craft brewing. First held in 2009, the early Autumn Borefts Beer Festival has earned a word-of-mouth reputation as the beer geek’s beer festival. “It all started when Menno and I visited one of the festivals in Holland and we said ‘this is supposed to be one of the best festivals in Holland, why do we get crappy beers?’” says Brus.

“We started talking about that and we said ‘we can do this ourselves and maybe better’. That may be arrogant but we said, ‘we’ll do that, we have a lot of friends in the brewing scene’. That’s how it started – not just good beers, but great beers. We wanted a festival where we can show people that there are other beers, not just Belgian styles and Dutch lagers. It’s a success despite the fact we don’t advertise it, except to mention it on our website and on our Facebook page. We have 100 per cent growth every year!”

Everything to do with De Molen appears to be growing. They opened a new brewhouse last May, which means that British drinkers may soon find it much easier to get their hands on their distinctive black and white bottles. “We can send much more to the UK – with the equipment we now have, we can make five times as much beer as before,” says Brus. “We can make more beer in the near future. We did almost twice as much last year compared to 2010 and we hope to do at least 50 per cent more this year. It’s up to the UK consumer if they want more to come their way!” You know what to do.

Follow @Will_Hawkes on Twitter

Tagged in: beer, Belgium, dark star, holland, sam smith, The Kernel, Thornbridge

All About Beer with Bill & Sheila

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