Beer focus: Belgium

Belgium? What’s that all about? No-one’s quite sure, not even the Belgians.

It’s a ball of confusion, 30,000 square kilometers of “eh?” cut across the middle into two regions that don’t like each other very much.

There’s a town called Silly and another one called Dave. What’s more, they speak two separate languages – French and Flemish.

If you include the German speakers, of which there are many, they actually speak three languages in Belgium but, seriously, let’s not make things any more confused than they are.

What does Belgium do? Bureaucracy – that’s why the European Union made Brussels its base – and a fine line in waffles, moules & frites, chocolate and of course, as we dovetail seamlessly into the main thrust of the article, brewing beer.

Belgian beer, much like the nation from where it hails, is a little unusual. The Belgians are the punks of brewing – anarchic advocates of esoteric ales who, unlike their strait-laced neighbours in Germany, refuse to be strait-jacketed by purity laws. Brewing boundaries are far broader than anywhere else in Europe and while America likes to think it invented “extreme beer”, the Belgians have been crafting it for centuries.

Belgium boasts more indigenous beer styles than any other nation in the world, a broad beer church whose pews are filled with Abbey ales, wild Lambic beers, gueuze, sour Flemish reds, witbier, farmhouse Saisons, pilsners and Trappist ales overseen by mashfork-wielding monks.

Regardless of style, Belgian beer is dispensed and delivered to drinkers with an unrivalled level of pomp and ceremony. Of the 30,000-plus cafés and bars serving beer in Belgium, you’d be hard-pressed to discover one that doesn’t serve beer the way it should – in the right glass and at the right temperature.

But, sadly, this reverence is currently camouflaging a Belgian beer market on the downturn. Having cold-shouldered the creep of consolidation for so long, Belgium’s beer scene is in the tightening grip of the big brewers, some of Belgium’s most revered breweries have been accused of cutting corners, dumbing down their iconic ales and sacrificing flavour for finance, and domestic beer consumption is in decline.

According to the Belgian Brewers’ Association, beer consumption has dropped from 12 million hectolitres in 1990 to 8.7m hectolitres in 2008. Given that the population is just over 10m, a 3.3m hectolitre drop represents a significant slump, akin to 27% of the volume.

It was only in 2005 that export sales of Belgian beer usurped domestic consumption and in 2009 exports accounted for more than 57% of Belgian brewing capacity. 78% of these exports end up in neighbouring European countries while 13% crosses the pond to America.

Belgian brewing, much like the country, is divided into two distinct regions (there is currently a lot of talk about the two regions seceding). Flanders to the north lays claim to a greater variety of styles (Flemish sour ales and Flemish red ales) while the French-speaking Wallonia, in the south, is renowned as the more rural, rustic region where spicy, herby beers reside.

You can, of course, drink pilsners throughout. Despite the plethora of styles available, it is pilsner and lager-style beers, armed with more marketing muscle than most, which dominate the domestic scene. Jupiler is Belgium’s biggest-selling beer and vies for this position alongside Maes Pils, from the Alken-Maes brewery now owned by Heineken, with the likes of Stella Artois, also found under the AB-InBev umbrella, and Palm not far behind.

Some of these brands have made forays, of various sizes, into the UK market. The story of Stella Artois is well-known. It recently attempted to maintain its position within a premium lager sector by launching a 4% version and a new “Stella Black” variety – a slightly darker version that has been taken on by Mitchells & Butlers in the on-trade.

Alongside an advertising campaign focussed on its eco-friendly credentials, Stella Artois has also done much to raise beer reverence both in Britain and beyond via its World Draught Master Competition – a global quest to find the best beer barman and to promote the brand’s nine-step pour.

Maes, which was rebranded and revamped with a higher abv last year, has long enjoyed a listing at the Belgo and Bierodrome restaurant and bar chain, while Palm has recently set up a UK operation aimed at gaining greater traction in pubs and bars.

Yet of the Belgian-style pilsners available in the UK, it’s Vedett and its distinctive Duvel-style bottle that has made the biggest impression in recent times – especially among the upper echelons of the on-trade. A light, well-hopped lager softened with the use of rice and owned by the dynamic Duvel-Moortgat, Vedett is sipped in all the right style bars and advertised on cement mixing trucks in Belgium. In the UK, the marketing focus has been on bespoke labels featuring the faces of drinkers.

The most recent Belgian pilsner to enter the fray in the UK is Mongozo Pilsner, the world’s first certified gluten-free, Fairtrade, organic and vegan pilsner which is being brought in by Cave Direct, arguably the most well-established importer of Belgian beers in the UK.

“Belgian pilsners are doing very well in the UK as while Belgium is readily associated with Trappist beers and strong ales, accessible drinking lagers are more accessible to most drinkers – especially when adorned with the authentic Belgian association,” said Cave Direct’s Phil Lowry.

Mongozo, brewed at the Huyghe brewery in East Flanders, is more readily associated with esoteric fruit beers such as Mongozo Coconut and Mongozo Banana Beer. Both are part of a Belgian fruit beer sector showing strong growth.

“There’s a big growth in fruit beers,” said Lowry. “People like sweet, fruity things and fruit beers such as Fruli are great for bringing new drinkers into beer.

“The good thing is that we see people then graduating through to more tart, sour fruit beers and krieks brewed by the likes of Boon, Drie Fontein and Cantillon.”

Also hailing from the Huyghe brewery is Fruli, the best-selling Belgian fruit beer in the UK. Its position is being challenged by Liefmans which, in 2008, was taken under the wing of Duvel-Moortgat.

The new owner discontinued Liefmans’ famous “Frambozen” raspberry beer and the Liefmans Kriek beer was renamed Liefmans Cuvée-Brut and repackaged with the trademark tissue-paper. A new generic and lighter “fruit” beer was released which is brewed using “natural fruit juices of strawberry, raspberry, cherry, elderberry and bilberry” and hailed for “only having 99 calories per bottle”.

While some purists have scoffed, the new brand has benefited from considerable support from Duvel-Moortgat in the UK and it’s currently at the forefront of a fruit beer category that also includes Florisgarden, Timmermans, Floris, Lindemans and Boon.

Nigel Stevenson of specialist importer James Clay identified fruit beers as a big area of growth alongside abbey beers and blonde and golden ales such as Duvel, Maredsous and La Chouffe – which has benefited from being switched from a 75cl bottle to a more Brit-friendly 33cl bottle.

Beyond proper beer boffins, the more unusual Belgian beer styles such as gueuze and Flemish sour ales tend to remain anomalous to the British palate. “The Belgian beer sector is still growing but it is being driven by a few brands rather than the whole category”, said Stevenson, who was recently named “Honorary Knight of Brewers’ Mashstaff” by the Guild of Belgian Brewers for his championing of Belgian brewing.

“The main barriers of consumption are strength and education,” added Stevenson. “It sort of clashes with British drinking culture but some Belgian brewers are beginning to understand that the UK is different to the home market and France and Holland.

“Many of the very small brands have some novelty value but in the more mainstream market, it’s difficult to see much of a place yet. Belgium’s big range of flavours and styles are difficult to communicate to consumers.”

Of the Trappist beers, arguably the jewels in Belgium’s brewing crown, it is Chimay that is elevating its status most aggressively in the UK. Yet Lowry feels that they don’t quite receive the reverence they deserve by the trade. “People have become a little laissez-faire about Trappist beers but forget how special they are.

“They’re brewed with great ingredients, integrity and impressive altruistic intentions,” he added. “If consumers are concerned about provenance and packaging, it’s worth noting that Trappist beers are still brewed by monks in monasteries and much of the profit goes to great causes.”

When Westvleteren 12, a sublime Trappist ale, was recently voted by the www.ratebeer.com website as the best in the world, the brewery was not able to cope with the beer’s sudden popularity. Callers inquiring after its availability were met with the message: “’Our shop is closed because all our beer has been sold out." The Father Abbot added on the website: ”We are not brewers, we are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks.”

In Belgium, the beer tends to do the talking. “It’s not always enough though,” said Lowry. “You need to understand how people discover new beers and embrace social media in the same way that American craft brewers do”.

This may change with a new generation of Belgian brewers, many influenced by America, on the rise. Unshackled by tradition, the likes of De Dolle, Struise and Ellezelloise are breathing life back into Belgium’s anarchic brewing reputation.

“Belgian beer is morphing and external influences are being increasingly expressed,” added Lowry. “Craft beer is growing full stop and Belgian beer is an established pillar of that. People want flavour, they want reverence, they want tradition and they want variety. Belgium has all of this.”

Ben McFarland, 29.10.2010