After a fine breakfast in the beautiful Aragon hotel in Bruges we left around 9.30 AM for Bavikhove, about 45 kilometres away, to visit brouwerij Bavik. This family brewery, run by Mr. Ignace Debrabandere and his team makes famous beers like PETRUS and WITTEKERKE.

Mr. Yves Benoit gave us the full tour of the brewery. After explaining us a bit about the history, founded in 1894, the brewery is now owned by the 4th generation of the family.

We saw the brew house (a new modern brew house is under construction right now and is situated in front of the old one, which will still be used) the fermentation facilities for the lager (Bavik Pils is the core product) and the high fermentation beers.

The jewels on the Bavik crown however are the huge oak vessels, in which ripens the “Oud Bruin” (Old Brown) beers. Yves explained us everything about the lactobacillus and there interaction with oxygen, about the special way oak-aged beers ferment.

After a tour of the bottling line and the huge warehouse, as well as the keg filling line

(we saw a fantastic robotic arm for the stapling of the kegs onto pallets) we went upstairs for the tasting. We tasted:
Petrus range : blonde-dubbel bruin-tripel-special-oud bruin- aged pale
Wittekerke and Wittekerke Rosé
Pilaarbijter blond and bruin
Bavik Pilsner

We met the new export manager of the brewery, Mr. Walgraeve, who had just replaced Mr. José Desmet who retired earlier in the year.

After this very successful visit we went for lunch in the neighbouring town of Harelbeke in a restored old railway station which now houses a restaurant called Track 75. We ate traditional Flemish ‘carbonades’, this is a beef stew slowly cooked in Petrus Dubbel brown beer. It is served with fresh applesauce and fries.

After lunch we left for Ertvelde in East Flandres for one of the highlights of the tour, the visit to Brouwerij Van Steenberge, where Jef Versele, whom we met earlier in the week in Ghent, was waiting for us.

After a briefing on the history of this fantastic brewery (we were sitting in the old stables, now serving as tasting room with already an Augustijn in our hands!)

we went to the brew house (very modern and computer automated), the fermentation rooms and the bottling line.

We were lucky enough to see the bottling activity in full process. Van Steenberge bottles all sizes including 75 cl bottles, as well as 1.5L and 3L bottles. This is unique in Belgium!! We saw the large warehouses and after a stop in the park (with pond and ducks)

we went for the tasting: Piraat 10.5% a truly wonderful golden ale, Bornem double and triple abbey ales,
Gulden Draak 10.5 %. After the tasting Jef took us to Holland, to Philipinne, a village just on the other side of the border.

Day VI