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

Lychee martinis and Belgian beer

Last night we went to a friend's birthday party in the now gentrified part of downtown Oakland. There, in an up and coming bar scene we were treated to a lychee martini. I have to admit that I do love a good martini and a lychee martini certainly sounded exotic, exciting, and novel so I was tempted to give it a try. Although the drink looked great -and smelled great too- I don't think it qualified as a martini. For some reason martini and sweet don't go together in my book.

Lychee martini

However I did discover that the bar sells Belgian beer and to my surprise they had Hoegaarden on tap. There are few drinks that can match a fresh Hoegaarden on tap and I was about to order one when we suddenly had to leave. Next time?

Oakland is suddenly becoming a haven for Belgian beer lovers. Nearby another bar, a bona fide bierkroeg, called The Trappist has 28 rotating taps and over 100 specialty bottles in stock. The Trappist serves all authentic trappist beers except of course WestVleteren. The menu reads  BIEREN VAN T VAT (beers on tap) in almost perfect Dutch. I have to point out that there is an apostrophe missing before the T, but hey this is the type of typo you may find in Belgium too.

For those who follow the Keisse situation, I am happy to report that Iljo is now in the officially-not-recognized lead in Rotterdam, and that he is safe for a few days. The reason is that the organizers won't pull him until UCI guarantees to pay the fines, and UCI is enjoying the weekend. So, until Monday at least Iljo is safe. In the meantime, Quickstep manager Patrick Lefevere has made some noise too, saying the Keisse-UCI affair has "damaged his trust."

A great bike and a great beer

The past weekend was decidedly mixed. My injuries are slowly healing up but late Sunday evening I was struck with a mild flu like illness that added more misery and is only now starting to clear. Before that happened however, I did have some great weekend moments.

First we picked up a new bike for Alistair, courtesy of Above Category. They built him a Moots Vamoots, which looks and feels totally spectacular. I am not one to go overboard on bike esthetics -a bike is after all just a machine that allows us to do certain things more efficiently- but the MOOTS is a beauty to behold. It has that coveted super cool brushed titanium look. What I find the most appealing about the bike though, is its simple esthetics. No oversized anything here, no beefy bottom brackets, specially reinforced this or that, or grossly misshapen tubing.

The new MOOTS

It is strange how people's perceptions change over time. I remember the days when Cannondale first came out with their oversized aluminum tubing, eliciting aversive reactions from most everyone I knew.  Even those in favor had to admit the bike looked different.

Now look around you. These days nearly every bicycle has oversized or oddly shaped tubing. Some have gone as far as making it appear as if the down tube was just bent back at a 150 degree angle to produce a top tube thereby totally obliterating the shape of the head tube. To say nothing of the "beefy bottom brackets," a source of endless ridicule for the infamous bikesnobnyc.

These days, bicycles have tubing that is larger in diameter than most cyclist's arms. But for one reason or another we have all gotten used to it. Just like we have gotten used to overweight people and think of them as normal. Only those who are grossly obese now strike us as being overweight. Supersize me is every bit as relevant today as it was six years ago.


On Sunday I went Christmas shopping with my daughter -well mostly window-shopping that is- and later topped it off with some seafood from Whole Foods, and a Westmalle Triple.  The Triple tasted so good -or maybe the alcohol got to me so quickly- that I almost finished the bottle before thinking about taking a picture.

Westmalle Triple

The Westmalle is an authentic abbey beer, as evidenced by the hexagonal seal on the neck of the bottle. Many consider Westmalle to be the trendsetter among Trappist ales. Purists in Flanders will never forget to remind you that Westvleteren is the real stuff -but maybe that will change once Westvleteren is for sale at Colruyt, who knows?- but in my opinion, Westmalle Triple can stand its ground. Especially when it comes to blondes.

The triple is a golden blond ale, i.e. a darker shade of blond but still blond in my opinion, with a refreshing citrus taste and a seriously heady alcohol level. A good beer for the holidays, and one to enjoy after a good ride. I wish my injuries would heal quickly so I can go on a long ride and top it off with another Westmalle soon.

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.

Ora et labora, the trappist rule

Benedict of Nursia, aka St. Benedict inspired the most successful order of monks in the Catholic church, known as Benedictines. The order was formed long after his death and it is unclear whether or not Benedict intended to form an order, although he founded a monastery and wrote rules of monastic life.

The Benedictines live by these rules and one of these rules says: ora et labora, or pray and work. The Benedictines (cistericians) believe that they have to work and be self-sufficient. Hence the Benedictines started out doing manual labor and sell the fruits of their labor. Pretty soon though the good intentions went out the door and Benedictines refocused on spiritual work and teaching instead. That did not sit well with some who considered it frivolous, lax and what have you, and in 1664 a reform movement took hold.

The reform movement created a new order of cistercians of strict observance. It all began at the abbey of La Trappe in Normandy, France. (not to be confused with many La Trappe's in existence today) so the strict monks called themselves Trappists. The movement spread and their Belgian brethren quickly began brewing beer. The Trappists also started wearing a white habit -as opposed to former black- and are therefore known to some as White Monks.

A White Monk practicing Ora

Just this weekend I read about Benedictines who founded the monastery of Christ in the Desert in New Mexico and these monks too brew a Belgian style beer. They are not the only ones apparently and monastery brewing is on the upswing in this and other countries.

That said, Trappist is a synonym for Belgian beer to many people. To others it is a style of beer and some breweries that have no affiliation with a monastery brew what they call Trappist Ales.  Even so, "authentic trappist beer"  is a designation of origin similar to Appellation d'Origine Controlee (AOC) for wine.  A hexagonal insignia is added to the bottle to prove authenticity.

It just so happens that only 7 breweries are thus recognized and 6 of the  7 are in Belgium. The breweries are: Achel, Chimay, Koningshoeven (La Trappe), Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle, Westvleteren. La Trappe is the Dutch entry and for a while it lost its license.

Chimay Beer

Although most people equate Trappist with dark beer out of short fat bottles, there are quite a few authentic blondes in the line-up. La Trappe even makes a wit (literally white) wheat beer.

Apart from color, Trappists typically come as singles (often not named), doubles and triples, depending on the alcohol content of the brew. The breweries also put out specials such as Reserves, Extras and Dorees (golden) and all have some brews that are only available at or near the abbey. That is no doubt in response to the enormous success of Westvleteren, a brand that can only be bought at the abbey, and in limited production, and by jumping through various hoops.

Recently however, the abbey of Westvleteren upgraded its facilities and now the monks are considering selling their beer in the supermarket to pay for the expenses. There were rumors they had signed a deal with Colruyt, a low cost provider, but so far the issue is up in the air. The "move" made serious waves in Belgium, not in the least because it would take Westvleteren's status from highly exclusive to rock bottom in one fell swoop.

Although Trappists are probably the most famous Belgian beers, they are not my favorites. I find most of them too thick or too bread-like and too chocolatey. The ones I like the best are the blondes and Westvleteren blonde (green caps) -if you can get it- is definitely worth the price. Coming to a Colruyt near you??

Although I do not recommend overindulging in Trappist ale while racing in Belgium, I do recommend visiting the various abbeys on rest days.  Here is some great information about bike routes and Trappist (in Dutch). Westmalle is spectacular with lots of art deco, while Rochefort in the French speaking part is considered by many the most spectacular of the abbeys.

Oh and do remember, the Trappists are not supposed to talk much on mostly only when spoken to, and laughing is considered in poor taste. These are all part of the rules of humility devised by Benedict.