(Mis)adventures

Yesterday we met at 9:00 to take a bus to Dubuisson. After about a half hour of waiting, our bus hadn't arrived. We called the bus driver, but unfortunately he only spoke French. Amanda tried talking to him, and he insisted he was on the right street in the right place, though he obviously was not where we were. We eventually found out that the bus company sent him to a suburb about 45 minutes outside of Brussels. It wasn't anyone's fault, but it was definitely not the best way to start the morning. Our bus arrived at around 11:00 and we were off. The ride was about an hour and a half and our driver was wild! Very bumpy with a lot of sharp turns. A little scary but we made it there in one piece. When we got to Dubuisson, we were seated in a back room of the restaurant. We waited for a little while, and then the waitress came out and gave us a tasting of beer. She didn't speak English, so I wasn't sure what kind of beer it was. Then a man came in and played a video about the history of the brewery and the beer making process. Dubuisson brews beer with very high alcohol content...over 10%. They have another beer thats mascot is a troll. When the video was over, we got to taste a couple more beers. One of them was a peach beer that tasted very fruity. It definitely felt more like wine or champagne and less like beer. It was interesting, but I'm not sure exactly how I felt about it. If I was in the mood for a beer, I don't think I would order that. We decided to leave after that. We didn't get a brewery tour which was strange. I think that the language barrier posed a big problem here (even though Amanda and Marissa know some French). At least in Germany we had Gudrun to get us around.

After another hour and a half ride, we arrived at Anker Brewery. Luckily our tour guide spoke English well. He showed us a lot of the spices that they use in their beers, such as coriander, star anise, and licorice. It's really interesting to see that in contrast to Germany where spices are never used. He took us to the roof of the brewery to show us a large open tank that used to be used to cool the wort. They had to stop using it because of sanitary reasons. He talked about how Cantillon is the only place that still uses something like that and do have some legal issues because of it. Anker also brews whisky and he showed us the barrels where the whisky is stored. It needs to age for at least three years. Even though it is better if aged longer, Anker bottles after three years because they need the profit. After the tour we got to taste a couple of their beers. Brian told us that you can buy this beer at Oak and Ivy in McMinnville which I thought was pretty cool. Overall it was a very interesting day but it ended well!