After years of being a two brewery town, Santa Fe now has an ever expanding universe of craft brew pubs making their own beers. Those of us who like quality local beer can come to our local pubs armed with knowledge making the sipping experience more enjoyable especially when we are offered unusual drinks like Belgian beers.
The new American craft beer scene has its roots in very old European traditions. Left to their own devices, it seems Americans were content to drink lagers and pilsners from large corporations, Budweiser and Coors etc (German rooted beers that also form the basis for most beers in Mexico). The craft beer world in the US, born largely in the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest, turned America away from pilsners and lagers and people started to drink much more flavorful and nutritious beer from England and Belgium.
There is no question but that the craft beer scene in the Rockies and the West Coast has been dominated by English beer styles, things like India pale ale, pale ale, bitters, stouts and porters. These styles seem to be the real favorites of discerning beer drinkers, but Belgium rooted beers are making a major upswing, both locally and regionally.
We all are familiar with New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins Colorado which has been hugely successful in growing as an employee owned company and spreading their beers across the West. Their flagship beer, Fat Tire, is a very mild Belgian style ale. In the early days of New Belgium, the company tried hard to market sweet, malty Belgian beers but largely converted to making very high quality British ales with some offerings of Belgian beers.
Here in Santa Fe, three breweries are focusing almost exclusively on Belgian style beers: Dual, Chile Line Brewing and Rowley Farmhouse Ales. All three of these pubs focus on old style Belgian ales with some sours to boot.
Belgian rooted beers are brewed in a different way than English ales. Belgium, wedged between Holland, France and Germany is a small country that has a very strong tradition of local brewing. In the late 1800s, Belgium had 3000 local breweries with a wide range of recipes. But by the 1990s only 115 breweries were left, largely because of huge multi-national beer conglomerates dominating the trade. Yet today, the small breweries in Belgium are making a comeback thanks to people like you and me who go there and seek out the “real thing.”
What makes Belgian beer different from British beers? To make a long story short, Belgian brewers use a different “mashing” process than English brewers, using more ingredients and putting the mix of grains, sugars and malts through a more complex regiment before putting the mix through an extra long boiling process. Cooling is often done in large open tanks called “ships” rather than the water cooled tanks preferred by most craft brewers.
The long boiling and a great love of malts on the part of Belgian brewers, rather than just barley and lots of hops leads to a caramel color and a flavor that often puts the malt out front, rather than a hop forward flavor common to British beers. Belgian beers are usually caramel colored or straw colored.
Corporate mass produced beers that have Belgian roots in include Blue Moon which is a white Belgian beer made by Coors Corporation.
If you get a chance to visit Belgium and taste genuine beers there, you will come away with a whole new appreciation of Belgian beers. The country takes these brews very seriously. If you go to Bruges in the north of the country (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) you can go to the old main square in ancient city and find the plaza virtually surrounded by outdoor cafes where the main offering is Belgian beer. No red plastic cups here, they serve their beer in a wide variety of glassware, each appropriate to the particular beer contained therein. I remember one beer that came in what looked like a vessel from a chemistry lab which was hung from a wooden rack placed before me. All sorts of other glassware paraded past as we spent the afternoon sipping fine beers in Bruge.
This blog will delve into Belgian brewing practices in the future when we interview the brewmasters at the places like Chile Line, Rowleys and Dual.
Visit our Belgian beer makers in Santa Fe and be grateful that we live in a town where we can experience an ever expanding world of craft beers.
