Oakland bierkroeg

A few days ago we visited the Oakland bierkroeg known as The Trappist. A bierkroeg is a special place where beer connoisseurs sample fancy and hard-to-find beers in exotic settings that -in the olden days at least- included lot of tobacco smoke. Now that the smoke has cleared in all but the most rural kroegen, the eclectic character of the bierkroeg is even more apparent.

The Trappist, while smokeless and extensively decorated with Belgian memorabilia is a different experience altogether. It is a rather crowded, noisy bar similar to the ones you would find near a college campus in Leuven or Gent. Although the public is a bit older than your average student, many appear to have never left those golden days. On many nights it is standing room only at the Trappist.

The beer selection however, is better than anything you can find on this side of the Atlantic and The Trappist does serve beer in its appropriate glass, which is highly unusual in the States. As you might imagine The Trappist sells a lot of trappist beers, but they also have other Belgian and American brews.

Trappist, front bar. Large selection on tap.

The Trappist has a large selection of beers on tap, but all bottled beers are stored in a standard refrigerator, something that would send chills down the spine of any bona fide Belgian bierkroeg owner.

As luck would have it, on the night we visited, The Trappist had a special on real Trappist beers, albeit from the only Trappist Abbey that is not Belgian: La Trappe, located in the Netherlands. The bar had pulled out all the stops for the event and served all varieties made at La Trappe, including some extra special ones, like the Quadrupel oak.

La Trappe, authentic Trappist, from Holland.

True to my Belgian nature I ordered a Tripel Karmeliet, an abbey-style beer that is brewed by Brouwerij Bosteels in Buggenhout, while my companion had a real La Trappe Isid'or.  The La Trappe is on the left in the picture below. The Karmeliet in its specially designed glass, sporting a Fleur de Lys, is on the right. The Karmeliet is a wonderful beer that has won several awards in international competitions.

Although the Karmeliet was very good, it cannot -in my opinion- compare to the Duvel, my all time favorite beer. Brouwerij Moortgat has recently introduced a new Duvel, the Triple Hop in the States. We had one last week and it is every bit as good as I expected, albeit a bit pricey at nearly $20 a bottle.

Tripel Hop

While we are anxiously awaiting the season opener, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, to be held this Saturday, I am happy to inform you that Bjorn Leukemans' bottom is healing fine. The rider was in the news earlier this week because he was struggling with a deep seated boil on his rear end.

I leave you with this dramatic photo of clouds over San Francisco. If all goes as forecast, we may have snow by the weekend. Bay Area peaks such as Mt. Tam, Mt. Hamilton and Mt. Diablo are already covered in the white stuff that is predicted to hit an all time low this coming Saturday. I have yet to experience snow on the ground in the 25 odd years that I have lived here. But as they say, there is a first for everything.

Looking over SF Bay

Land of make believe

Belgium has been without a government for more than eight months, surpassing Iraq as the nation that has been without government the longest. Despite the absence of clear leadership the country is doing well which just goes to show you that elected officials do not contribute all that much to the proper functioning of a democracy.

Belgium is doing so well that the Jupiler beer company decided to finally introduce Force, a soft drink for men. Because, as my faithful readers know, in Belgium men -I should say adults really- don't drink sodas. Sodas are for kids.

Ever since the dawn of civilization Northern European males have imbibed beer. But thanks to a recent health craze that is no longer acceptable to everyone, so what is a man to do? Many in the younger generation follow the example of America and go pop, but the average Belgian male, who is older than a teenager was facing a huge dilemma -until now.

Finally! A refreshment brewed for men.

In the US meanwhile, things are not going so well. Not only is everyone desperately obese and on the verge of -if not outright suffering from- type 2 diabetes, thanks to all that soda pop, but the government is in turmoil too. Clearly something needs to be done and what better thing to do than to cut wasteful government spending? Or dismantling the not-yet universal access to healthcare?

That of course sounds great until you ask people what wasteful government spending they want to cut. The US does not have the generous benefits that European nations have. Besides, what entitlements there are, these are off-limits by definition. Nobody wants to cut social security or medicare, which make up most of the budget. Defense is also off limits, as defense contracts are the key pork elected officials are there to defend. Furthermore, after 9-11, there is no public support for a weak America. Never mind that Ronnie ended the cold war decades ago. The pentagon never received the message.

The real problem facing the nation, of course is not spending but lack of revenue. As in taxes that nobody wants to pay, and certainly not those who can afford to pay taxes. They instead, get a huge break. The top 1% of Americans, who own over 1/3 of the nation's wealth would rather not be taxed, yet a very small increase in their tax rate could solve all our deficit problems -both federal and state- overnight.

One well known bank executive, who was just rewarded with a $12 million bonus, remarked that all of California's deficit problems would disappear with just a 1% across the board tax increase. Most states are in the same boat. But don't say that to the rich.

The mantra is that taxing the rich will cause them to run away. Where exactly they would run to is unclear but everyone is convinced they have their bags packed and are ready to go as soon as someone will ask them to spend an extra dollar.

The other mantra is that taxing corporations will drive away business and make American businesses non-competitive. Never mind that American business profits are at an all time high. That is right, with true unemployment near 20%, American corporations are making record profits. And a key reason why that is so, is because these businesses cut expenses (read workers) or moved operations overseas where wages are lower and benefits non-existent.

In other words, the rich won't run and the jobs are already gone, so why is no one in the land of make-believe catching on?

As we all know tax increases are deadly for elected politicians so maybe America should take a cue from Belgium and go without elected officials for a while??

In other news, Ivan Basso ended up in tenth place in his opening race, the Trofeo Laigueglia. The Italian did show his form on one of the climbs but he could not carry his momentum through to the finish. There Daniele Pietropolli won the sprint before Simone Ponzi and Angel Vicioso.

Robert Gesink won the 18 km time trial in Oman and is now all but assured of victory. Cancellara was fourth. The race ends tomorrow with a flat stage. In Portugal, Alberto Contador remains in second, six seconds off the leader Stephen Cummings. Greipel won the stage there.

A crisp beer for the holiday

Yesterday we tasted a Saison Dupont with dinner. Named the Best Beer in the World by Men's Journal in 2005, this one is highly recommended. I will not go as far as calling it the best in the world, but it is definitely up there. I am also not sure which one Men's Journal choose as the Dupont brewery has several styles including some dark ones and some that are only available locally.

We had the Vieille Provision, a beer described as crisp and well balanced, with a hint of citrus and a slightly bitter finish. It is a blonde ale -Like all gentlemen I prefer blondes.

Saison means season in French and Saison beer was traditionally a low alcohol beer brewed in Walloon farm houses  in Spring to refresh the farm workers during the upcoming harvest season. Traditional Saison is a 3.5% beer but the Vieille Provision we tasted was more at a more typical -for Belgian beer that is- 6.5%. Still the alcohol is not very noticeable and the beer goes down smooth and easy.

Vieille Provision is an unfiltered -hence cloudy- bottle conditioned brew that looks just great in my opinion. This is the ideal refreshment after a long ride through the country side. I also found it a fitting reward for finishing my 2X20 interval workout.

Coaches' wisdom and an abbey beer that isn't

While I am struggling with a piece of windows software, that like most pieces of windows software isn't really ready for prime-time, I was reminded of the following tidbits I heard at the coaches' clinic in San Diego. In no particular order, here are some gems:

-A large part of your job as a coach is to come up with interesting workouts so your clients don't get bored.
-Many athletes can accurately estimate their perceived level of intensity, if you say do a workout at this power level, they nail it every time.
-Perceived intensity correlates with blood lactate levels
-You can use a power meter to train yourself to get an accurate perceived intensity
-I never use a heart rate monitor anymore, it adds no value
-I haven't looked at a heart rate monitor in years
-Heart rate is always at a max for the entire duration of this workout, it tells you nothing
-When I look at this power profile, I don't need a muscle biopsy, I can tell what the outcome will be
-Quadrant analysis was developed to prove a point
-Crank length does not matter. 165 to 180, it all works equally well.
-Eat normal food as much as you can during an endurance event
-You can only absorb 3-400 calories per hour. Most people can only do 2-300.
-Most people get stomach issues when they try to eat 3-400 calories an hour in just carbohydrate
-Protein has no use in endurance other than to possibly prevent GI issues

And to digest all that, let me propose an abbey beer that isn't. Maredsous, named after the Benedictine Abbey at Denee, near Namur, is brewed by Moortgat Brouwerij NV, makers of Duvel, the best of all Belgian beers. In some sense it is an exquisitely Belgian product, being conceived in Wallonia and crafted in Flanders. The bottle does not carry the hexagonal official Trappist marker, since the brew is not made at the abbey by monks and furthermore, the Benedictines at Maredsous aren't even Trappists.

Maredsous blond 6

Nevertheless the Blond 6 is a wonderful concoction. Not quite as crisp and clean as Duvel, but softer and equally flavorful. The recipe is said to have been developed at the abbey, hence giving the beer its creds.

Maredsous is also the name of a semi-soft artisanal cheese that goes well with this beer. Five varieties exist and all are made at the abbey.  The Tradition and Mi-vieux can be found in most grocery stores and supermarkets all over Belgium and Europe. Unlike the beer, Maredsous cheese is not imported into the US.

Maredsous cheese, to get this you need to visit Belgium

For you lovers of dark brews, Maredsous also comes as Bruin (brown) 8 and a Tripel 10. As the numbers indicate these contain more alcohol (by %) and hence should be savored more slowly.

More on beer: de bierkroeg

For my personal take on Belgian brews see, after the race: Belgian Beer. Here I want to focus a bit more on where you get the liquid gold. As I mentioned in my earlier post, most traditional Belgian beers are rather delicate and don't travel well. They need to be taken care of and such special care can only be provided in special places. If you wanted to skip the bars altogether and buy beer to consume at home, be advised that local brews are also hard to find. You could easily visit a dozen grocery stores (beer is sold in grocery stores in most places) and never see one. Even specialty liquor stores may not have them, focusing on wine and spirits instead.

Your average neighborhood bar, called a cafe in Belgium will only have a limited selection of beers. Furthermore, they may not be very brand conscious and just serve you what they think is a regular beer, or a more fancy upscale beer, or even a Trappist, regardless of what and how you order it. Truth be told, with the large influx of tourists, most places in bigger cities and tourist hangouts will usually ask you if a substitute beer is OK. But it is not like you will have much choice.

Fortunately you can get a decent Duvel anywhere in Belgium. That is another reason why I like this beer so much. You don't have to go out of your way to get it.

Contrary to what you might think, tourist hangouts are to be avoided. If you want to go there, go there for the sights and sounds, but don't expect the really good stuff. Also expect to pay through the nose for whatever it is you order. Some places, like the Markt in Brugge simply focus on charging the highest price for whatever item, while others, like the Markt/Grand Place in Brussels, seem to specialize in serving odd looking contraptions that make foreigners pause. One such contraption is Kwak, a fairly decent brew that comes in a special glass that attracts tourists like honey attracts bears.

While tourist hangouts may serve Lambic, Kriek, Cassis, and Peche, all of it will be artificially sweetened stuff -usually from Lindemans. Not that that is necessarily bad, and I too enjoy a Kriek after riding up the Kapelmuur in Geraardsbergen, even if it isn't the real thing. The exhaustion and the setting take care of that and any Kriek I have had in Geraardsbergen has tasted as good or better than the real thing.

When riding remember to visit the Cafe of the Ronde Centrum in Oudenaarde after your ride and taste the Flandrien on tap. The Ronde Centrum is an ideal spot to start and end all your rides because all the major tourist routes originate and end here. Here you can access the blue loop, the green loop and the orange loop I mentioned before. You can also take a shower and use the facilities before indulging in some local brews. The cafes on the Markt in Oudenaarde are more scenic, but the Flandrien is a beer worth trying and you can only find it here. Plus you can buy the glass with the bicycle wheel on it.

That said, to drink the real thing, go visit a bierkroeg or streekbiercafe. Some are easy to find and easy to get to. That is the case with Herberg De Dulle Griet on the Vrijdagmarkt in Gent or the nearby De Trollekelder by St. Jacob's church. Also in Gent you can find good food and excellent drink at Brasserie Deus in de Vlaanderenstraat.


Cafe de la Paix on the Grote Markt in  Poperinge has a great selection of both speciality and regional beers but you will probably want to drive there. As the Michelin guide would say, it is well worth the detour. On sunny days there is a nice outdoor area where you can sit and watch the townspeople go about their business.

In Bruges, your best bet is 't Brugs Beertje in the Kemelstraat. That is easily accessible and close to the underground parking 't Zilverpand.

There are many excellent bierkroegen in and around Antwerp and Brussels but to go there you will probably need a car. If you go in summer and race the kermis races of Hoeleden-Dries near Leuven, be sure to make a slight detour and visit the town and brewery of Hoegaarden. You should also go by Leuven. Leuven is a wonderful town with beautiful buildings and if you have time to spare you can visit the Stella brewery there.

Finally a tour of the Lambic area in the Zenne/Senne valley, Southwest of Brussels is a must for the true connoisseur.

Befuddled and perplexed: ordering drinks

No free water

No simple act is more confusing to Americans than ordering drinks in Belgium. Here is where subtle cultural differences that go largely unnoticed in other areas of life can hit you squarely in the face and they do so when least expect it. Let's start with some ground rules to clarify the situation.

Unlike much of the Western United States, Belgium has a wet temperate climate. There is no imminent danger of dehydration here. Nobody feels the need to walk around with fluids or drink while walking and doing so is generally frowned upon. The only people that walk around with drinks are tourists or teens trying to imitate them. Eating or drinking while walking is not cool.

Nobody needs cup holders in their car or even likes the idea of you bringing drinks into their car. This is not a country where you order drinks for take out. If you want to have a drink you go to a cafe, sit down and order something. Unless you are a child, a woman, or an athlete, you don't order sodas or water either. You drink beer, even at McDonalds.

Here is rule number two: nothing you order, or ask for, or do, in a cafe, bar or restaurant is free, not even going to the bathroom. People expect you to pay for everything. So don't ask for water or inquire about refills. Also, do not expect drinks to come in large sizes or in glasses filled with ice. To the average Belgian, ice is frozen tap water and diluting a drink you pay for with tap water is cheating. Unless you are at a festival or fair, all drinks will be served in a glass and drinking from the bottle is uncouth.

Traditional places won't serve ice cold drinks either. There is a strong belief that cooling drinks excessively masks the taste and is just another way to deceive the customer. The ideal temperature for beer is cellar-cool. That is a bit hotter than the average refrigerator.

In general, Belgians do not order water to drink. You can do so in an expensive restaurant along with your wine, or late at night, when you had too much to drink, but it is not customary otherwise. If you ask for water, the waiter is likely to ask you whether you want plat (non-carbonated) water or spuit (carbonated) water. The water will most likely come in a small bottle (25 cl) that is as expensive as any other drink on the menu. If you ask for ice, you may get one or two smallish cubes.

When it comes to regular drinks -which includes everything but expensive wine and beer, and then  only in specialized places-, Belgians are not brand conscious and you will get served whatever the establishment serves. When you order a cola, or a Coke or a Pepsi, you will get whatever cola drink the cafe or restaurant serves. Belgian cafes and restaurants have business deals with their distributers and it is the distributers who decide what is available. Nobody will ask you to specify your choice, or inform you that your favorite brand is not available. It simply does not occur to them that you could be brand conscious. Nobody will say "Pepsi or Coke?" or ask you if Pepsi is fine when you order a Coke.

The same applies to beer unless you go to a cafe that specializes in beer varieties. At your local cafe you can order generically (een pintje--a beer) or by specifying a brand, say a Stella, but you will get whatever it is they have. The same applies to more upscale brands such as Tuborg. You can order a Tuborg, but you are about as likely to get a Carlsberg or a Becks or any other brand the cafe considers more upscale. Een spa-tje, named after the city of Spa, is generic for (carbonated) water.

In Belgium, SPA is generic for carbonated water

One thing that really throws foreigners for a loop is when they order a Scotch. In most cafes Scotch will mean Scotch Ale and not wisky although most catch the error before the drink arrives. Belgian cafes are not used to serving hard alcohol since it was only recently made legal.

Scotch, Belgian style

As a rule, Belgian grocery stores do not have cold drinks ready to go. It used to be impossible to find cold drinks in a grocery store even if the place had in-store refrigerators. The notable exception to this rule is night stores (nachtwinkels).  These usually have a large selection of cooled drinks.

Nearly all Belgian coffee is dark roasted and most is of decent quality. The cheaper brands are bitter but in general the coffee is stronger and more flavorful than in the US. Contrary to popular belief, dark roasts have less caffeine than the light roasts that are popular in much of the US.

Filter-koffie

The most common way to serve coffee is the so-called filter. Some people just order een filter. When you do so you will get a contraption that includes a cup and a small coffee filter with reservoir on top. It may come already filled or the waiter may pour in boiling water. You wait until the drip stops and enjoy your coffee. A coffee will always come with a small piece of chocolate or a small cookie.

Nearly all other coffee drinks are misnomers and it is always exciting to see what you will get when you  order one. If you want an espresso, order a moka, because espresso (spelled expresso in Belgium) will get you a larger cup that may or may not be filled with coffee from the espresso machine. A Belgian cappuccino is a large cup of coffee with whipped cream on top.  In France, and some French speaking parts of Belgium ordering a coffee will get you a cafe au lait instead.

Belgians are not tea drinkers. Although nearly every place where you sit down and eat pastries with a drink is called a Tea Room, very few people drink tea. When you order tea, you are most likely going to get a cup of warm water with a lipton tea bag on the side. Some fancy places serve many different herb teas -what the French call infusions- but their selection of real tea is generally quite limited too.

Although Belgium has many unwritten rules, there are lots of exceptions too. The rules on walking around with drinks and food do not apply to tourist hotspots, such as the markt in Brugge, festivals, kermissen, and hence most bike races. Here you can order beer and food to go, although you will generally be served beer in a glass, and be expected not to wander too far so you can return the glass to where you bought the beer. At open air festivals such as the Gentse Feesten, you can wander around all over town drinking beer from the bottle, although most will want a glass even here. You can also order Frieten  (fries) to go. But once again, you are not expected to wander around too far from where you bought them.

After the race: Belgian beer

After the race, a good brew

Like most Belgians I grew up with beer. When I was a kid our family, like so many other Belgian families, drank "table beer" with meals. Table beer for us was a low alcohol version of the local pilsner and it was the drink we had with lunch and dinner (see Belgian cuisine). There were no sodas in our house, although I am sure that as kids my sister and I would have preferred the sugary taste.

Simply the best...

The village I grew up in had two local breweries, and on foggy days the smell of yeast hung in the air. You could ride your bike by the breweries, and apart from the distinctive smell I can remember looking at a dripping pipe that stuck out of the side of the building and hung over where the side-walk ought to have been. It seemed to be oozing beer (or was it pre-beer?) constantly.

The local breweries went out of business before I reached puberty but as a teen I remember that local pilsner on tap was the brew of choice in nearly all cafes. Stella wasn't a big name yet and near Bruges, Maes was a worthy competitor. At my grandparents house they drank Vieux Temps, which I will always remember as vile liquid with a strange aftertaste. But my grandfather seemed to like it. Especially when fortified with genever, the local gin.

At the time, you drank een pintje (a beer) when you were thirsty or when you went out partying. Some older folks preferred a Geuze, and they often poured in grenadine syrup to make it sweet. If you were a bit better off you had a Tuborg or a Carlsberg, or in some places a Becks. None of these are Belgian by the way. If you really wanted to be fancy you drank Trappist or a Pale Ale -which ironically enough was almost always a dark British beer -I later found out these brews were specially fortified versions of British ales made for the Belgian market. Some places had Stout or Guinness.  But in general, dark beers were for winter, and in summer you had a fancy fruity Kriek instead.

Oude Gueuze

A lot has changed since then and for one thing, Belgian beers have become a lot more famous. Belgian beer has always been famous in places like France, where it was hard to find a good beer, or the Netherlands, where Heineken or Grolsch were the local stuff, and Stella was fancy.

Here are a few things you should know about Belgian beer. First, Belgian beers are stronger than beers in any other country. I already mentioned that the British breweries make special fortified versions of their regular brews for the Belgian market. Even regular beers in Belgium are quite a bit stronger than American beers. Second, most authentic Belgian beers are ales or top fermented beers, and all the good ones use secondary fermentation in the bottle. That means they don't travel well and they should not be exposed to excessive temperatures. Third, true Belgian beers are an acquired tasted, even for Belgians. Fourth, Belgium is a country where, unlike Germany, people use anything and everything to make beer. Belgians are also very creative when it comes to beer. As a consequence, Belgium is the land of very good and very bad (very sugary) beer.

Unlike most beer connoisseurs I prefer blond beers and my all time favorite Belgian beer is Duvel. I have gone through more favorite-beer periods than I care to remember, but I find that I always come back to Duvel. It is quite simply, the best beer in the world as far as I am concerned.

The other Belgian beer I really like, and one that is ideal for summer is Hoegaarden, locally -where I come from- known as een Witteke or een Blancheke. 


When it comes to fancy stuff, I could mention Trappist from Westvleteren, but that would only be to make you jealous as the beer is next to impossible to get -unless you want to spend a summer in Belgium and are very resourceful on top of it. Westvleteren is very good, but a large part of its charm is that it is so difficult to get a hold of. I am not a real fan of Trappist but Orval is probably the best one you can actually buy.

For a real taste of Belgium though, try a Geuze Lambic. Lambic is a brew fermented with wild yeast and it is only made in the valley Southwest of Brussels, where atmospheric conditions are right. Geuze is a mixture of lambics, some old and some young that undergo a secondary fermentation in the bottle. Although you can buy Geuze everywhere, finding an authentic brew is hard to do, and the best Geuze does not travel well at all. Cantillon Geuze and Cantillon Kriek are excellent. Also great is Lindemans, Cuvee Renee -not the other stuff, only Cuvee Renee, and 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze and Kriek.

It looks like Dom Perignon and costs almost as much too!

Geuze is an acquired taste but one that is well worth acquiring. It is a fabulous drink, on par with a great wine. Another exceptional beer is Deus, Brut des Flandres. It is also one of the most expensive beers you can buy. Deus has a label reminiscent of Dom Perignon and some say it tastes like that famous champagne too.

If you want to try some excellent refreshing local brews, try Rodenbach from Roeselare, or Hommelbier from Poperinge. Rodenbach is crisp and sour and it is often put in a category all by itself as a "red" beer. It was one of my grandmother's favorites (along with Guiness and Stout).  Hommel comes from the hop capital of Belgium and it is best when lightly chilled.

Nothing better than a cold beer

After Ironman Switzerland we were offered cold beer. Here in America, where recovery drinks reign, that would be considered heresy. But I have found that nothing tastes better or is more satisfying than a cold beer after a hard race. Especially when it is hot.

Please spare me the lectures that will say how alcohol dehydrates the body, or some other non-sense that is really trying to cover up the fact that you do not approve of anyone having a beer. I say, if it feels good there must be a reason why. That is, in general how biology works, and things that feel good are good for you (in moderation of course).

After Coeur d'Alene, I walked by a bar where a number of students were drinking beer from a pitcher. One started talking to me, and I -in my post-race high endorphin state- thought nothing of it to ask him if I could have a glass. To my surprise he promptly obliged and they filled a glass for me and the whole group toasted to my race. Man, that felt good.

Today it was quite hot and I ran 10.5 miles in the hills. That after having spent three hours this morning working in the sun. I was quite dehydrated. I drank several cups of water, all of which tasted so-so, some nuun, which tastes better, and even a Rockstar energy drink. But nothing really satisfied my thirst or ended my craving. In the end, I drank a beer and that really hit the spot. It was just amazing really how good it felt.

Cheers to all of you! Keep up the good work.