The Beer Route and its flavours

The Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren wrote: “In Belgium, the magistrate has the dignity of a prince, but by Bacchus, it is true that the brewer is king”. And his queen may be Orval beer. Its unique taste is due to the secret yeast, jealously guarded by the monks, and the quality of the water, drawn from the ‘GoldenValley’ (or = gold; val = valley). Brother Dominique discovered this wild yeast in the late 1940s.

Although Orval beer is made in the abbey, members of the public are not permitted to visit the brewery for reasons of food safety. A new museum has been established for visitors to the abbey. It is interactive and well designed, and explains the difficulty of producing a beer like Orval.

In the Ardenne of yesteryear, breweries were integral parts of the landscape, as it is the case for rivers and forests, which are immutable. Each village had its own brewery. Therefore, in Belgium, there were more than 3000 of them! Fortunately, this heritage did not break and went through the tribulations of history. Nowadays, some young brewers took up the challenge and brew refined beers of good quality. An obstinate guy from Tournai decided in 2000 to revive that tradition by creating “the Rulles”. The adventure starts with the lager “Rulles”, a non- filtered refreshing beer with a second fermentation in the bottle. The yeast comes from Orval, seed of numerous Luxembourg beers… With experience, the brewery produces the “Triple” and the “Estivale” that achieve great export success, thanks to their high hop content in particular. Thanks to breweries such as “the Rulles”, the Gaume becomes a land of brewing again. Blonde, Brune, Triple, Estivale, Meilleurs Vœux or Grande Dix: the master brewer settled here in the year 2000 for the quality of the water. Why not pre-book a visit with a tasting session, and he’ll tell you of his passion for his work with enthusiasm and good humour.

Rigour and a taste for risk have always been the guiding principles for Daniel Lessire. The former trader took up the slightly crazy challenge of creating his own business. To do this, he did not hesitate to ask the advice of Eddy Pourtois, his friend and brewer of the Sainte-Hélène beer. He helped him make his first beer, a master stroke. “I wanted a festive beer festive, not too alcoholic, but with taste!” This pragmatic brewer creates beers at the request of the customer, such as the one brewed exclusively for the Portuguese community in Luxembourg. The brewery has been established on the Millevertus estate in Breuvanne since 2011, and the quality of the beers has improved constantly thanks, among other things, to the recruitment of a agronomist, Jérémie Plainchamp, who brings in rigour and analysis. He creates unique, daring flavours, such as Amarante with black peppers or Safranaise. These beers are the result of a combination of passion and creativity. This quest for excellence will continue to guide the MilleVertus brewery for many years to come.

In the 1990s, two young enthusiasts of the region took up the challenge of creating a beer produced in Bouillon itself, intended to captivate both tourists and locals. When he first started, Jacques tested his knowledge and developed his know-how at the back of the shop run by Nathalie, his wife. He researched, developed a delicious beer and first tested it by selling it in the grocer’s store, the ‘Marché de Nathalie’. And it worked! He soon took the plunge: the Bouillon brewery was born. Its success has continued since 1998. The range of beers has been expanded, with something to suit every taste. The Blanche de Bouillon (blanche flavoured with coriander and orange peel), the Cuvée de Bouillon, the Bouillonnaise (brown), the Vauban (blonde) or the Saison des Chasses carry on the great success story of these two of lovers of Bouillon…

This is above all a love story, that of Marc and Nathalie who decided, 18 years ago, to open a shop to be a standard bearer of Belgian beer. Traditional beers are both their strength and their weakness. Strength in their quality, weakness in their production, which is of necessity limited. “My beer orders were not always met”. Fed up with the situation, he began producing his own beer. “I started to brew 20 litres at the back of the shop, in an area of 50 m2…”. Now the brewery has been transferred to the slopes above Bouillon, to Noirefontaine, where more room means that we can brew 50 beers following different recipes.

The idea behind this restaurant is original. Customers can watch beers being made using traditional methods, including the famous ‘Sedane’. This warm, friendly brasserie lies at the foot of the castle, near the old district of the city.

This pretty road crosses the southern Ardennes countryside to Launois-sur-Vence, a rural village far from the hustle and bustle of towns and cities. The location of the Ardwen brewery is no trivial matter. The Champagne region is close by, its subsoil brimming with pure water, the basis of all high-quality beers. And the Woinic beer can claim its right to be described as such, since it has been nominated eight times at the Paris Agricultural Show. Recognition like this owes nothing to chance. The young but talented master brewer, Geoffrey Stevenin, loves his work and his range of beers, all made using natural ingredients. “The barley is from Champagne and the malt is from Belgium. But we will never add artificial flavouring to our beers”. The brewery produces a wide range of beers, all different, with very definite characters, just like the Ardennes! The Ardwen Blonde is refreshing and fresh; the Blanche is more lemony, with hints of coriander; the Ambrée is typical of caramelised malts. The Cerise or cherry beer is characterised by a lovely roundness, based on pure Morello cherry juice; the Hop’s Cure is strong in malts and hops. The Bleue has a pronounced bitterness, compared to the Rouge, which is beautifully round, with a fruity taste calling to mind kirsch, while the special Christmas beer, Ardwen de Noël, is more complex, with a subtle blend of spices. The Ardwen logo depicts the goddess Arduinna, protector of the forest, astride a wild boar: we’ll wager she protects this brewery like treasure, as the worthy heir of Ardennes brewing know-how.

Know-how does not die and tradition survives in the pleasant brewery, the Petite Brasserie Ardennaise. It all began with a slightly crazy wager among a group of friends who wanted to taste beers other than those produced by huge industrial breweries. Like a phoenix rising from its ashes, the very first traditional brewery in the French Ardennes came into being in 1997, a hundred years after very last businesses ceased to exist. As a nod to the past, they called their first beer the Oubliette! The brewery now produces four types of totally natural beer (Blonde, Ambrée, Blanche and Stout). The Ambrée or amber beer is characterised by its roundness and its fruitiness in the mouth, with a hint of bitterness in the finish. The Blonde or pale beer is refermented in the bottle. With an alcohol content of 6°, the blend of the hops selection lends it a very delicate bitterness. For Benoît Guibert, “the aroma of our beers comes from the malt and the hop flower. No additives or aromas are used to make the beer. The process includes neither filtration nor pasteurisation, so as to preserve the taste of the product as well as possible. When the boiling is over, essential oils are released, with a unique, authentic taste”. The beer comes straight out of the fermentation tanks and into the casks, giving off an amazing smell! It is also characterised by its lightness and low alcohol content, based on the recipes used to make English beers. What’s more, the Stout is considered to be among the best in the world. This beer is distributed via short circuits, such as restaurants and breweries in the region. Savouring an Oubliette in the place Ducale in Charleville-Mézières at the height of summer is a magical moment, never to be forgotten! The brewery can be visited by appointment.

A hotel on the banks of the Meuse, bathed in generous sunshine: this is a marvellous spot. The Haybes brewery, which lies alongside it, in the Clos Belle-Rose, brews beer solely for the Saint-Hubert hotel. The production is deliberately limited: “I can’t sell our soul, our know-how, to the mass retail sector”, Julien Dejante points out. The wild hops are gathered along the green path and the water is drawn from springs in the surrounding forest. The beer is natural, simple. Having trained as a sommelier, Julien appreciates the presence of his beer on the tables of the Saint-Hubert. “Beef stew with Hayboise beer or trout meunière pairs perfectly with a beer, releasing all its bitterness”. The brewery makes three types of beer: the Hayboise is amber with a high hops content, the Cerf Blanc is a blonde beer and the Stockport, paying tribute to an English town… Infos : www.le-clos-belle-rose.com

Lying in the broad Meuse valley, the small town of Givet has linked its destiny with this river. A commercial waterway, in the Middle Ages the Meuse quickly took on a strategic importance. Whoever held sway over it was master of the economy in northern Europe. So Givet became a fortified town! In 1554, Charles the Fifth had a major fortification built here, Charlemont fort. He defied the hegemony of the King of France, Henri II. In the 18th century the inevitable Vauban, architect of King Louis XIV, came to Givet, which had become French by then, to erect a gigantic defensive system around the town. The fortifications, garrison forts and moats were to surround the town, making it impregnable. Guided tours of the town and its fortifications provided by the tourist office.

Late 12th century… Culture, confined within the abbeys, such as the Benedictine monastery of Mouzon, opened up to the outside world. Ways of thinking evolved and this phenomenon was also seen in art. Whereas the Romanesque is a style of balance, Gothic expresses verticality. The abbatial church of Mouzon was a fine example of this new trend. Only the church and the abbey gardens, in the French style, are open to visitors: the abbey itself has become a retirement home.

Sainte-Hélène is the name of a beer, but also of a street in the small village of Orsinfaing. This is where, working in an old barn, Eddy Pourtois tinkered around, adapting second-hand equipment to build his brewery! The man with golden fingers, advised by the brewer monks of Orval, manages to brew Gaumette, a white beer with an alcohol content of 5.2% and Sainte-Hélène, an amber beer with an alcohol content of 8.5%. He has won his wager. The traditional brewing methods are adopted to produce beers of character using noble ingredients: barley malt, hops, water and yeast. Having moved to Ethe, Eddy Pourtois continued his gustative research and in 2008 he launched a low-fermentation beer, a Pils! This was a first in the province of Luxembourg. The Sainte-Hélène beers are refermented in the bottle or in barrels, unfiltered and unpasteurised, guaranteeing a unique taste and smell!

In the old fortified town of Stenay stands a building 100 metres in length, like a vessel. This old malt factory has become Europe’s biggest beer museum. It tells the fabulous tale of beer, which is linked to the history of humanity. The museum explains the technical developments in the production of beer through the ages, with some lovely scenographies. Plus a number of anecdotes…

A journey to the heart of the secrets, the history and the treasures of the production of Chimay Trappist beers and cheeses. Over 150 years of tradition, authenticity and brewing know-how.

Seventeen monks came from Flanders, from Westvleteren Abbey, where they already made a Trappist beer, to found a Cistercian abbey in the midst of a lost, marshy and inhospitable region. No problem! In 12 years, they built a monastery and a brewery producing a divine nectar: Chimay beer, known throughout the world.

Upon entering the Caracole brasserie, you can sense the work, the noble labour of the craftsman. The sacks of malt are piled up next to the mash tub, heated on the wood fire, while the brewer adds spices, eager to make gustative discoveries. Traditional beer brims over with flavour here, fittingly, left to ferment for between six and eight weeks.

In days gone by, the Bocq river made the forge masters rich. In Yvoir and along the river, fine residences bear witness to this past wealth. This river, characterised by its purity, still wins acclaim for the region with the Bocq brewery (founded in the village of Purnode in 1858) which remains one of the only family breweries in Belgium. Today it is run by the sixth generation. The brewery mainly produces the 'Gauloise', 'Blanche de Namur', 'Saint-Benoît', 'Blanche de Noël' and 'Triple Moine' beers.

Friendship can raise mountains and carry you a long way, for example by creating a brewery. A group of friends took up the challenge in Eprave, a beautiful village bathed by the Lesse, near Rochefort. In 2010, they decided to launch their own beer, without recourse to market economy. Jean says “We wanted our project to adopt an economic model where the main aim is to create activity and not seek as much profit as possible…” And respecting the local economy means calling on producers and farmers from the region.

Buckwheat, spelt and the desire to make a pure beer, entirely natural and organic – this is the objective sought by the Silenrieux brewery since 1991. To savour its beers is to discover new tasting sensations. This is an old railway building converted into a tasting centre for special beers and regional products, a show-case and shop where farmers can display and sell their produce, and a brewery. Beers produced: Sara (amber), Joseph (blonde: spelt wheat beer with exclusive fruitiness), Sarrasin Biologique (blonde), Pavée de l'Ours (blonde with honey). Organised brewery visits / booking.

The Brasserie des Fagnes brewery has been making beer for over a century and a half. Visitors can experience its history as they freely learn about the production method: here you can enter one of the temples of Belgian beer. The brewing processes follow the rhythm of the seasons… So the beers are more fruity in spring, light and refreshing in summer and more amber in the autumn, with more body and taste, and more alcoholic in winter, with a tendency towards strong brown beers... The Master Brewer, Luc Piron, offers a range of Brassins Spéciaux or special brews with some surprising flavours: beer with nettle, with heather flower, with organic honey, and others… Some of the beers are available only from the Brasserie des Fagnes. After brewing, fermentation and aging in tanks, they are transferred to storage tanks which are connected directly to the pumps in the tasting room. This is only place you will be able to taste them!

Although beer has been brewed in Rochefort since 1595, the monks of Saint-Remy Abbey call upon the know-how of their brothers in Chimay to produce a more refined beer. Its variants are denoted by figures: 6, 8 and 10, multiples of pleasure for the palate…

Even though they are brewed outside the walls by Duvel, three beers are made following the original recipe of Father Atout: they stand out thanks to their floral, fruity aroma. Their fermentation, which takes three months, ensures greater maturity. This beer can, of course, be enjoyed with Maredsous cheese. These products are inextricably linked with the abbey, its past and the values it upholds.

A stone’s throw from Dinant, in the small Leffe valley, nestles Prémontrés Abbey. Founded in 1121, it suffered the same fate as Dinant. When the town was sacked by Charles the Bold in 1466, the abbey did not escape the pillaging and destruction. A fountain of that period still exists, from which poured forth pure water, perfect for brewing beer. The abbey rose from its ashes and brewed again. In the 20th century, Leffe Abbey bequeathed the name of its beer to a secular company.… An unusual fate for this beer which is today the world’s most widely sold abbey beer!

The interactive and determinedly modern route reflects the ambition of Leffe, which is growing steadily… Infos: www.leffe.com/en/maison-leffe

Place du Château 08320 Vireux Wallerand Tél.: +33 (0)3 24 42 92 42 www.valdardennetourisme.com

65 quai Edgar Quinet 08500 Revin tél. : +33 (0)3 24 42 92 42 www.valdardennetourisme.com

Place Jean-Baptiste Clément 08800 Monthermé Tél. : +33 (0)3 24 54 46 73 www.meuse-semoy-tourisme.com

22-24 place Ducale BP 419 08107 Charleville-Mézières cedex Tél. : + 33 (0) 3 24 56 06 08 www.ardennes.com

4 place Ducale BP 229 08102 Charleville-Mézières cedex Tél. : + 33 (0) 3 24 55 69 90 www.charleville-tourisme.com

1, rue Cécilia Gazanière 08430 launois-sur-Vence Tél. : +33(0)3.24.35.02.69 Accès WIFI gratuit www.sud-ardennes-tourisme.com

35 rue du Ménil 08200 Sedan Tél. : +33 (0)3 24 27 73 73 www.tourisme-sedan.fr

Routis-bas, 24 - 6823 Villers-devant-Orval Tél. : +32 (0)61/61.41.61

rue des Grasses oies, 2b - 6760 Virton +32 (0)63/57.89.04 mtg@soleildegaume.be www.soleildegaume.be Open everyday from 9am to 6pm

place de la Gare, 2 - 6724 Marbehan +32 (0)63/63.57.70 info@marbehan.be www.marbehan-tourisme.be Open : - on Monday from 9.30am to midday and from 1pm to 6pm - from Tuesday to Friday : variable schedule - School holidays : also open during weekends from 10am to midday and from 2pm to 4pm

quai des Saulx, 12 - 6830 Bouillon +32 (0)61/46.52.11 info@bouillon-tourisme.be www.bouillon-tourisme.be Open all year round from Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm and on Sunday from 10am to 5 pm Closed on 25th December to 1st January

located at the entrance to the fortified castle esplanade Godefroid, 1 - 6830 Bouillon +32 (0)61/46.62.57 info@bouillon-initiative.be www.bouillon-initiative.be Open : - all year round except 25th December and 1st January - In December, January and February morning

rue de Noailles, 6 - 6460 Chimay www.si-chimay.be +32 (0)60/21.18.46

rue de Noailles, 6 - 6460 Chimay +32 (0)60/21.98.84 www.botteduhainaut.com