Podge’s Belgian Beer Tours

The Belgian Black Beer Tour - March 2023

Thursday 16 March 2023 - Tuesday 21 March 2023

This brand new Tour is a must for black beer-lovers. It is a six-day Tour staying for five nights in the great beer city of Antwerp and our base is the Hotel Ibis Antwerpen Central.

Feniks Brouwerij, Heule, West Flanders...we'll have a tour and tasting here*

We are based in Chelmsford Essex and we use Eurotunnel from Folkestone to get to and from Belgium in our UK hired coach. Most of our Travellers join the Tour at our main pick up point outside The Woolpack Pub, 23 Mildmay Road, Chelmsford CM2 0DN and most come from other parts of the UK, and some from further afield, especially USA. Lots of our Travellers stay the night before a Tour (and often the night of our return) at Chelmsford Travelodge only a few minutes walk from The Woolpack or at the Premier Inn near the Railway Station, about a 10 minute walk to The Woolpack. We all usually pop in to The Woolpack the night before departure for a meet, greet and a few beers with Siobhan who is your Tour Manager, Tour Guide and drinking pal for the duration.

Our Galloways luxury coach (49 seater coach with toilet) starts from Suffolk and on the way to Folkestone (or occasionally Dover) picks up at several points, as agreed with Siobhan.

This detailed, timed Tour itinerary is nearly complete, and is posted below and will be updated as visits are confirmed. If you would like to join us please send Siobhan an email or call her on +44 (0) 7722 724 558 for details on how to secure a place and pay the £120pp deposit for this Tour, or if you have any questions about this Tour. Should your plans change, we are happy to return your deposit to you in full provided the date of the return request is more than six weeks before the departure date of the Tour.

Day 1 - Thursday 16 March 2023

Very early! Coach departs from Galloways coach depot at Denters Hill, Mendlesham, Suffolk, IP14 5RR.

06.15hr Coach pick up The Woolpack, Mildmay Road, Chelmsford CM2 0DN.

07.05hr Coach pick up at Howdens, Unit 4, Moreton Industrial Estate, London Road, Swanley, Kent BR8 8DE.

08.00hr Coach pick up at the pull in outside Dobbies Garden Centre, Opp. Premier Inn Ashford Eureka Leisure Park, Rutherford Road, Ashford, Kent, TN25 4BN.

08.20hr Coach pick up at Shell Garage, Stop 24 Services, J11, M20, Kent, CT21 4BL.

08.30hr Arrive Folkestone Eurotunnel.

10.20hr Eurotunnel Train crossing from Folkestone.

12.00hr Arrive Calais.

13.00hr Our first visit is to the excellent Molenhof Cafe Restaurant in Vleteren for a meal and a first black beer in Flanders. This is one of the best beer cafés in West Flanders. Beautiful, old-styled interior, great food from chef Pascal and they have an impressive beer card of over 200 including a dozen or so on tap. They offer a huge range of beers from De Struise Brouwers with some real rarities, so are particularly good on black beers. Look out for anything by Struise, Het Nest Dead Man’s Hand Russian Imperial Stout, Dolle Special Extra Export Stout, Viven Smoked Porter and Siphon Cassandra Oyster Stout. A good start! We will have a group meal here and time for a beer or two.

15.15hr Leave de Molenhof in Vleteren.

16.15hr Arrive at Herberg de Avonden in Zulte. This is a nice brown bar housed in an old red-brick station building which has a serious 240-strong beer list including offerings from local Sint Canarus, Trois Fourquet, Brouwers Verzet, BOM, Malheur, Dupont, Struise, Alvinne, Glazen Toren and De Ranke. Over a dozen 75cl sharing bottles, a selection of aged lambics and some rare one-offs and serious beers of the month. Brilliant cafe, great beers. We’ll stop here for a bit, then.

17.30hr Leave Herberg de Avonden in Zulte.

18.30hr Arrive at our base for the next five nights Hotel Ibis Antwerpen Central. The evening is free for you to explore this great Flemish city armed with copies of Podge’s Antwerp Bar Guide* and map*.

Struise Brouwers Black Damnation - Always in demand on Podge Tours.

Day 2 - Friday 17 March 2023

10.00hr Following a buffet breakfast in our hotel* we board the coach for a day out.

10.45hr Arrive at the magnificent Dilewyns Brewery in Dendermonde. Like many breweries in Belgium this started as a hobby brewery, in this case by Vincent Dilewyns, a dental technician who brewed his first beer in 1999, really just for himself at home in Grembergen. In 2006 the local historical society asked if they could serve his beers at a ‘do’ and Vincent acquired a licence and bottled some for them. The leftover bottles made their way to people at the Zythos Beer Society who asked him to man a stall at the Zythos Beer Festival in 2006 at which he won an award for his triple. Podge knew of this and we visited Vincent at his home in 2007, when his beer recipe was being brewed at Proef Brewery in Lochristi. One of his daughters, who were all small then, runs the brewery with her father now. In 2011 they acquired big industrial premises in Dendermonde, and began brewing there. We will have a brewery tour* and beer tasting* here and hopefully they will tell you all about the story of the Vicaris logo, the girls and the horse! Their beers are all lovely and well-made. They are unfiltered and unpasteurised and I particularly like their Quinto, which is blonde, but I am taking you here because of their dark Vicaris Generaal at 8.5%abv and the Winter Beer at 10%abv.

12.45hr Leave Dilewyns Brouwerij in Dendermaonde.

13.00hr Arrive at the brilliant Cuytegemhoeve Beer Cafe in Sint Amands near a bend in the mighty River Schelde. This is a big ancient farm which once had a brewery and now has a children’s petting zoo, farm museum and a beer café restaurant in the old cow shed. Expect tiled floors, wooden furniture and vaulted ceilings. They have a huge 200-strong beer list, excellently chosen by owner Marc. They have beers from Hof ten Dormaal, Cantillon, Het Nest, Struise Brouwers and plenty more quality brewers, but also look out for the half dozen glass front fridges down the side of the room with additional beers and some really special ones. Black ones. Strong black ones. Yes. All this and democratic prices as the Belgians say. We are going to have something to eat here – they offer the lovely and not commonly found Wit & Zwarte Pensen – White & Black Belgian Sausages Served with a Cherry Sauce – yum.

15.15hr Leave the Cuytegemhoeve in Sint Amands.

15.35hr Arrive at the fabulous Fortcafé ‘De Batterie' in Sint Amands. This is a lovely bar embedded in the old concrete Fort Liezele. Gets the award for the best Fort conversion into a cafe. The fort was built in 1908 as part of a second belt of forts to protect Antwerp from the threat of coming war. It was rebuilt for the Second World War and in fact in both wars was never used defensively, but was occupied by the enemy on both occasions. It is now a museum, film location, bat roost and bits of it are a great beer café. The bar front is built on old packing cases. The have a beer choice of some 60 beers including some lambic beers. Superb location. We’ll linger here a while for a beer or two.

17.15hr Leave Fortcafe De Batterie in St Amands.

18.00hr Arrive back at Ibis Hotel in central Antwerp. Big night out anyone?

Dead Man's Hand by Het Nest Brewery, Turnhout. You should find this in a few cafes we plan to visit.

Day 3 - Saturday 18 March 2023

10.00hr Following a buffet breakfast in our hotel* we board the coach for a day out of ... Black Beer!

11.00hr We arrive at the superb Beer Advertising Museum (Bierreclame) & Bar in Breda for a museum visit and a beer. In 1990 collector Jan Hemmer opened the doors of this museum to the public. It is an exhibition of historical beer advertising, consisting of over 1000 pieces and said to be the largest collection in The Netherlands and perhaps Europe. Enamel signs, posters, an old lorry, brewery machines, neon lights, glasses, beer labels, ash-trays, and beer mats are here dating from 1900 to 1960. Best of all they have a lovely old (working) bar where we can have some refreshment. Jan has a brilliant Black Beer List, fridges with dark beers all around the place and an unpublished stock which he will gladly sell if you ask him what he recommends.

12.45hr Leave the Beer Advertising Museum in Breda.

13.00hr Arrive at Brack Beer Construction in Breda. This excellent place is a huge sprawling industrial complex on the old commercial waterfront. It recently opened as a collaboration between a company which makes furniture out of raw wood (you’ll see plenty of that here) and more to the point for us, a beer café inside an industrial hangar which has 32 beers on tap and a variety of food outlets. These premises are also home to the Bliksem Brewery. Bliksem (meaning lightning in Dutch) have a 600L brewhouse and small bottling line at Brack. Starting in 2014 they are self-styled craft beer ‘Rock & Roll’ Brewers and are fond of Lemmy quotes. Their black beers to look out for are Black Sabbath, a 10% abv quad, Grom – a Russian Imperial Stout at 12.5%abv and Hands and Head Not Found, an Imperial Stout at 14.6%abv. These people know how to party. Brack also showcase another local breweries beers, being the Ramses Brewery. They brew at Hooge Zwaluwe nearby and have been brewing interesting beers for some years. Each of their products are single hop beers which give each a distinctive taste. They are called Ramses not after Egyptian Pharaohs but because it is the first name of the brewer. His black beers include Black Mamba, a dark IPA (single hop US Galena) at 6%abv. Their Drop Porter is 8%abv and I like their comment that “porter is an extremely suitable beer for hiding licorice”, so expect that as an ingredient as well as Pacific gem hops and – wait for it – “a bit of hop hash”. Ramses Stout Met Hout is a single hop UK Pilgrim Imperial Stout at 8.5%abv. They brew an Illimani Espresso Porter at 6%abv which is chocolatey-coffee in flavour. There are likely to be others. We will spend a bit of time here at Brack where you can sample the beers on tap from Bliksem, Ramses and other breweries and grab a snack from the number of different providers, meaty and otherwise.

15.00hr Leave Brack Beer Construction in Breda.

15.45hr Arrive at the legendary de Dochter Van de Korenaar in one of the fascinating enclaves of Baarle-Hertog Belgium, but within the Dutch border. We’ll have a taste of their beer in their beer room (Siobhan buys the first beer) and maybe a peek at the brewery. The name of the brewery translates as “The Daughter of the Corn” and harks back to the words of Emperor Charles V around 1550 who reputedly preferred the "juice of the daughter of the ear of corn" (beer) rather than the "blood of the bunch of grapes" (wine). The brewery was founded in 2007 by Ronald & Monique Mengerink who built the brewery behind their home, including six 1000-litre lagering tanks. Podge’s Belgian Beer Tours first visited here in 2008. This brewery has a number of top-class black beers and favourites are:

• Charbon (Carbon), a 7%abv dry stout with fresh vanilla and smoked malt.

• Embrasse, a 9%abv luscious stout porter with coffee/chocolate notes.

• Sans Pardon is their hefty 11%abv bittersweet jet black Russian Imperial Stout of with a hint of 'Rooibos'.

17.15hr Leave De Dochter van de Korenaar in Baarle-Hertog.

18.30hr Coach drops at our hotel for an evening at leisure in Antwerp city.

Day 4 - Sunday 19 March 2023

10.00hr Following a buffet breakfast in our hotel* we board the coach for a day out.

11.45hr We are paying a visit to the new Struise Brouwers Beer shop and tasting room at Woesten which opened recently, following the closure of their Bruges shop. This is the Valhalla of Black Beers. Struise Brouwers have always brewed a fair proportion of Black Beers, considered amongst the top black beers in the world, according to Siobhan and supported by Travellers on Podge's Belgian Beer Tours for some years now! They have a number of taps here and you can buy bottles to drink on the premises.

13.45hr Leave Struise Beershop, Woesten.

14.00hr Arrive in Ypres. Free time for something to eat, armed with Podge’s Ypres Bar Guide. I suggest finishing up with a visit to the wonderful Kaffee Bazaar which opens 16.00hr and which is owned by Black Beer Nut Joeri and his wife Nancy. Their Black Beer Menu inspired this tour. They stock heaps of Belgian Black beers, plus lots from respected dark brewers elsewhere in Europe, Scandinavia and especially the Omnipollo Brewery in Sweden. Look out for their Selassie Imperial Stout with Ethiopian Coffee & Vanilla Beans. Expect some from superb Estonian Põhjala Brewery, try one from them if you haven’t already. Enjoy. We will drop off and pick up at the same point in Vandenpeereboomplein Square, next to the St Martinus Church.

18.00hr Leave Ypres.

19.35hr Coach drops at Hotel Ibis for an evening at leisure in the city. As Podge’s Dad Ronnie used to say “eee, I’ll be glad when I’ve ‘ad enough!”

Day 5 - Monday 20 March 2023

10.00hr Following a buffet breakfast in our hotel* we board the coach for a day out.

10.45hr Arrive at the great beer warehouse Dranken Geers in Oostakker for an opportunity to buy beers to take home. Excellent beer shop, best in East Flanders.

11.45hr Leave Dranken Geers in Oostakker.

12.45hr Call in at the excellent Feniks/Gulden Spoor Brewery in Heule/Gullegem for a brewery tour* and tasting*. This brewery on the outskirts of Kortrijk is run and owned by brew-master Gino Vantieghem who in the 1990s brewed at Quebec's Unibroue and made a big impact in the USA in the modern explosion of craft beers. Expect quality. Their Selfish Saison 6.7%abv is one for us blonde beer lovers and for you dark beer folk go for the 9.6%abv Heretique or the amazing Jazz Black Oatmeal Stout at 10%abv, which is what we are coming here for!

14.15hr Leave Feniks Brewery in Heule/Gullegem.

14.30hr Arrive at the Taverne Leiemeers in, Kuurne for a meal. This popular locals café and restaurant is semi-attached to the tennis club situated on a tow path down by the River Leie just outside Kortrijk, found just beyond the WW2 1940 Leiemonument and the dog school. We can have something to eat here and they have a respectable beer menu of 44 choices including St Bernardus Triple on draft, and on the black beer front they offer Westmalle dubbel, Chimay Blue, Rochefort 8 and 10, La Trappe Quad, Kasteelbier Bruin and St Bermardus 8 (Prior) and 12 (Abt).

16.45hr Leave Taverne Leiemeers in Kuurne.

17.15hr We pay a visit to Jef at Brouwerij d'Oude Maalderij / The Mash in Izegem. Jef is a passionate brewer of big, black beers. Here he has the d’Oude Maalderij small inox brewery and a fantastic bar with a huge quantity of vintage signage and Belgian breweriana. We’ll spend some time here and you can choose from his beers on tap or from his amazing black and barrel aged special bottled beers.

19.15hr Leave The Mash Beer Cafe in Izegem.

20.35hr Coach drops at our hotel for a nice lie down or an evening on the town.

Day 6 - Tuesday 21 March 2023

10.00hr Following a buffet breakfast in our hotel* we board the coach for a day out.

11.30hr Call in at Deca Brewery in Woesten for a brewery visit* and beer tasting*. The current brewery was rebuilt in 1920 after WW1 destroyed the old one. The brewery has been run by the Christiaens family for the past five generations, and the sixth generation in the form of twin boys made an appearance in 2020. All generations called their first son Georges, and the current brewer/owner is known by his middle name Nicolas, but is really called Georges. His father built breweries in Africa and bought Deca brewery to show his African customers a small-scale brewery in action, but took over himself here in 1991 beginning the Vleteren and Antiek range of beers. I remember these on visits here on early Tours, the labels featuring a cartoon of a barrel and a lounging, toga-ed Roman. The dark beers to look out for are the Vleteren Alt 8%abv, the Vleteren 8 Bruin and Vleteren 12 Bruin both aged for one year in oak barrels. They also brew the Vleteren Imperial Stout 10%abv. Owner in a long family line Nicolas Christiaens and his wife Katrien Sampers have recently built a lovely tasting room with glass walls giving a view of the big oak-aging barrels. They have a shop where you can also buy their range of beers.

13.30hr Leave Deca Brewery in Woesten.

13.45hr We pay a visit to internationally renowned Trappist Abbey of Saint Sixtus in Vleteren, founded here in 1831. We will visit the café, In de Vrede, which offers the brewery's three beers, two of which are dark and the top one, the Westvleteren 12 (sometimes known as the Flemish Burgundy) is considered by many to be the best beer in the world. These beers are brewed in small amounts, technically sold only from this location and the brewing is carried out by monks. The beer is never available in draft, only in bottles, which only recently acquired a label.

15.15hr Leave In De Vrede, Westvleteren.

15.35hr Arrive at our last stop of the Tour the beautiful restaurant-bar Au Nouveau Saint Eloi in Watou. This lovely rural café sports a beer card of 150 choices. Here we’ll have a pre-arranged meal and a beer or two.

17.50hr Leave last stop.

18.50hr Arrive Calais Eurotunnel.

20.20hr Leave Calais on Eurotunnel train crossing.

19.55hr Arrive Folkestone.

20.05hr Coach drop Shell Garage, Stop 24 Services, J11, M20, Kent, CT21 4BL.

20.20hr Coach drop at the pull in outside Dobbies Garden Centre, Opp. Premier Inn Ashford Eureka Leisure Park, Rutherford Road, Ashford, Kent, TN25 4BN.

21.05hr Coach drop Howdens, Unit 4, Moreton Industrial Estate, London Road, Swanley BR8 8DE.

21.45hr Coach drop Junction of Lady Lane & Mildmay Road, Chelmsford CM2 0EA.

22.00hr Coach drop Travelodge Hotel, 128-136 Parkway, Chelmsford CM2 7GY.

22.10hr Coach drop Premier Inn Victoria Road, Chelmsford CM1 1NY.

22.40hr Coach drop McDonald's, Tollgate West, Stanway, Colchester C03 8RG.

23.30hr Coach reaches destination Galloways Depot, Denters Hill, Mendlesham, Suffolk, IP14 5RR.

Podge Bourgogne Barrel Oak Aged Beer, from Alvinne Brewery.

On this special Tour Siobhan will be bringing along a giant bottle of Brouwerij Alvinne's Podge Oak Aged Stout on Bourgogne Barrels. We'll open this on Tour and have a little tasting!

GB Alcohol Allowance Import for Personal Use from 1 January 2021

From 1 January 2021 the GB inbound personal allowance for beer duty free is 42 litres per person. The government webpage states “for example, someone will be able to bring three crates of beer, two cases of still wine and one case of sparkling wine to GB without paying UK duties” The 42L beer allowance equates to 5 x crates of 33cl bottles.

The full allowance is:

• 42 litres of beer, and

• 18 litres of still wine, and

• 4 litres of spirits OR 9 litres of sparkling wine, fortified wine or any alcoholic drink less than 22% ABV

Any other goods – to the value of £390.

Tour Price is £935 per person sharing a twin or double room

Single Supplement: £255

We regret that we need to charge a single supplement for travellers who would like their own hotel room. This is because increasingly hotel room prices are quoted with very little difference between single person or two person occupancy.

Included in the cost of this Tour are:

Hotel accommodation and breakfasts;

Hotel city taxes;

Luxury coach travel on a 49 seater coach with toilet;

All brewery visits, tours and brewery beer tastings;

Entrance fees to attractions, museums and historical sites;

All items marked with an asterisk above and on the individual detailed tour itinerary when issued;

Copies of Podge’s City Bar Guides and Maps for the town where we stay or spend some time;

Still and sparkling water on the coach;

Pick up from one of our agreed joining points on the way to Folkestone or even on the other side of the channel.

Courier Services from Siobhan McGinn, your Tour Guide.

Travellers are responsible for the costs of all food and drink apart from items marked with an asterisk on the detailed itinerary plus all passport and insurance costs.

All itinerary times are local and approximate.

Personal insurance is not included in the Tour price but is required to be taken out by Travellers on Podge's Belgian Beer Tours, as is carrying the free UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) which is the 2021 replacement for the old EHIC. You can still use your EHIC card so long as it is in date, then you need to apply for the GHIC replacement online.

If you have any questions or would like to join us please send Siobhan an email or call on +44 (0)7722 724 558.

All Tours are subject to our Terms and Conditions.

book this tour