Van Brussel tot Vichte

*Warning!! Potentially boring details about beer to follow.*

Today we went to a little town called Vichte for a beer festival, the Karakterbier Weekend. Vichte is a small town south of Gent. We took a direct train from Brussels to Kortrijk which cost 9.60 euros per person each way. By the way, Kortrijk is roughly pronounced "core-truck" and Vichte like "Veech-teh" with the "ch" like the Scottish pronunciation of Loch.

Getting to the festival proved to be an arduous task as the town of Vichte is not accessible by train. HOP (the festival organizers) had arranged for a "taxi service" that picked up two times per day (1:30 and 3:00) from the nearest train station in Kortrijk. However, reservations were needed. I tried to make one this morning, but there was no answer. So, I figured we would chance it or hop on a bus, worst case. The lack of a reservation was indeed a problem, as the two Mercedes station wagons only had room for the other six to seven people who were also waiting at the station. So, we had to take the bus which was not only a bit pricey for a bus (4.40 euros for two people, one way), but also slow and inconvenient. We had to walk a kilometer or two in the rain.

That aside, the transit was worth it. What with 67 beers from 16 different breweries, there was a lot to choose from. Beneficial to tasting a larger variety of beer, the festival was organized around 15 cl samples rather than entire bottles. Each sample cost a measly one token (valued at 1 euro), but you were forced to purchase a sample glass for 3 euros. We purchased only one since I would be doing the brunt of the tasting.

The festival was set up in Vichte's community center, in a fairly large warehouse-like room. Each brewery had a booth set up along the walls of the room. Many tables and chairs on the main floor. Also available were cheese and meat plates with mustard for 2 euros a piece. Most beers were served from the bottle, but almost every brewery had one or two beers on tap. There was a "tombola" running constantly and the odds of winning seemed pretty good, judging by how many people had prize bottles of beer sitting in front of them. A "tombola" is an instant-winner raffle game where you randomly pick an envelope out of a box. Some envelopes are winners, leading to beer prizes like 750 ml bottles, six-packs, and t-shirts.

Now, for the important stuff... the beer. My general rule when I go to a festival is to only try beers I've never before tasted. Today was no exception to this rule. While most of the beers we tried were quite good, there were a couple of disappointments: Vapeur Cochonne from Brasserie Vapeur and Leroy Stout from Leroy - Van Eecke. Both were cloying and too strongly flavored. The Leroy Stout tasted as though it had been sweetened with aspartame or something like it. The tastiest surprise was a gem of a beer from Brasserie Tongrinnoise called La Tongrinnoise. I'm not sure what style it is, but it was a highly flavorful and aromatic dark ale. Very complex aroma and flavor. Here's a list of everything I tried with a five-star rating system (unrelated to the BA scoring method):

Vapeur Cochonne - no stars
Liefmans Kriek - ***
Leroy Stout - no stars
Kriek De Ranke - ****
Alvinne Blonde - *
Moinette Bruin - ***
Het Kapittel Dubbel - **
La Tongrinnoise - ***
Bon Secours Myrtille - **
Urthel Samaranth - ***

There were many more I would have liked to try, but one can only do so much. My proudest accomplishment at the festival, however, was finding another beer that Kristen likes, Liefmans Kriek (a cherry infused lambic). She went from favoring the inexcusable Belle-Vue Kriek to Lindenmans Cassis and now Liefmans. It seems she is moving towards more "authentic" lambic! We're making progress!

The beer-tasting done with, we hopped in one of the festival "taxis" and were driven back to Kortrijk station for 1 euro each. A much faster and more comfortable trip. Since we had about 45 minutes before our train back to Brussels, we grabbed a couple of "grote pita mixte" at a place called Pitta House, across from the station. Similar to a gyro, these pitas are stuffed with meat from those revolving spits, lettuce, tomato, onions and a special sauce. Kristen chose mayonnaise as her sauce and I went for one called Samurai which was a tangy, spicy Asian sauce. Mayonnaise as a sauce?! Well, if you taste the mayo here, you won't cringe! I don't know what they do differently, but there's a reason it is the most popular dip for frites... because it tastes really good! These were the best gyro/pitas that we've ever tasted, maybe even worth the hour-long train ride alone! Not only did they hit the spot with amazing accuracy, they gave me some added padding to prevent the beer-samples from yanking my feet out from under me.

We had a peaceful train-ride back to Brussels, through a pitch-black countryside. A great day and definitely worth all the hassle!

--RP--