This is my contribution the The Session, hosted this month by Thomas Vincent of Geistbear Brewing Blog. The theme is beer festivals, and he’ll have the complete roundup, so start there and click on over to what everybody is writing.
Our travels this summer will take us by many spots where you’ll find lovely beer festivals, just not when we’ll be there.
Instead we can look forward to two September events on back-to-back weekends in Belgium.
The first is the Bruxellensis Festival in Brussels. As you can read, this is my kind of gathering:
“There will thus be present brewers producing beers, the majority of which, if not all, have well-defined characteristics. The aim is to support and defend those who have made the decision to turn their back on easy commercial gain but rather have adopted a fighting stance against beers with little flavour. They are thus brewers who wander off the well-trodden path. They work in breweries on a human, rather than an industrial scale, using traditional and natural methods, and are guided by higher motives than an unbridled pursuit of profit. They are small in size, but their contribution to our brewing heritage is enormous: they are the ultimate guarantors of the preservation of centuries old tradition and produce beers with a genuine diversity of flavours.”
The second is the triennial Hop and Beer Festival in Poperinge. Make sure you scroll down to the photos of kids with hop cones on their heads.
See you at the parade.
The belgian festival sounds really great – thanks for spreading the word. Have you been before? My concern is that is can be very crowded…
helena
I’ve never been to the Bruxellensis Festival but have attended the Poperinge Hop Festival twice (1999 and 2002). I’ve warned many people that the Hop Festival is not a Beer Festival. The big beer tent (or marquee as they call it) served only one (as I remember) beer and not even the Poperings Hommel Bier. In 1999 it was Maes Pils and the second visit I believe it was another mass-produced Pils. There are however several good beer cafes in Poperinge so there are plenty of places with a better selection than the official beer tent. It’s a great time and the parade is not to be missed.
Bruxellensis is the same weekend as my dream marathon…
The In Flanders Fields Marathon takes you from Niewpoort to Ypres through WWI battlefields. Finishers receive beer and chocolates!
http://www.marathonguide.com/races/racedetails.cfm?MIDD=1283050911
I don’t know if it really counts as a festival. but I think that they don’t get much better than Club Nite at NHC.