Belgian Beer Recce Trips

White Beer Travels is a website promoting Speciality Beer, such as Belgian Beer, German Beer, Craft Beer from the USA and Canada, and Real Ale from the UK. But what's in a name, the site's name that is? All is revealed on the Home Page!

Schneider Weisse, a well-travelled, classic Wheat/White Beer, brewed in Bavaria by Schneider. Click on the image to go to their website

This Web page covers a 1998 three country Beer Hunt. Three different sets of Continental currency were required, but from the 1st of January, 2002, just the Euro is needed, in France, Belgium and The Netherlands and a number of other European countries. The UK has decided to keep the Pound for the moment

Belgian Beer, German Beer, British Real Ale, North American Craft Beer and Speciality Beer and Specialty Beer from around the world, are all covered in the White Beer Travels website

This White Beer Travels website has been in operation since March, 2002. It promotes Speciality/Craft Beer from around the world: Belgian Beer, German Beer, Craft Beer from the USA and Canada, Real Ale from the UK, etc

Belgian Beer and other great Speciality/Craft Beers, these including Belgian Beer, Real Ale from the UK and Craft Beers from the USA and Canada, are promoted on this, the White Beer Travels website. It is a big site, so to get an outline idea of the contents, click here to go to the site's Contents page

Würzburg, in Germany, is world-renowned for its "Franken" wines. However, White (Wheat) Beers have certainly travelled to the city. The three different ones shown here are excellent examples. All are brewed in the city's Würzburger Hofbräu Brewery. Click on the glasses to go to the brewery's website, from which the image was pasted

Please Click Here to Bookmark the White Beer Travels Home page, i.e. add it to your Favorites

Please Click Here to Bookmark this White Beer Travels "Middelburg/Lille/Antwerp" page

Witheer, is an Abdijbier (Abbey Beer) brewed by the Scheldebrouwerij (www.scheldebrouwerij.nl), in 's-Gravenpolder, in The Netherlands. This brewery was visited by the White Beer Travels group on this Beer Hunt. One of the most prominent set of buildings in Middelburg, in The Netherlands, is a former Abbey complex. In June, 1998, the Abbey had its own beer launched: Witheer. The label shows the Abbey's inner courtyard. From its name it might be thought that Witheer would be a wheat beer, but in fact, although malted wheat is used in its recipe, see the right hand panel, Witheer means White Man, a reference to the white habits of the Norbertine (Premonstratensian) monks who were formerly in residence in the Abbey. Witheer is brewed to a recipe of Barend Midavaine's, the landlord of De Mug in Middelburg, one of the best Speciality Beer bars in The Netherlands, see below. It has Witheer on draught, as do a number of other establishments in the town, such as Desafinado Jazz Eet Café (Koorkerkstraat 1, tel 0118 64 07 67), which is very close to the Abbey's tall tower, Lange Jan.

1998 Beer Hunt Based in Lille, France, Antwerp, Belgium, & Middelburg, in The Netherlands

Travelling by coach, this was a Beer Hunt with a two nights' stay in three different countries, Lille, in France, Antwerp, in Belgium, and Middelburg, in The Netherlands.

Lille (www.lilletourism.com), France's Beer Capital, is a most attractive city, and claims to have the best art gallery in France outside of Paris. In 2004, it will be a Cultural Capital of Europe, see www.lille2004.com. Unfiltered, unpasteurised beer is rare in France. There are superb outlets for it in Lille, plus places with a large choice of excellent local French Flanders bottle-conditioned beers, where one can also try excellent regional food. The beers available in Lille are a world apart from the appalling Eurofizz usually associated with France. Group meal were greatly enjoyed in: the city's premier beer cuisine restaurant, Le Hochepot, 6, rue du Nouveau Siècle, tel 03 20 54 17 59; and in the Michelin-starred À l'Huîtrière, 3, rue Des Chats-Bossus, tel 03 20 55 43 41, www.huitriere.fr). Click here for details of a 2003 return recce visit to Lille by John White.

Antwerp is a superb Beer Hunt venue that is covered in the write-up for a White Beer Travels 2002 Beer Hunt based there: click on Past Beer Hunts, here, or on the buttons at the top or bottom of this page.

Middelburg, capital of the Dutch Province of Zeeland, deserves to be much better known, from both a tourist and a beer point of view. In De Mug (www.demug.nl), Middelburg has one of the finest Specialty Beer bars in The Netherlands. It serves rare, local beers, including its own Mug Bitter, brewed by the Scheldebrouwerij, see below, which was visited on the trip. De Mug also has excellent food and a superb ambience created by Barend Midavaine and his wonderful staff. It was John White's local (100 yards/metres from his flat) when he lived in Middelburg, at the time of the Beer Hunt, and he still visits the place regularly to this day. It has been observed that these qualities have remained intact over a long time period. Click here for the White Beer Travels Pub of the Month write-up on De Mug.

The Zeeland branch of PINT (www.pint.nl), the Dutch equivalent of CAMRA (www.camra.org.uk), hold monthly beer tasting evenings in De Mug (generally on the first Tuesday of the month). On their visit to De Mug, the White Beer Travels Beer Hunters had a special tasting of Zeeland beers arranged for them, conducted by Erwin de Cock, the editor of PINT's magazine, PINT Nieuws. John happened to live two doors away from Erwin when he lived in Middelburg. The tasting was a joint PINT/CAMRA event, a high proportion of the Beer Hunters being CAMRA members, one of whom was one of its directors.

Your cursor is on a scanned photo taken in De Mug, in Middelburg, in The Netherlands. Click on it to go to De Mug's website. It gives details of the food on offer, the entertainment coming up and the

This November, 1998 photo by Joyce White was taken at De Mug beer tasting event. It shows that age is no barrier to Beer Hunting! Nearest the camera is Bob Rowledge, who was ninety-one at the time. On his far right is his son-in-law, Derek Graville, the one with Simon van Tromp's Dutch book in front of him, see John's Beer CV. Next to Bob is Sjors Kuyt, who is describing one of the featured beers of the evening. This is one of the marvellous range of Sint Jans beers that he and Bernhard Vercouteren conjure up.

Visits included: a classic French Speciality Beer bar, Het Blauwershof, in Godewaersvelde, where a group meal had been pre-booked; the Thiriez Brewery, in Esquelbecq, in France (brasseriethiriez.ifrance.com); De Halve Maan Brewery (www.halvemaan.com) in Hulst in The Netherlands; and the Scheldebrouwerij (Scheldt Brewery, www.scheldebrouwerij.nl), in 's Gravenpolder, in the Dutch Province of Zeeland.

The Scheldebrouwerij's original two brewers, Kees van Loenhout and Peter van den Eijnden, live in Bergen op Zoom, in the Dutch Province of Noord Brabant, a town that is famous for its sieges. On Bergen op Zoom's coat of arms there are two savages from the Belgæ tribe, Knots and Knuppel. These half naked, bearded characters feature on many of the brewery's beer labels. These particular ones are designed by Jos Thomassen (Ploegstraat 102, Postbus 4875, 4803 EZ Breda, tel 0765 65 75 14, home.wanadoo.nl/thommass).

Your cursor is on a scan of the label from Lamme Goedzak, an outstanding beer brewed by the Scheldebrouwerij, 's-Gravenpolder, in The Netherlands. Click on the label to go the brewery's website

An example of a "Savages" label is this one for Lamme Goedzak, above. Here, Knots and Knuppel are having a meal with Lamme Goedzak, who is the companion of the legendary Flemish freedom fighter, Till Eulenspiegel. Till was a bit of a joker; he is the jester in the label. Full details on Till are to be found in the White Beer Travels Guide to Bruges, which can be downloaded from the Downloads page. It covers the neighbouring town of Damme, the epicentre of the Till Eulenspiegel legend.

For the marriage of his daughter, Julia, to Paul Skinner, in Grimsby, in England, John White had a special Wedding Ale (9%) brewed by the Scheldebrouwerij. Naturally, it needed an appropriate label, so he designed one that he commissioned Jos to draw. After toying with the idea of including Knots and Knuppel on the Wedding Ale label, in the end, they were substituted by Julia and Paul!

Your cursor is on a scan of the label from 'Wedding Ale', an outstanding beer brewed by the Scheldebrouwerij, 's-Gravenpolder, in The Netherlands. The label was designed by John White, of White Beer Travels. Click on the label to go the brewery's website

Grimsby's most famous landmark is its Dock Tower. This, and a Grimsby trawler, are featured on the Wedding Ale label. For the trawler, the artist copied from a painting of the Black Watch. This was numbered GY 23, GY being the trawler designation for Grimsby. As can be seen, the trawler's number on the Wedding Ale label has been changed to GY 18-9-99, the date of the Wedding, in GY!

A picture of the dock tower was not readily available to give to Jos, but this was not a problem, as Grimsby's 19th Century tower is modelled on a 14th Century bell tower, in Siena, in Tuscany, the Torre del Mangia. So Jos used a photograph of this from a guidebook to draw the Grimsby Dock Tower.

Your cursor is on a photo featuring a bottle of 'Wedding Ale' and the original art work for its label, which was designed by John White, of White Beer Travels. Click on the photo to go to the Scheldebrouwerij's website, the brewers of Wedding Ale

As it states on the label, Wedding Ale is "A Marriage of English Hops, Continental Malts and Oriental Spices", only the best of these being used: excellent ingredients to produce what turned out to be an excellent beer; all Wedding guests got a bottle. Julia and Paul got the artist's original picture from which the labels were produced, framed with one of the labels, see the photo to the left, taken by John White, in Julia & Paul's [& Jack & Emma's] house.

Note that John commissioned the labels whilst he was living in Middelburg, but had to return to England, in March, 1999, before they were ready, i.e. there were fourteen crates of the Wedding Ale in the removal van, without any labels on them! The labels arrived in the post in April for the September wedding. This was just about time enough, since it took John about five minutes per bottle to put the labels on straight and without wrinkles! Click here to read the actual Father's Speech, delivered at Julia and Paul's wedding.

John White, .

Belgian Beer, just about the world's most renowned Speciality Beer is promoted on this website, along with great beer from all over the world, including Germany