In May, my wife and I will have a vacation in Europe. It will be my first time in Europe, and our first vacation away from our kids. We're both beer and food people. I'm asking you folks for "must sees" that are directly in our path or not too far off. We'll have a car, and we're planning on driving the route. We'd also be interested in areas to stay in Brussels or Paris. 9-10 May: Stuttgart. I know there's a spring beer festival going on -- worthwhile? 10-13 May: Brussels. I definitely want to hit Cantillon and the Delirium Cafe. 13-15 May: Paris. Is there beer here? 16 May: Fly home. Any advice?
The Dinkelacker brewery tap was pretty nice last time I was there. And there's a nice Paulaner pub. The brewpubs are shite.
In Brussels, I'd hit Moeder Lambic over Delirium Café, though it may just be a personal preference (or the fact that they had Lou Pepe on cask while we were there!). And don't miss the Bier Circus, either. We went for the beer but the food, oh lord the food, it was the best meal we had in two weeks in Europe, & it wasn't particularly close. We won't go to Brussels again without hitting up the Bier Circus.
Lots more Paris and Brussels in this forum, and in Benelux for Brussels. If you're driving between, come up through the Ardennes for places like Orval, Fantome and Bastogne (not sure if they do tours, but good beer), or else through Belgium's Hainaut province -- saison country, with Blaugies and Brasserie a Vapeur in Pipaix, And of course there's always Champagne to distract you along the way.
If you're planning a day in the west-flanders area, we can meet up. We can visit Westvleteren and Sint-Bernardus in Watou. And maybe do an IP trade ? Send me a message if interested...
Was in Paris two weeks ago and went to a great bottle shop called Cave a Bulles. Simon likes to trade and even bubble wrapped my bottles for me. If you search Paris in this forum, you'll find a thread that has a couple beer bars. I didnt have a chance to make by them though.
The wrap up: Stuttgart Fruhlingsfest. 'nuff said. Dinkel Acker pils (pictured) is actually pretty good. Schwabenbrau...not so much. Also, visited Maulwurf. Nice joint, good beer. Mostly German, with much more than your standard local German selection. Brussels Visited Cantillon. Probably the best brewery experience of my life. Randomly met 7 other midwesterners who were there for various reasons. One of them had been in Germany to visit his daughter, and intentionally planned a 23 hour layover in Brussels (longest he could manage) specifically so he could visit Cantillon. Between the nine of us, we split 11 750ml bottles of various Cantillons, some pictured here: I found it amazing how readily available world class beer is. My wife and I picked up a cold St. Bernardus ABT 12 and Rodenbach Grand Cru at a random convenience store; they opened the beers for us and we walked around Brussels sipping on them. Westvleteren 12 was not readily available, but not hard to find. 8 was frequently sighted as well. Only one place had the blonde. Best price we saw for 12 was actually at a bar, Monk, at 9.50€. We went back a second day. We did find a place with a couple Cantillon Lou Pepes, Bier Circus, but couldn't stomach the ~50€ price tag. Paris I decided to abandon beer prospects in Paris. We found a brewpub and a beer bar, but neither was enticing enough to draw me in. I figured, when in Paris...drink wine. Overall Thoughts Brussels is beer culture paradise. Everyone in every bar in Brussels is drinking beer -- they all have ~330ml servings of a very broad selection of very good beers, and drink according to their tastes and mood. Everyone in Stuttgart is drinking beer, too -- but they're all drinking huge servings of very similar beers. In Paris, everyone is drinking wine, except for college-age-looking kids who appear to be drinking Heineken or some other equivalent thereof.
