In
December, Annie and I made the arduous trip to Belgium to visit
friends, sample some beer and do some Christmas shopping.
While we were
over there, we made the trip to De Dolle Brouwers at Esen in West
Flanders, to pick up some Stille Nacht (12% blonde Christmas beer) and
to present them with the certificate for Foreign Beer of the 2012
Norwich Beer Festival for Arabier.
We also had the chance to sample a
version of the 2010 Stille Nacht that had been maturing in oak for 25
months - superb.
The
brewery was originally started by 3 brothers, one of whom, Kris
Herteleer, is still at the helm. He opens the brewery for tastings and
sales only at weekends and claims that it is a hobby that got out of
hand.
His 95 year old mother leads the brewery tours every Sunday and
says that her health and long life are due to drinking a bottle of
Arabier a day. You can't argue with that!
Foreign & Bottled Beers Manager
Norwich Beer Festival
