What bottles can I find on shelves of great liquor stores? What are the onsite menus of Grote, 3F, Lambic-o-Droom, Cantillion, and other necessary stops.. Suggestions on lesser 'known' lambic on the shelf that are phenomenal? Are Bokkreyer avail anywhere? A low down would be great. Thank You.
I am looking to 'try' as many great beers as possible, whether that is onsite or take away. I know I won't have to trade for Zenne, as it is onsite at Lambic-O-Droom. I believe I will have to trade for LPK to taste it, as I havnt seen it available anywhere, at all. OGV '08? OGV '10? Vintage St Lam? Hommage and Golden Blend seem to be gone a few days ago. Any still around for on site, or will I have to trade for them? I will keep this to Lambic.
LPK almost always seems to be available for onsite drinking at Cantillon. In general, I think you'd have to be fairly jaded not to find a few things to get excited about on their list! I don't know much about the Lamic-O-Droom - there's a menu on their Facebook page but it's probably out of date. Moeder Lambic Original is also worth a look.
By and large, there's no shortage of interesting and unusual stuff to drink on-site in Brussels if you go to the right places. It's only takeaways where people really have to scramble around chasing limited bottles.
Onsite menus for 3F and Cantillon are tracked regularly on threads in this forum. The list (for Cantillon at least) changes all the time. The great bottle shops have an incredible variety of stuff on the shelves. However, you are not likely to see old/rare bottles because...surprise...people buy those when they come out. Many of the well known bars like Moeder Lambic, Kulminator, etc will have great old/rare bottles (at a price).
3f menu is on their website cantillon changes a lot bokkereyder maybe in verzekering tegen de grote dorst butn ot sure finding seasonals of 3f or cantillon on a shelve is finding a needle in a haystack regulars can be found "easily"
3F menu on the website was accurate when I was there a week ago, minus most of the cask stuff which was only actually for tour de gueuze. Don't overlook 3F Vintage, I had a 2010 that was awesome, not quite as good as Zenne, but a hell of a lot cheaper. Cantillon had all of the LPs, 50N, carignan, 2007 gueze, st lam grand cru, etc. available for on site. You should have more than enough rare options there. The only thing I really wanted in Belgium which I failed to get was Black Damnation stuff (saw it on some menus but they were always out). I did however stare through the window at some bottles in their store in Bruge pissed off that they were only open 3 days a week (none of which I was in town).
Great thread. My sister is going to be in Belgium here shortly, and I asked if she'd be willing to grab me a beer or two. She doesn't understand it, but I'm excited!!!
Just don't get locked into your known unknowns. You'll find tons of stuff that you didn't know you wanted to try, until you do. Search in this forum for places to drink lambic & gueuze in country. There have been some threads on that.
One Gueuze to try while there is Oude Gueuze De Cam. Be sure and do the tour at Cantillon and then try a glass of the one year old Lambic, if they have some on offer. That will help in understanding why a Gueuze is a blend and some of the effects of aging some Lambic before blending different age Lambics to get the Gueuze.
If your sister is anything like mine, she'll be happy tp stop at a shop to buy a couple bottles, but isn't likely to trek across the country trying to find some new release or obscure beer. Assuming she will be in Brussels, Cantillon is reasonably to find, but isn't someplace she'd just happen to walk past. None of the other breweries that are probably on your list would be anywhere near where she is going. I'd find out her itinerary and then just search the best bottle shop in that town. Standard 3F or Cantillon stuff shouldn't be hard to find since the bottle shops tend to be top notch. If you go too obscure you are likely to end up with nothing...or two bottles of Brugse Zot.
If she's only going to be in Brussels, have her grab some De La Senne beer(s) for you. Very good brewery located in Brussels & should be readily available & easy to find in the city.
Thanks guys. She is willing to grab me something, but I don't think she'd want to go too much out of her way. I know she's in Antwerp, and going north. And eventually into the Nederlands. I told her to get a bottle of two of something that says Cantillon or 3F.
When is your sister coming, maybe I can hand her over struise for some beer she brings with her :-) Only hope not begin July because I come to the States then.
I appreciate the offer, but she's actually there now. I misunderstood her schedule, she's bouncing around a bit more than I thought. I told her to bring me something, but I told her not to worry too much about tracking anything specific down.
