I had read somewhere that Poperinge was the hop growing region in Belgium and was also the home to two of the more famous Belgium breweries.  St.Bernardus and Abby Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren.  They also had a hop museum which seemed pretty cool.  I had planned on going out there and was throwing around several options for how I was going to get around.  I ended up deciding to rent a bike and do a grand tour of the countryside.  The best part of this decision is that John and Joey were down to join me.

The morning was a bit rainy and we were unsure what the weather would be like throughout the day, but we decided to push forward and make it work regardless of the weather.  Our first stop after getting off the train was to get to the bike rental place before it closed for lunch.  We made it just in the nick of time and were on our two wheels in no time.  We also weren’t sure what to do with our bags at the time, but luckily the bike rental place let us keep them there while we were on our ride.

We didn’t have to go very far as the hop museum was around the corner and that was out first stop of the day!  It was located in an old hops processign facility which has now been converted into a museum.

The museum went through the process of processing hops as well as the history of how they were harvested in the past as well as growing regions in the world.

They also had a pretty awesome bottle collection of almost all of the Belgium breweries.

After taking a decent amount of time in the museum, we hit the road towards some of the breweries in the area.  As you can see by the tourist map below, there are a lot of them!

Not far out of town we passed by a British Cemetery from world war 2 which we explored and paid our respects.  There were 299 Canadians burred there.

We continued onward towards a bar that we were told to go to by a local we had talked to about the best local bars in the area.

He described it as more or less drinking in the people’s living room.  We had an idea of where it was was, but ended up stumbling across it almost by mistake which worked out well.

The bar was more or less in the middle of nowhere and appears to be as local as you can get.  As advertised the operators were hanging out on couches in the main area watching TV.  They didn’t really speak english but were very nice and tried to talk to us a little bit.  It was a cool spot and a really chill break from the ride.

Another thing I really love about Belgium that i had not mentioned yet, is that when you order a beer, the bar ALWAYS has the proper glass to put it in.  Each beer had a specific glass and the bars were very good at always having the right glass.  Instead of the back of the bar being full of liquor like in North America, Belgium bars had glasses everywhere behind the bar.  Even this small bar in the middle of nowhere, had the correct glass for each beer they sold.

after a quick beer/rest at De Helleketel we continued onwards to our next stop which was St.Berardus!  This is a pretty famous Belgium brewery with distribution worldwide.  You might recognizes the jolly monk on the front.  It used to mostly produce cheese, but in 1945 the nearby monastery st sixtus came to an agreement that they would brew their beer at their location instead of the monastery.  The brew master and yeast strain came to St.Bernardus and the beer was brewed at St.Bernardus until 1992 when the trappist monks decided the beer could not be called trappist unless it was brewed within the walls of a monestary.  At that time they moved brewing back to Westvleteren but did not take the yeast or the recipe with them.  Therefore the St.Bernardus beers are considered a close match to the beers brewed at St.Sixtus but are much more well distributed.

They had just completed a bunch of renovations which included a really cool tasting room on the top floor.  They had some hop fields in the back which were very close to harvest and the tasting room provided an beautiful view of the fields.

We also did a fun photoshoot in front of the hop plants!

We had a bunch of samples and then decided it was time to continue as we eventually had a train to catch and had at least one more stop to make.

There was supposed to be one more brewery on the way called In Het Brouwershof but it was closed when we arrived.  So we continued onwards to our next destination which was the famous St Sixtus monestary, home to Westvleteren beer which was once labeled the best beer in the world.  The beer is only available from the monastery itself and requires a reservation and a car.  You are only allowed to get one case every 60 days per license plate and phone number.  You can’t get the beer at the brewery without a car, but you can get it served to you at the cafe across the street, which the abby also runs.

This is probably the only place in the world you can get a bottle of Westvleteren 12 for 5 euros.  There are actually three types available, the 12, 8 an blond.  We had one of each and they were all delicious examples of some of the best of Belgium!

We also got a snack.

Upon leaving the cafe, we tested our sobriety by attempting the american ninja warrior style (the floor is lava) course they had outside and would not leave until each of us had completed the entire thing without touching the ground.

with that, we headed back into town to return the bikes and catch the last train out of the city.  We had some time to kill so stopped in to a local bar where they were playing this strange pool type game that only had three balls.  I meant to look up the rules but never got around it it.  There were also no pockets on the table which was also strange.  Anyone know what game this is.  There was a judge that was awarding points based on how the person hit all of the balls on the table with each shot (I think).  We eventually got the train and were on our way to our next city… the beautiful city of Bruges!