Beers and Battlefields

Small selection of beers in Belgium

So many beers to choice from

Beers and battlefields? A strange combination? Not really if you are in Belgium. A part of the Western Front in the First World War was in Belgium around the Ypres area, better known as Flanders fields. So that takes care of the Battlefields. Belgium is widely regarded as having the best beers in the world. There seems to be some debate on this with the Czech Republic also laying claim to the best beers in the world. As I have not been to the Czech Republic yet, I will stick with Belgium as having the best beers. So there we have it "Beers and Battlefields".

German "pillbox"

Shell cases.

My recent short trip to Belgium included both "Beers" and "Battlefields". I have already posted the first blog on my tour of the Battlefields in the Ypres area. I will do a few more post on the battlefield tour. There is very little left of the actual battle fields and this is all now peaceful, beautify farm land. The only reminder of the years of terrible fighting in the area are the numerous grave yards all over the place, where thousands of young men lie at rest. There there is also the "iron harvest". It is estimated that about one third of the many many millions of artillery shells which were fired  in the area did not explode. These have been lying in the ground for over a 100 years. Every year farmers working in the fields find these unexplored shells. They stack them along the road for the bomb disposal squids to collect and detonate safety. The battles around Ypres were the first in which gas was used. Yes, the Germans were the first to use poison gas, but the allied armies soon followed on. Many of then-exploded shells are gas shells. The gas is still just as deadly today as it was 100 years ago! There have been quite a few people killed long after the end of the war as a result of debris of the war.

Brugge at night

Tribute to the South Africans with a springbok

Of course the other finds in the fields of Flanders are the remains of soldiers. There are many thousands of soldiers from both sides who are listed as missing. Soldiers who died in no-mans land and were covered by the explosion of many shells, or, during the 3rd battle of Ypres, just slipped into the thick mud. They are still discovering bodies regularly and every effort is made to try and identify the fallen soldier, but obviously, in most cases this is not possible. It is normally possible to at least identity if it was a German soldier or an Allied soldier. Burials of fallen soldiers still occur even today.

So much for the depressing story of the first world war. Now onto the cheerful story of the beers. The discussion on who has the best beers started on the Emirates flight. I was talking to the air crew and I said that Belgium has the best beers. One of the air hostesses nearly had a heart attack. She was from the Czech Republic!

Before I left South Africa, Dr Errol Cason, one of the Beer brewers at the University of the Free State gave me a list of the very special beers  I should look for. He said that they would be quite difficult to find. Well, the bar fridge in my hotel (Raddison Blue Brugge) had all of the ones on the list, so pretty easy to test them. The main beers to get in Belgium are the monastery beers. These are the Trappist beers, brewed by trappist monks. There are fourteen such monasteries, six of which are in Belgium and two in the Netherlands. Monastery brewhouses have existed since the middle ages. To qualify as a Trappist beer, the beers must be brewed within the walls of a Trappist monastery by the monks themselves or under their supervision. Generally the Trappist beers are quite strong with  between 6 - 8 % alcohol. Not for the faint-hearted!

French graves

One of the special Trappist beers.

Looks like I have run out of space to describe and discuss the may wonderful beers in Belgium - so I will need to do another post just on the beers and the wonderful city of Brugge.

Names of the missing on Menin gate