A weekday summer day at the beginning of July. The mercury above thirty degrees, the village of Achouffe almost extinct. Only a man with reddish hair in a white T-shirt dreals a bit about the street. He is on pre -exploitation and desperately wonders if there is anything to do today in the village.
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The four catering establishments are all closed. The crackling motorbikes of his friends from Breda drive away not much later for the silence in the Feeenvallei in which the village is located. Just like the occasional truck that drives to the brewery.
Growth is decreasing
The popularity of Belgian beers is slowly decreasing after years of enormous growth. Especially the exports to countries outside the European Union are falling, but growth has also been killing in recent years within Europe. Due to rising costs, the rise of local brewers and (non -alcoholic) alternatives.
Maximum one crate
But brewery visits and the stories behind the beers remain popular. Whether it is a tour of the Halve Maan brewery in the heart of Bruges with an unfiltered Brugse Zot for dessert, or a look at the visitor center of the Sint -Sixtus abbey in Westvleteren – where you can buy a maximum of one crate of the Trappist beer of the same name (see frameworks). Or, like us, a visit to the La Chouffe brewery.
After giving the tour, Monique serves the beers. © RIAS IMMINK
It is an hour later – the motorcyclists can no longer be seen in fields or roads, but there is now suddenly activity in the village. More than thirty tourists gather in no time on a square for a tour of the La Chouffe brewery. In their wake we go on tour through ‘Brasserie Achouffe’ – to learn more about the beer that is also known as Kabouterbier.
Sneeze
“Kabouters live in the forest in the valley, underground. Only occasionally do the gnomes come above the ground, but then it tickles. And then you hear: AAA-Chouffe!” Guide Monique starts while she pretends to sneeze. “That’s how La Chouffe gets his name.” A deadly silence fills the fairy valley. “You can laugh.”
Marcel Bakker and his son -in -law Koen Bemelmans. © RIAS IMMINK
La Chouffe originated in the early 1980s. Two brothers -in -law, Pierre Gobron and Chris Bauweraerts, came up with the idea of brewing a beer yourself while enjoying a beer. And so happened. In a cowshed, with a second -hand and collected brewing installation. They immediately brewed 49 liters, handed it out and it was appreciated.
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Two years later – in 1984 – their brew was available for the first time in a pub on tap. Of course in Achouffe, a village with only 37 inhabitants, where there are nowadays four catering establishments that are all based on the local brewery.
A million liters
In the meantime, La Chouffe has been taken over by Duvel Moortgat, the Kabouterbier is available in nearly sixty countries and no less than 36 million liters of beer are brewed per year. “The current brewery can lose a million liters of beer at the same time. Is that enough for this afternoon, do you think?” Asks Monique from the heated visitors. That beer comes afterwards, she assures. For the time being another tap is popular; That where bottles with cold water can be filled.
Sophie Massart, brand manager of La Chouffe. © RIAS IMMINK
Coriander
While waving with a flyer, taken a fan or hat, they listen to the Dutch guide who talks about the brewing process. From the water from our own source, over the barley and the different types of hops and herbs. Such as the addition of a little bit of coriander that makes La Chouffe the beer as we know it today. And over bottling, which happens in a village away and for which trucks drive back and forth daily.
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“Laying a pipeline, such as in Bruges (where a more than three kilometer long pipeline Brugse Zot brings from the brewery in the center to the Bottelarij outside the city, red) is not going here. Because of the height differences,” Monique explains.
One crate per license plate
On the other side of Belgium, on the west coast, is the village of Westvleteren. There, monks of the Sint-Sixtus abbey brew a Trappist beer, which is perhaps the most exclusive beer in the Benelux-if not from the world. Moreover, it is only available in one place on tap – there is also no one on the other side of the abbey and large. Only one (wooden) crate with beer is sold per license plate. For two years, Westvleteren is also for sale in the webshop of one Dutch liquor chain, but not in the store.
Marcel Bakker from Julianadorp is with his wife, children and grandchildren on family vacation in the Ardennes. He himself grew up under the smoke of the then Grolsch brewery in Enschede, but the idea of visiting La Chouffe came from his son-in-law, Koen Bemelmans. He turns out to be a real beer lover. “With friends we have a special beer app, in which we judge all the beers we drink. And when we are somewhere, on vacation, for example, we always try to visit a brewery.”
And they are not nearly the only ones, says Sophie Massart van Duvel Moortgat, because around 40,000 tourists visit the La Chouffe brewery every year. These are mainly Dutch and Flemish people, but also many Americans, French and British come to the Belgian village.
Monique van La Chouffe hands out the test glasses to a group of Antwerp girlfriends. © RIAS IMMINK
“Americans often combine it with a visit to Bastogne, which attracts many tourists because of the history of the Second World War,” says brand manager Sophie Massart. The fact that Achouffe is in a popular holiday area may also explain why the brewery attracts twice as many visitors as ‘big brother’ Duvel Moortgat (between Antwerp and Brussels).
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Finally time for beer
After an hour it is time for beer in the tasting room. The test glasses come on the table. The first beer to which the visitors are treated is the Light variant, which with 4 percent contains half of the alcohol percentage of the normal La Chouffe beer. That suits Bemelmans and his father -in -law: “We were already arguing who had to drive, but it solves itself.” Or not? Because after the first glasses are empty, it’s time for the next round. This time with 8 percent.
Unfiltered in Bruges
The Belgian city of Bruges is an open -air museum full of history and culture and is a perfect recommendation to visit. On the Walplein, in the middle of that beautiful city, lies De Halve Maan brewery, where Brugse Zot and Straffe Hendrik are brewed. Here too you can follow a tour.
The journey starts in the brewing room where ‘the noble wet’ is brewed. The tour – for which you climb a total of 220 steps – continues along the many brewing installations that have been used in recent centuries. Upstairs you also have a unique view of the city.
Here too, a reward awaits at the end of the tour, and what for one: an unfiltered Brugse Zot Blond, Brugse Zot Double or Straffe Hendrik Tripel. It is really worth it, and not available anywhere else. If you don’t feel like a tour but in such an unfiltered beer, walk in. The beer that comes from the outdoor cap does not come directly from the brewery, but simply from a cask.