And it has only one brewery...

It wasn't always the case. In 1494, Ghent had around 100 breweries, all small, no more than house breweries. Ten of them were run by monks in their cloisters. By 1645 the number of breweries had grown to 550. But as Ghent's importance waned, the number dwindled to 99 in 1900 as lager brewing developed in Leuven and other emerging centres. The last two remaining producers in Ghent disappeared in the 1970s and the city was without a brewery until April last year.

Ghent's brewing past can be seen by taking a beer tour conducted by an official guide (www.gidsenbond-gent.be). The tour starts at the Groot Vleeshuis - the Great Meat House - which has a permanent promotion for the beers of East Flanders. Vegetarians may wish to wait outside until the tour begins and admire, in a grisly way, the Gallows House ('t Galgen Huisje). It's now a pub and stands on the spot where centuries ago prisoners were executed.

The tour, around Ghent's cobbled streets and taking in its multitude of churches and the oldest castle in Belgium, passes the Novotel Hotel on the site of the Gruut Huis in Goudenleeuw Plein, where brewers paid their taxes in medieval times. The Toll House, another tavern where taxes of a different kind were settled, is in front of a replica of Big Ben, built by the British in 1913 for a World Fair in the city (visible in the photograph above). The monastery of the Carmelites had its own brewery until it was dissolved in the 19th century while the Steendam once housed three breweries, one of which dated from the time of Charlemagne.

The tour, with pauses for refreshment in a couple of bars with excellent beer lists, finishes at Gruut at 10 Grote Huidevettershoek (www.gruut.be), Ghent's new and only functioning brewery. It opened in April 2009 and is run by a genuine brewster or woman brewer, Annick De Splenter (left). Annick has brewing in her blood, for she is the daughter of Ivan De Splenter, who ran the now closed Riva group in Dentergem.

Annick not only trained as a brewer but made a painstaking research of the use of gruut - also spelt gruit or grut - in beer in medieval times. The use of spices and herbs in beer was linked to political and commercial power. In many countries, the church controlled the supply of gruut and used its enormous muscle to ban the use of the rival hop. In Cologne in Germany, the archbishop cornered the gruut market through a decree called the Grutrecht and he attempted to outlaw the use of hops, while in Russia, Archduke Vassili II forbade the use of hops.

In Holland in the 14th century the Dutch developed a liking for hopped beer. They imported thousands of barrels a year from Bremen and Hamburg and started to develop their own brewing industry that produced beer with hops. The controllers of the gruut market attempted to impose punitive taxes on hopped beer and it was these taxes that enabled the great mercantile city of Amsterdam to be built on marshland.

Throughout mainland Europe the gruut monopoly came under increasing attack from drinkers and brewers who preferred hopped beer. When Martin Luther, who was a beer drinker, nailed his theses attacking the power of the Papacy to the door of a church in Wittenberg in 1517 he not only sparked the Reformation but helped break the power of the church over brewing practices.

But the use of herbs and spices did not disappear overnight. In 1588, Jacob Theodor von Bergzabern, describing contemporary brewing practice in Europe, noted that hops were used in the copper boil but added: "The English sometimes add to the brewed beer, to make it more pleasant, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and other good spices in a small bag. The Flemings mix it with honey or sugar and precious spices and so make a drink like claret or hippocras [wine flavoured with spices]. Others mix in honey, sugar and syrup, which not only make the beer pleasant to drink but also give it a fine brown colour." He added that brewers had learned from "the Flemings and the Netherlanders" that adding laurel, ivy or Dutch myrtle to beer strengthens it, preserves it and stops it going sour. As late as 1750, London brewers were still using bog myrtle as flavouring.

Annick De Splenter's research has revealed the vast range of herbs and spices that made up gruut. They include myrica (sweet gale), mugwort, yarrow, heather, juniper berries, ginger, caraway seeds, sage, rosemary, bog myrtle, aniseed and cinnamon. Understandably, she guards her recipes and won't reveal which flavourings she uses, so visitors to Gruut will have the pleasurable experience of tasting her three beers and teasing out the flavourings used.

The bar, based in a former textile factory, is bright and open plan, with the brewing equipment laid out for customers to see. There's a long bar and drinkers can also sit in comfortable chairs with tables on the ground and mezzanine floors. A large mural on the main wall has a touch of the Sergeant Pepper about it, depicting some well-known faces along with Annick's regular customers.

the Gruut beers

The three regular beers are Amber (6.5%), Blond (5.5%) and White (5%). They are all wonderfully drinkable and show how appetising beer was before the adoption of the hop. White has a powerful hint of ginger on the nose and palate while the Blond has creamy malt and peppery spices on the aroma, more spices in the mouth balanced by creamy malt, and a dry and spicy finish. Amber has a rich aniseed aroma with hints of fresh tobacco, dry and bitter spices in the mouth and a long, dry and quenching finish with pepper and aniseed dominating.

Beer and food

Before embarking on the two-hour tour of Ghent, I enjoyed lunch with Sacha Jennis of Beer in Flanders at Aba-Jour (20 Oudberg: www.abajour-gent.com). The bar - the name means "lampshade" in French - overlooks the River Leie and has built a good reputation for its beer range. The long downstairs bar is candle-lit and leads to a terrace overlooking the river. Draught beers include Chimay, Dupont, La Chouffe and Westmalle while the bottled range includes such Trappist beers as Achel, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle and Westvleteren, along with Duvel, La Chouffe, gueuze and kriek. The beers accompany hearty Flemish meals of fish and meat with vegetarian options.

In the evening, after the visit to Gruut, I had dinner with Sacha at Belga Queen (10 Graslei; www.belgaqueen.com), where we had the pleasure of the company of Nelly Govaert, a specialist beer taster who hosts many events in Flanders, including beer tasting sessions and matching beer with food ([email protected]). The restaurant, in a delightful quayside setting, specialises in beer dinners called the Brewers' Menu. We tuned up our palates with an aperitif of Boon's Mariage Parfait gueuze before moving on to a starter of Croque Boum Boum - a tart with oxtail, mozzarella and coulis of tomatoes - accompanied by Steenbrugge White from the Palm brewery, a spicy beer with a good creamy malt balance. Another Boon beer - Oude Gueze - came with a consomm� of game. The delightfully dry and peppery beer was the perfect companion for the soup. The main course was breast of pheasant with wild mushroom and jacket potatoes. The chosen beer was Steenbrugge Dubbel, a complex beer with burnt fruit (raisins and sultanas), tobacco and spicy hops, which cut the richness of the food superbly.

Other recommended bars in Ghent are:

Herberg De Duller Griet, 50 Vrijdagmarkt
De Trollekelder, 17 Bij Sint-Jacobs
Brasserie Deus, 128 Vlaanderenstraat
Bierhuis Castel, 9 Koningin Maria Hendrikaplein
Waterhuis aan de Bierkant, 9 Groentenmarkt
Het Trappistenhuis, 164 Brabantdam
De Hopduvel, 10 Rokerelstraat.

No trip around the region is complete without a visit to the acclaimed restaurant and tavern Heeren Van Liedekercke at 33 Kasteelstraat, Denderleeuw (www.heerenvanliedekercke.be), off the road from Oudenaarde to Brussels. The geography is odd - but this Belgium - as the river Dender divides the two small towns of Denderleeuw and Liedekercke, with the former in Brabant and the latter in East Flanders. The brothers Joost and Tom De Four (right) say they are from Liederkercke but they are actually in Denderleeuw. If you feel the need for a strong beer to work this out, you've come to the right place, for the Gentlemen of Liederkercke have one of the biggest beer selections in the whole of Belgium and specialise in beer cuisine, not only matching beer with food but cooking with beer as well. The rustic tavern, with the air of a Swiss chalet, has a vast range of lambic and gueuze, including Cantillon of Anderlecht, Trappist ales, including Westmalle Dubbel, and their own house beer, Heerenbier, an 8.5% bottle-conditioned bruin produced for the brothers by Boelens, a micro based in Belsele.

I had a Girardin Gueuze as an aperitif and then enjoyed cod cooked in a sauce that contained Chimay White and supported, naturally, by the same beer. I learned that Chimay has re-branded this beer from its monastic range as Chimay Tripel to avoid confusion with Belgian "white" or wheat beers. The wonderfully spicy beer was the perfect accompaniment to the dish. Sadly, because of the need to catch the last Eurostar from Brussels, I had to cut short by visit to the tavern. But I shall return.

Beer tours

Beer In Flanders organises visits to breweries, bars and restaurants in the region. The tours include special rates at participating hotels. For full details see the website . In Ghent, I stayed in the hotel Monasterium Poortackere, 56 Oude Houtlei, 9000 Gent (www.monasterium.be). Special packages arranged by the hotel, based in a former monastery, include a beer dinner.

In Oudenaarde, Hotel Steenhuyse is a participating guest house in an elegant building overlooking the market place: 37 Markt, 9700 Oudenaarde (www.steenhuyse.info). A package offered by the hotel includes accommodation, dinner in a local restaurant and a beer cycle trail.

Both Ghent and Oudenaarde can be reached by regular trains from Brussels Midi, the Eurostar terminus. Eurostar tickets can be used for onward destinations on Belgian trains (not Thalys or ICE), making a �55 Eurostar return ticket good value. Thanks to Sacha Jennis of Beer In Flanders and Anneliese Mertens of the East Flanders tourist agency for their support.

go to Part I - history of Oudenaarde and Liefmans

go to Part II - Roman Brewery and beer tasting notes

home about Protz features A-Z books blog