A: Monks have been brewing beers for centuries already, so it is really a long tradition in Belgium. There are many types of beer, probably hundreds, it’s almost impossible to count. There are main types of beers like Belgian ale, strong ale, blonde beer, dark beer… And they are pretty different from the beers you would find around the rest of Europe in many different ways.

Q: That sounds very interesting! What about the ingredients when brewing beer? Are there any special ingredients that make Belgian beer different from other countries’ beers?

A: You have for example Belgian ales, which are made with special malt, called ale malt and pilsner malt. These beers usually have higher alcohol content than our neighbors’, for example German beers. We also have beers which have a darker color, which are called brown beer or dark beer in Belgium. These beers are usually brewed with malt that has been roasted to give beer its dark color. What also gives the darker color to the beers is the use of candy sugar. Candy sugar is special sugar from Belgium. It can come from peach sugar, cane sugar, or any kind of sugar. But it is transformed in the sugar refinery in order to make candy sugar, which helps develop aromas like grape and so on. And that also gives the beer its dark color. And just one more thing, we also have a very special beer in Belgium. It is called the Lambic beer. It’s a beer in which you don’t even have to put any yeast for it to ferment because around the city of Brussels, you naturally have this yeast in the air meaning that the brewers can just put the beer in their brewery, open the tanks, and wait for the yeast to come from the air into the beer. And that makes the very special Lambic beer.

Q: Can you share with us how Belgian beer is brewed? Does it require a complicated process?

A: The process to make beer is pretty simple. You start with the main ingredient, which is barley, but malted barley. This means that it has been germinated and heated a bit. And from this barley, you make an infusion with water, called mash. Then you get some liquid which is pretty high in density and add it in intervals. You can also add some water to it to make even more. Once you have done that, you boil it to increase the density of the product again. Then you add some yeast, which is a living fungus that will help ferment the beer and create alcohol. So the yeast will then over a period of a few weeks, transform the sugar into alcohol and give the beer its flavor. And usually in Belgium, what we do as well is that we add some sugar and some yeast to the beer before putting it into bottles. So the beer is fermented again in the bottle, which gives a good carbonation. That’s what makes Belgian beer so special.

Q: What is your favorite type of beer? Do people from different regions in Belgium prefer different types of beer?

A: I would say Belgians really love Belgian beers. For example, I’m from the South of Belgium, but I mainly love beers from Flanders, the north of Belgium. And I’m pretty sure that many Flemish people love Trappist beer, from the South. What I like most is that you really have many kinds, and it’s really small production. There are a few exceptions, but most Belgian beers usually cannot be found in other countries, and only a few hundred thousand liters are produced per year, you know, it’s produced in pretty small batches, which makes them very rare.

Q: When do Belgian people drink beer? Do you drink beer during your meal?

A: We don’t drink beer at noon like in Vietnam, when we go for lunch with colleagues. We usually drink beer in the evening when we have dinner or when we go out, when we go to bars, and so on. It’s usually an evening drink. The amount of beer drunk by Belgian people per year is pretty high. It’s one of the highest in the world. We drink a lot less strong alcohol compared to other people, like Russians. We mainly drink beer. Beer is for the Belgians while wine is for the French.

 Q: Among the wide variety of brands, what is considered the most famous beer in Belgium?

A: Well, the most famous Belgian beers are called Trappist beers. These beers are brewed in abbeys by Trappist monks. It’s a very specific classification of monks. And only these people have the right to label their beer Trappist beer. There are six or seven Belgian Trappist beers, and 2 or 3 other ones around the world: 1 in France, 1 in Holland, and 1 in the US as well. I believe these 6 or 7 beers are the most famous, and one of them is called the Westvleteren 12. That’s a beer which is produced in extremely small quantities. And it also won a few challenges like it was claimed to be the best beer in the world. It’s a very strong beer: 10 and a half percent alcohol. And it’s almost impossible to buy it in any shop. So you really have to go yourself to the abbey, you need to be Belgian, and you need to go with your card, kind of a license that will make sure that you haven’t already come already this year ‘cause you can only come once per year, and to make sure that you don’t buy more than 1 or 2 packs of it. So there is a very limited supply, and it has a very high price if you want to find it, and according to judges, it is claimed to be the best beer in the world.

Q: Thank you for sharing! I hope you have a good time in Vietnam! That was Kevin Beaudoux from Dinant, a famous place for brewing Belgian beer on VOV24/7.