Beer tourist venues: Europe

Brugge, Liederkerke, Liege, Namur, - well, get Webbo's latest Belgian Beer guide and start at page 1 really!

I get the impression that these smaller Belgian towns will be similar to Gent.

I've also heard many mentions of Bamberg in Germany. But is this a specialist "rauchbier" place for enthusiasts only, I wonder?

Bruce

Liederkerke ?????????????

Cheers, Gunter

Belgium: Brugge, Hasselt (Hasselt is nothing like Gent or any other typical Belgian town - great selection of local & (inter)national beers, great food, great shopping & nightlife, ...), Ieper (aka Ypers). Perhaps even De Haan and Knokke.

Netherlands: Maastricht

Austria: Innsbruck (yes, Austria!)

So? Not every town has a 15th century cathedral with a pub in its crypt! Some of them have their own breweries. Believe me, in Brussels it's never a case of "if you've seen one small town, you've seen them all".

No, it also has other beers. Again there is a Camra guide, produced by John Conen IIRC.

Yes, it holds perhaps my favourite bar in Belgium...

thanks - I was racking my brains when writing my first post trying to come up with Hasselt. Some wonderful bars there.

Indeed. Sadly the eastern, or atleast the NE, part of Belgium is usualy overlooked. I'm biased of course, I live only a few km outside of Hasselt.

Probably because most of the invaders (er, visitors) are coming from the West (across that wet stretch) and run out of steam before they've gone particularly far inland? Spoiled for choice within a mile or two of the coast and never recover. :-)

We need some floods.

John Conen's guide is useful and worth buying, but not a CAMRA guide. He publishes it himself. Good starter for the English-speaker, but if you read German, Boris Braun's two guides to Franconia are also worth getting.

Liederkerke is a smaller town, and nothing like Gent. Why should others be? A visit to the Westhoek region, between Ieper/Ypres and the French- Belgian border, isn't a bad idea at all. Beer cuisine at the Hommelhof in Watou, overnight accomodation at the Hotel Palace in Poperinge, finding one's way to Westvleteren and its In de Vrede beer cafe...

Brugge is also so very much worth a visit, just to take in the town's atmosphere if nothing else, but you get De Brugse Beertje as a bonus: one of the country's best beer cafes.

Not even close. Two of the brewery-guesthouses there are known for Rauchbier. Only one of those two is known for serving only Rauchbier. There are nine brewery guesthouses in Bamberg, plus the superb Cafe Abseits for even more selection. A train ride south will also get you to Hirschaid, with its own brewery-guesthouse; Buttenheim, with two brewery-guesthouses about a 25-minute walk from the train station; and Erlangen, which has quite a few good pubs of its own, as well as a modern-style brewpub. If you have a car or are bicycling, there are even more places in the immediate vicinity around Bamberg to enjoy good, rustic, country-style beers; it seems like every small brewery- guesthouse has its own take on the word "lager."

If you, as a beer enthusiast, haven't been to Bamberg yet, you are seriously missing out.

Also, if you have time on the weekend of August 5th through 7th this year, there is an impressive beer festival in Berlin. If you read German,

is the place to look. I'll be there this year. With 1700 beers on offer, it's pretty easy to be choosy - even if you only go for your personal top 5%, that's

85 beers from which to choose!

After 4pm (unless they've changed the opening hours)

But then there are other places to visit before that :-)

Sure - like the great little beer bar at the Hotel Erasmus.

All of this is well-covered in the new edition of Tim Webb's GBG to Belgium.

Beer guide and start at page 1 really!

I suppose you mean "De Heeren Van Liederkerke"? World class bar and restaurant indeed. But Liederkerke a drinking town? What else is in Liederkerke that is wordt the visit? (BTW: "De Heeren", is actually just outside Liederkerke, in Denderleeuw ! )

Gunter

I can't remember - I've never got past De Heeren!

That's right! Very confusing.