Beer plus bicycles – what could possibly go wrong? It was a familiar refrain in the days before we boarded the Eurostar in London, bound for Brussels and a few days perambulating around the breweries of Belgium’s West Flanders region.
After a night getting match-fit in Brussels, we take the two-hour train ride to the petite medieval town of Poperinge, just west of Ypres and not far from the French border. Known as a hoppe stad Poperinge is famous for producing some 80 per cent of the country’s hops crop. The area around Poperinge is known as Westhoek and is – blessedly for the neophyte cyclist – as flat as a Belgian waffle and peppered with breweries. At the Hop Museum you can pick up a booklet showing suggested beer cycle routes around a host of breweries, hop farms, brasseries, and bars.
Beers usually have an ABV of 3.5-7 per cent. The Bernardus beers we try include a tripel blond at 8 per cent ABV, a dark brune ABT 12 and a lighter blond Extra 4 . The relative strength of Belgian beers explains why they are served in smaller glasses and consumed in a more leisurely manner. These are not what you would call session beers.
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