BREWING BRILLIANCE
Belgium is the only country whose beer culture features on UNESCO ’ s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list — with spicy farmhouse ales , beers produced in monasteries and sour blends aged in wood . Its capital , Brussels , showcases all the reasons Belgian beer is worth a trip , says Breandán Kearney image : alamy
The first thing I notice when I enter Brasserie de l ’ Ermitage is the colourful artwork . Artistic interpretations of tarot cards are hung all over the walls of the brewery — symbols and narratives that l ’ Ermitage brewer and cofounder Nacim Menu explains are intended to inspire ideas and reveal new perspectives .
Nacim has tattooed his body with tarot symbols ( he has the ‘ The World ’ on his forearm and the ‘ The Star ’ on his thigh ). He tells me his mother introduced him to tarot when he was young and he now collects special tarot decks from all around the world , sometimes organising tarot readings in his brewery taproom . Nacim and the other co-founders based l ’ Ermitage ’ s aesthetic on tarot , but in particular on the card of ‘ The Hermit ’, which features an old man standing on a mountain peak carrying a lit lantern containing a six-pointed star . “ I fell in love with the symbolism and the mystery around it ,” says Nacim of tarot . “ Not as a fortune-telling object , but more as a way of seeing the world around us and learning about ourselves .”
I ’ m currently in a converted cigarette packing depot on Rue Lambert Crickx , near Brussels Midi station in the south of the city centre . Brasserie de l ’ Ermitage is one of Brussels ’ 20-odd breweries . The city ’ s beer scene has exploded in recent years , driven by a trinity of producers responsible for leading the dramatic change . First is the historic family-run lambic beer brewery Brasserie Cantillon , located a few hundred yards from l ’ Ermitage on Anderlecht ’ s Rue Gheude . Then , Brasserie de la Senne , a producer of wonderful Belgian ales and perhaps the most influential brewery in Belgium in the past two decades . Lastly , the bold , collaboration-focused Brussels Beer Project , which began as a crowd-funded affair and still runs a taproom in the Dansaert neighbourhood .
Belgium has a number of internationally known beer brands such as Stella Artois , Hoegaarden and Leffe , all distributed by the world ’ s largest brewing company : Anheuser-Busch InBev . There are the Trappist ales , produced within the walls of Cistercian monasteries under the supervision of monks : think Orval , Westmalle and Chimay . Then there are the beers produced by multi-generational family breweries that have inspired enthusiasm internationally : the iconic Duvel brand from the Moortgat dynasty ; the
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