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Some Miscellaneous things from Belgium.

Moeder Lambic. Barley as a table snack is bloody brilliant. I can say that. I’m in the UK right now.

Cantillon

There’s No Long, Just Short

I meant to write more from Brussels, but when I got back from the things I was doing, I was more intent on unwinding than recounting every detail of my trip. What I can say is that I had a lot of fun and made, what I think are some great friends. While I was very much looking forward to the beer on this portion of this trip, I was very much dreading the human aspect of it. Being alone on the holidays makes you miss people. At times, that feeling crept in, but I had some wonderful people who helped me forget about it.

I started recounting all of the details of my trip, but I decided that nobody would want to read it. Heck, I didn’t want to read it either. Instead, I’m going to focus merely on the highlights. I will break it up by section too, so you can choose what you’re interested and what you want to read.

Beer: Cantillon - Is Cantillon the world’s most famous brewery? The first place I went was certainly a highlight of the trip. Seeing the coolship in use and trying the 2005 Gueuze (twice) were my favorite parts. The people made me feel at home. I also met Rich there, one of those folks that made my trip awesome. Some quick notes on Cantillon’s beers: Fou Foune - It was very acidic and I feel that the apricots are extremely understated, in a not great way. It may be the white whale for many, but I wasn’t entirely impressed. 2005 Gueuze - on the other hand, this was legitimately the king beer of my trip. I heard that Cantillon’s yeast is weaker and takes longer to go to work, so I wonder if the age helped make this beer as good as it was. May be the yeast was stronger in 2005 than it is now too. Rose de Gambrinus - This has long been one of my favorite lambics, but it just seemed lacking to me. There was this soapiness that was off putting. I had a 18 month old single lambic that had a similar character which leads me to believe that it has more to do with the underlying lambic than the fruit. Lou Pepe Framboise though is still [fire emoji].

Moeder Lambic - I had been told to go here so when Rich invited me to join him there, I couldn’t say no. The draft list is great there, the assortments (the charcuterie) are well cured, and they have some rare bottles of Drie Fonteinen, whose beer I really would not have been able to otherwise try. 3F Schaerbeekse - Kriek isn’t exactly my favorite fruited lambic style, but this one was absolutely stellar. While there is a substantial amount of cherries, it’s not overpowering like in Intense Red. Schaerbeekse toes that line very well in keeping the balance between fruit and lambic. I loved this. It was a great Christmas beer. Merry Christmas, Shep! Gueuze Tilquin (On Draft) - Gueuze Tilquin on draft is one of the greatest joys in life. If I had the writing talent to write an ode to Gueuze Tilquin on draft, I would. It is everything that all of these Goses and Berliner Weisses aspire to be. If they were able to can this, this would be a constant fixture in my fridge. Birra Toccalmatto Skianto - This Session IPA from Italy was fire. Sweet melons and grassy hops. Super refreshing. I must be having some shit beer from Italy because apparently the scene is blowing up there and this is a testament to it. Fantastic fresh hoppy beer.

Ghent Beer Share - Rich invited me to this beer share and it was a cool experience. I didn’t take beer from home with me because I didn’t have any trades set up and I didn’t have anyone to share with. In the future, I’m going to have to be more prepared. This beer share was fun because I got to meet tickers. While I’m not enamored with the ticker approach to beer, it still made for a fun beer share because we got to try a ton of different beers. The highlights for me were the Hunter Vanilla from 18th Street, Sin Frontera, which is a Jester King, Crooked Stave, Trois Dames collaboration, and a couple of the Czech beers that we had from Pivovar Zhurak. I really appreciate the hospitality of Tim and Marina as well who were wonderful hosts.

Other: I got to try Westy 12. I can see why it is a well regarded beer. It’s everything you’d want from a quad. I do wish that I had had one with more age on it as the fresh one I had ran a little hot and a little hoppy. I think that, with age, it would mellow out, and turn into what people regard it for.

Food: I didn’t really over indulge on food. I had moules frites, which were great, besides the freaking celery. Celery sucks, stop putting so much in your food, please. The chocolate souffle I had at that same dinner was bomb because Chocolate souffle is the greatest dessert that there is. A sure fire way to my heart. Croquettes were good too. The other big national dish I had was carbonade, a beef stew cooked with a tripel. So rich and delicious. I also had a ton of charcuterie. Charcuterie and beer are wonderful. No burgers, very little fries, what the hell is wrong with me?

Sightseeing: I didn’t do any sight seeing really, besides walking from place to place. I saw the Mannekin Pis which is a little boy peeing in a fountain. Cool, guys. I saw the grand palace which was also alright. Cantillon was my sightseeing.

#euroshep

A few pictures from Monday.

#euroshep

About Last Night

Today, I’m headed to Brussels. I guess I am in Brussels right now. I took the EuroStar. It’s the high speed train. I like taking trains to get around and I wish it was viewed more positively in the States. I was excited when Obama said that he’d invest in the rail system, but that has been an empty promise. I don’t blame him though with how poorly the rail system is run and how poor our political system is at the moment. Amtrak is one of the worst run quasi government organizations, and that’s saying something. I guess the EuroStar is a much more pleasant experience. We are moving fast and we left on time. We aren’t stopping every ten minutes to pick up schlubs from Connecticut. I was served orange juice, coffee, and breakfast. I was treated like a human being instead of cattle. I’d ride the EuroStar again. Wait, I am taking this back too. And they just gave me a chocolate croissant. Before we get into the Brussels portion of the trip, let’s revisit the last day, for now, in London. I slept a ton Sunday night. Part of that is just from the experience the previous day with wanting to go back after a couple of beers at Howling Hops. I didn’t want to be tired for the Arsenal game. I did wake up at 8:00. I just so happened to wake up at 9:15, 9:45, 10:30, and 11:00 as well. I really wanted to grab a proper English breakfast, but based on timing, I decided it was best to check out what we missed the previous day at Crate Brewery. Crate is located right next to Howling Hops, down the canal from the Olympic Stadium. Crate is located on the canal, so I imagine it’s lovely in the minimal amount of sun per day that London gets. For the record, I saw no sun these last two days. Miss you, great ball of fire. Crate is cool. It’s got kind of a cafe vibe (if you check out the pictures that I posted, you’ll see). There are long-ish picnic tables with padded bench seating, along with smaller tables and chairs on the side. I think there were some leather chairs on the other side. The bar is at an angle and they make pizza on the other side. After trying hoppy beers at Howling Hops the previous day, I was ready to try other stuff at Crate. I had the porter for starters. It was served on cask, light roast and a light chocolate finish on the end. Delicious. I tried some of Adi’s golden and that seemed pretty refreshing and had some nice citrus to it. The real show stealer for me was the sour, which was made with passion fruit and hibiscus. That combination was surprisingly brilliant and there was light tartness. I bet that sour is incredible in the summer, but it was pretty good on a cloudy winter, but not winter temperature day. The pizza was alright. After Crate, we walked towards Hackney/London Fields. We got to walk through Victoria Park, which was cool. I think that the best cities have these kinds of green spaces. New York has Central Park. Boston has the Public Garden, Common, as well as the Esplanade. London has its own share of nicely cultivated parks. We hit up a couple more pubs. My friend had spoken fondly of Camden Hells, so I tried that. Came across as a hybrid of a helles and a pils. It had that spicy pils finish. Think there may have been some pilsner malts used too. I also had a vanilla milk stout, which had some big roast character, subtle vanilla presence, but a was a bit thin. While I appreciate subtlety in America where a lot of flavors are overdone, I do think that the vanilla was too subtle in the stout. It also could’ve benefited from being more viscous or being served on nitro. I love dark beers on nitro. Now on to the part that y’all are waiting to hear about. I went to the Arsenal last night. They’re pretty good at this game called soccer, that the Brits call football, it’s the same game. Special shoutout to Mike and his sister Jane for helping me get a ticket. I met her at The Twelve Pins and we walked over to the Emirates shortly after. The Emirates gets a bad wrap for being a soulless concrete oval, but you can’t argue against its state of the art design. The roof covers all of the seats, so it’s comfortable. There are great sight lines, and the concourses are spacious. It’s modern. It is football in the modern age. The environment is in the fans' hands or voices. I’m not sure how we sounded on TV last night, but I can say that it was different from the last time I went. The last or first game I went to was against Celtic in the Champions League last year. I feel there was a sit down, don’t make too much noise, snobby vibe then. The ushers had more of a presence. Last night, we were on our feet the entire match. Despite moments of antsy unrest over Arsenal’s lack of pressing, I thought that the environment was pretty great. Lots of singing, lots of encouragement. Perhaps, it was the fact that Arsenal were winning and won. Despite conceding vast stretches of possession, Arsenal kept City on the outside and created the better chances. Both Giroud and Gibbs had good chances of putting the game further out of reach and to finish City. The two goals still proved to be too many for a hapless City side. Anyway, it was a fun match to be at. I certainly enjoyed myself. I hope that I can go to one of the other games, but I’m still looking for tickets to Bournemouth and Newcastle (please help!). Regardless, this keeps Arsenal in a good position to win the League. 4 points clear of City, only 2 behind Leicester. It’s not a bad position to be in with plenty of games left to be played. Getting back to East London was a bit difficult. Well, not difficult, just long. I decided to sit on the steps on the side while the queue to get into The Tube dissipated. I wasn’t feeling great and being in close quarters with a ton of people wasn’t my idea of a good time. I eventually got the Overground to Stratford and the DLR down to Langdon Road. I also got to pet a pit bull. Good days can get better. I got back to Adi’s apartment late and I had to leave early. Navigating along a dirty canal wasn’t the optimal start to my day. I got to St. Pancras in a sweaty mess. In fact, most of my day has been a sweaty mess. As I said above, the EuroStar was awesome. The first thing that I did when I got to Brussels was jam up the ticket machine for the Metro. I didn’t realize my card was a contact and the guy in front of me had a ticket so I did the same. I’m an idiot and clearly annoyed the Metro worker. I apologized profusely. He knows that I am an idiot. I had to pick up my key from the city center. Rather than take the Metro back, I decided it would be wiser to walk across the city. Again, I was a sweaty mess and I wanted to get some air. I have to say that it wasn’t the brightest thing I’ve done because the walk was almost exclusively up hill. I swear, if I lived in Europe, I would be as skinny as everyone else here because I would be walking so much. Anyway, I am sitting in my Air BnB, looking out at the garden. This apartment is really nice and cozy, as described. I’m also wondering: is it too early to go to Cantillon?

#euroshep

About Last Night

Today, I’m headed to Brussels. I guess I am in Brussels right now. I took the EuroStar. It’s the high speed train. I like taking trains to get around and I wish it was viewed more positively in the States. I was excited when Obama said that he’d invest in the rail system, but that has been an empty promise. I don’t blame him though with how poorly the rail system is run and how poor our political system is at the moment. Amtrak is one of the worst run quasi government organizations, and that’s saying something. I guess the EuroStar is a much more pleasant experience. We are moving fast and we left on time. We aren’t stopping every ten minutes to pick up schlubs from Connecticut. I was served orange juice, coffee, and breakfast. I was treated like a human being instead of cattle. I’d ride the EuroStar again. Wait, I am taking this back too. And they just gave me a chocolate croissant. Before we get into the Brussels portion of the trip, let’s revisit the last day, for now, in London. I slept a ton Sunday night. Part of that is just from the experience the previous day with wanting to go back after a couple of beers at Howling Hops. I didn’t want to be tired for the Arsenal game. I did wake up at 8:00. I just so happened to wake up at 9:15, 9:45, 10:30, and 11:00 as well. I really wanted to grab a proper English breakfast, but based on timing, I decided it was best to check out what we missed the previous day at Crate Brewery. Crate is located right next to Howling Hops, down the canal from the Olympic Stadium. Crate is located on the canal, so I imagine it’s lovely in the minimal amount of sun per day that London gets. For the record, I saw no sun these last two days. Miss you, great ball of fire. Crate is cool. It’s got kind of a cafe vibe (if you check out the pictures that I posted, you’ll see). There are long-ish picnic tables with padded bench seating, along with smaller tables and chairs on the side. I think there were some leather chairs on the other side. The bar is at an angle and they make pizza on the other side. After trying hoppy beers at Howling Hops the previous day, I was ready to try other stuff at Crate. I had the porter for starters. It was served on cask, light roast and a light chocolate finish on the end. Delicious. I tried some of Adi’s golden and that seemed pretty refreshing and had some nice citrus to it. The real show stealer for me was the sour, which was made with passion fruit and hibiscus. That combination was surprisingly brilliant and there was light tartness. I bet that sour is incredible in the summer, but it was pretty good on a cloudy winter, but not winter temperature day. The pizza was alright. After Crate, we walked towards Hackney/London Fields. We got to walk through Victoria Park, which was cool. I think that the best cities have these kinds of green spaces. New York has Central Park. Boston has the Public Garden, Common, as well as the Esplanade. London has its own share of nicely cultivated parks. We hit up a couple more pubs. My friend had spoken fondly of Camden Hells, so I tried that. Came across as a hybrid of a helles and a pils. It had that spicy pils finish. Think there may have been some pilsner malts used too. I also had a vanilla milk stout, which had some big roast character, subtle vanilla presence, but a was a bit thin. While I appreciate subtlety in America where a lot of flavors are overdone, I do think that the vanilla was too subtle in the stout. It also could’ve benefited from being more viscous or being served on nitro. I love dark beers on nitro. Now on to the part that y’all are waiting to hear about. I went to the Arsenal last night. They’re pretty good at this game called soccer, that the Brits call football, it’s the same game. Special shoutout to Mike and his sister Jane for helping me get a ticket. I met her at The Twelve Pins and we walked over to the Emirates shortly after. The Emirates gets a bad wrap for being a soulless concrete oval, but you can’t argue against its state of the art design. The roof covers all of the seats, so it’s comfortable. There are great sight lines, and the concourses are spacious. It’s modern. It is football in the modern age. The environment is in the fans' hands or voices. I’m not sure how we sounded on TV last night, but I can say that it was different from the last time I went. The last or first game I went to was against Celtic in the Champions League last year. I feel there was a sit down, don’t make too much noise, snobby vibe then. The ushers had more of a presence. Last night, we were on our feet the entire match. Despite moments of antsy unrest over Arsenal’s lack of pressing, I thought that the environment was pretty great. Lots of singing, lots of encouragement. Perhaps, it was the fact that Arsenal were winning and won. Despite conceding vast stretches of possession, Arsenal kept City on the outside and created the better chances. Both Giroud and Gibbs had good chances of putting the game further out of reach and to finish City. The two goals still proved to be too many for a hapless City side. Anyway, it was a fun match to be at. I certainly enjoyed myself. I hope that I can go to one of the other games, but I’m still looking for tickets to Bournemouth and Newcastle (please help!). Regardless, this keeps Arsenal in a good position to win the League. 4 points clear of City, only 2 behind Leicester. It’s not a bad position to be in with plenty of games left to be played. Getting back to East London was a bit difficult. Well, not difficult, just long. I decided to sit on the steps on the side while the queue to get into The Tube dissipated. I wasn’t feeling great and being in close quarters with a ton of people wasn’t my idea of a good time. I eventually got the Overground to Stratford and the DLR down to Langdon Road. I also got to pet a pit bull. Good days can get better. I got back to Adi’s apartment late and I had to leave early. Navigating along a dirty canal wasn’t the optimal start to my day. I got to St. Pancras in a sweaty mess. In fact, most of my day has been a sweaty mess. As I said above, the EuroStar was awesome. The first thing that I did when I got to Brussels was jam up the ticket machine for the Metro. I didn’t realize my card was a contact and the guy in front of me had a ticket so I did the same. I’m an idiot and clearly annoyed the Metro worker. I apologized profusely. He knows that I am an idiot. I had to pick up my key from the city center. Rather than take the Metro back, I decided it would be wiser to walk across the city. Again, I was a sweaty mess and I wanted to get some air. I have to say that it wasn’t the brightest thing I’ve done because the walk was almost exclusively up hill. I swear, if I lived in Europe, I would be as skinny as everyone else here because I would be walking so much. Anyway, I am sitting in my Air BnB, looking out at the garden. This apartment is really nice and cozy, as described. I’m also wondering: is it too early to go to Cantillon?

#euroshep

First Day, Exhausted

Hello from the other side,

I’m writing you from sunny England. Just kidding, I haven’t seen the sun since I’ve been here. I didn’t expect to. Today was a good first day in London though. I got into London early and getting in on a Sunday was great, considering that The Tube is relatively quiet. The UK Border and baggage claim were relatively easy. The Tube was long, but more due to the number of stops I had to go through to get to East London than anything.

I’m staying with my friend, Adi. Adi lives in a pretty awesome, artsy flat that is made of up studios. He and his roommates are artists and there is definitely an artsy vibe. The showpieces of the living area are a handful of guitars and a record player. There’s some art too, including a painting of Dark Side of the Moon signed by Nick Mason. I don’t know what cool is, but maybe this is it.

We left his place with the intentions of going to Camden Town. On the way there, Adi asked if I wanted to go to a brewery. My answer, unsurprisingly, was “of course.” We stopped at Hackney Wick. This was still a bit before noon and the breweries we intended on going to were not open. We ended up taking a walk by the Olympic Stadium instead.

One of the things that I like about many of the English stadiums is that they’re very integrated into the surrounding area. The Olympic Stadium is not. While there are some flats in the adjacent area across the canal, there’s just a lot of open, undeveloped space. It’s rare in London. I must add that this is one of the things I feel weird about the Emirates. However, if that extra land helps Arsenal add more seats in the future, all is forgiven. There are some really nice walking, biking, and running paths by the stadium.

The brewery we ended up going to was Howling Hops. The super unique thing about them is that they serve beer straight out of the bright tanks. They were the first UK brewery to do so. We tried several of their offerings and I was left quite impressed. Howling Hops does a really good job of featuring hops. My favorite was their Rye Wit. We also had a nice burger from a street car.

Given that I only slept for two hours on the plane, I crashed hard. I would’ve liked to go to Crate Brewery, but there was no way that was going to be an enjoyable situation. A nap was necessary and was had. Despite our intentions to go see live music at night, the evening turned into a really low key, listen to music and chill affair. I only wish I had gone to bed sooner, but listening Reignwolf to was worth it.

I don’t know what I am doing today besides going to the Emirates for the Arsenal game against City. I probably won’t be able to tell you about it until I’m in Belgium.

Until then,

-Shep

#euroshep

The first stop we made was to Hackney Wick. Had a few nice beers and a burger. It's a very cool area with some awesome street art. The Olympic Stadium is nearby as well.

#euroshep

Going to Europe, Later

Hey all,

It’s been a while. There’s a good reason for that; I’ve been very busy. Between work, work, work, Netflix, chicken and biscuits, and some spare time with my friends, it’s been tough to write something that I feel is good writing. I’m not a content pusher. I realize that may come across as a subtweet of sorts, but it’s meant to be a statement of how I approach my writing. I want to write something good and I want to take my time doing it. I’m also not limited by the demands of others, which is liberating on the subject, but at the same time, I’m my editor and my harshest critic.

That really brings us to this: I’m going to Europe for two weeks, spending time in England and Belgium. I’m super excited for this trip, and I’ve shared that excitement with many friends. These friends have asked me to keep them updated. That brings us to the blog resurrection. Also, Tumblr is a great venue for this, considering that pictures, videos, and writing will be produced on this trip. I’m traveling alone*, so I’m going to have time on my hands and probably my phone and its camera too.

I honestly have done quite a poor job of planning, but I am going to Arsenal v City. I am going to Cantillon. I am doing the Bermondsey Beer Mile. Those are the definites, but there are a lot of other things that I’d like to do. I’d like to go to a molecular gastronomy restaurant. I’d like to go to Bruges. I’d like to go to Drie Fonteinen. We shall see.

See you on the other side,

-Shep

*don’t worry, I will be meeting up with friends throughout the trip

#euroshep

Today

#copenhagen

The Parken isn't a big stadium. I think the capacity falls under 40,000 but the place has a lot of spirit. That is due to the ultras. Ultras or hardcore fans get a bad wrap but they contribute a lot to the environment of a stadium. They make the experience better. It wasn't the loudest game I've ever been to but it was loud for the number of people there. Arsenal needs to do more to create a better atmosphere. Le Grove goes on about it all the time but it's true. I know there are groups like Red Action that try to promote better fan experience but at the end of the day, the club has to make it happen. It will make the Emirates better and help lift the players too. So what are my thoughts on FCK? Well, it sucks they're playing there's important games so early in the season. You can tell there's some rust. However, I was impressed with the attack. They are lead by a guy named Andreas Cornelius, a giant of a man. Prior to looking up his name, I had nicknamed him Drago. Mostly due to his hair and size. Nicolai Jorgensen is their number ten. I called him Danish Bergkamp because of his hair and number. He is good and has skills but he's not exactly amazing. Danny Amankwaa is number 32 and really fast. He has some tricks too. He was the player that I was most impressed with. Overall, I think FCK has a good side but he back line was untested. Dnipro had no imagination. It was disappointing to see. Also, I think the holding mids can be pressured. The team doesn't move the ball that quickly, which would be bad against good, technically superior opponents. FCK is well drilled though. Tight shape, 4-4-2. I enjoyed the game and while I think Arsenal could handle FCK, I'd prefer Lille or Liege.

#FCK #Copenhagen #Parken

Mulally has been a wonderful CEO. He's done so much for Ford when things were at their worst. What a terrific hire and how well it has worked out for the company.

#ford #mulally