Omer Vander Ghinste

Had an interesting tour of Omer, possibly the most interesting of the 7+ Belgian Family breweries organised by Podge's for the third weekend in this March.

Many Belgian families have interesting brewing histories, but Omer probably puts that history together the best I've seen. And the highlight was when we were walking up four flights of stairs to the coolship, the six generations of Omers (the name of the first son of each generation) were pictured on the stairwell walls with a timeline and brewery milestones; including 1934, the year they launched their cash cow, a pils called Bockor. Then at the top, they had a second tasting room for special events. It overlooked the border between Flanders and France.

Omer is a classic regional brewery that is tight with local bars in Kortjik. But a few Omer brews also are good enough to export to the States. In their ground floor tasting room, we tried several brews not typically available outside of Kortjik.

Architecturally, the brewhouse was different; all the big shiny brewing equipment was housed in an expensive new brick, instead of typically showing the shiny through large windows. Omer also has an events room just off the site that is open to the public on nice days. It's called Cafe de Sportwereld. Omer's website gives the Cafe a page.
https://www.omervanderghinste.be/en/bezoek/virtual-visit

All in all, a memorable tour. But that was helped by all 40 tourists getting a sampler pack of Omer's Blond, Ypres and LeFort Tripel.... which I still have.