In de Vrede - Westy 12

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NTexBrewer

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Wanted to share a part of my Belgium trip that we had in August. My Mother-in-Law was born in Brussels and my family (wife, 16 year old son and 13 year old daughter) traveled to Belgium and France with my Mother-in-Law and Father-in-Law. This was a Family vacation but since I did all the planning it included a lot of beer! Which was ok with my 16 year old son as he found out when we got there that Belgium does not have a drinking age only a carry out age. So, in a bar he could and did order a beer for himself. We planned to spend some time in Bruges so we drove from Namur where we visited family and made a little detour to stop in Poperinge to visit the Hop Museum and then to stop at In de Vrede in West Vleteren which is the cafe across the street from the St. Sixtus abbey. We arrived at In de Vrede http://www.indevrede.be/home.php?lang=en in the early afternoon on a Sunday and the place was packed. A little overwhelming at first but we found a table and soon ordered beers and snacks. I ordered the Westy 12, my son had the Westy 8 and my wife and in-laws had the blonde. All very nice beers but the 12 was very very good. They have a little gift shop and they were only selling a "package" of 2 Westy 12's with 4 15cl Westy glasses. A little disappointing as I hoped to buy more 12's to take home to friends. This was not too much of a problem because most beer shops in Brussels and Bruge sell all three of the Westy beers. The only problem is they sell them for a very high markup. I would much rather give my money to the monks. Still it was a neat experience. Also, as we drove to In de Vrede we saw hop fields all over as this is the hop growing region of Belgium

Tips for anyone planning to go. I would guess weekdays are less crowded than weekend. Check their website for days open and hours. If you plan to go on the weekend arrive early. With it being a Sunday when we visited and it was a nice day it was very crowded with people who arrived both by car and bicycle. Also, if they only offer the "package" it may still be cheaper to buy 2 "packages" to get 4 west 12's and end up with 8 glasses then to go to a bottle shop and pay the double and triple prices. If I remember correctly the Package of 2 Westy's and Glasses was 24 Euros. In Brussels a single Westy 12 went for 15 to 18 Euros in the bottle shops. I bought more 12's in a Bruge Bottle shop for 11 Euros each.

Also, when we were leaving, I asked our waiter for a bottle cap from each beer. I have a friend that collects bottle caps and knew that he would love them. He reached into the a big bowl and gave me a handful! I have a lot left over and do not mind sharing if anyone wants some. They all have a slight crimp in them but that just makes them authentic. For anyone not familiar with Westy beers they do not put a label on their beers. The cap has all of the required information such as the brewery, type of beer, abv, bottling date (or actually the best served by date)

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In case anyone ever cares to follow in these footsteps: by all mean do.

But by een more means, if you're in de Vrede on a Saturday and you have the afternoon to yourself, head out to the neighbouring town of OostVleteren and visit de Struise Brouwers.

Shameless plug to my own blog but seriously: pay them a visit. Preferable if you can compare to the lackluster welcome you'll get in de Vrede.

That being said: don't spend your money of retail Westies. They're overpriced to extortionate proportions.
 
Thats awesome. I had a chance to visit Orval Brewery, and it was amazing. I think one of the best beers ive ever had was Orval green in the cafe outside the abbey.

It is hard to find a bad beer in Belgium. There are so many different breweries to visit that you just have to pick a few and not worry that you may be missing out on another one. On this trip we visited Cantillon in Brussels, Brasserie du Bocq just south of Namur, De Halve Maan Brewery in Bruge along with having beers at Delirium, Petite Delirium, De Garre and every restaurant!
 
You are lucky you even had the option to buy 12s!

We got there in early afternoon on a Saturday and there were only two other people in the place. I was pumped because I figured they wouldnt have sold out of their little gift sets and we were each going to buy whatever we could to bring back with us. Well the gift shop had a sign that just said "Sorry we are not selling beer today". I asked the bartender and he told me to come back Tuesday and that there was a 60% chance they would have beer then... Well this was a day trip and we wouldn't even be in Belgium any longer by Tuesday so we just bought a set of 4 33cl glasses and left (after sampling the beers of course!).

Also I did not find westy's in any bottle shops (we visited bruges, ghent and ypres). So i didn't get to bring any home with me. I only got to try one glass at in de vrede.

I guess we visited during a time where they hadn't made the 12 in a while or something, I don't know really, but it was a bummer. The beer was very good though. if i wasn't driving i would have had a ton of it.

So yeah, you are lucky you got to buy some and bring it home. I really wish I had been able to do that.
 
It is hard to find a bad beer in Belgium. There are so many different breweries to visit that you just have to pick a few and not worry that you may be missing out on another one. On this trip we visited Cantillon in Brussels, Brasserie du Bocq just south of Namur, De Halve Maan Brewery in Bruge along with having beers at Delirium, Petite Delirium, De Garre and every restaurant!

Delirium was my happy place. Such amazing beers, and so cheap too. I also loved how every room had such a distinct vibe.

pawnshop, I was able to grab a couple of westy 12's in brussels, I'm not proud to buy them unofficially, but at the time it was the only way for me to get my hands on it.

I went to Belgium after Iceland, it was an amazing trip. I was also very surprised by a beer I had in Iceland, Olviishoft Lava. Spectacular stout if I remember correctly.
 
I'm planning a trip for this Spring. Does anyone have experience with ordering a crate and shipping it back?
 
I never imagined the cafe would be so modern!

The cafe is across the street from the Abbey. Public is not allowed on the abbey grounds and they do not do brewery tours. I'm not sure how long the cafe has been open but I think they opened it up to try to appease the demand for their beers.

Large indoor area you can see in the picture and they also had a large outdoor patio and kids play area.
 
I'm planning a trip for this Spring. Does anyone have experience with ordering a crate and shipping it back?

From what I understand you have to have a Belgium extension phone to order a crate of beer. You call the abbey order line and if they feel like picking up the phone they will take your name and number. When they have a case ready for you they will call you and tell you when to pick it up.

The other issue is I think it is illegal to ship Alcohol into the US. Sending a few bottles may work but a whole case may be problematic.

My wife is a Gold AAdvantage member with American Airlines which gets the first checked bag free for each traveler. Actually for international flights one checked bag MAY be included. Anyway we had 6 people in our party and checked 4 bags going over and checked 5 coming home. The 5th bag was a soft side duffle we took to bring back souvenirs. One of the bags was my beer bag. This bag is perfect for carrying 12 beers securely. I have used it multiple times without any problems. Actually took over some homebrew for my Mother-in-Law's family. The bag holds 4 of the cardboard wine separators that they use to ship wine. I took enough ziplock bags for each beer and then stuffed some t-shirts on top to give a little extra padding. I went a little crazy with buying beer glasses and just bought a large reusable grocery type bag while there and used that as my second carry on so I could watch my breakable stuff. I did take over some bubble wrap and tubes to pack my glasses. In addition to the beer, we also brought back in other bags a bottle of wine and 2 bottles of champagne.

Some airlines even allow you to check boxes. For the cost it may be cheaper to check an extra bag or box with your beer then to ship it. Taking it on the airline is legal as long as you follow customs rules.

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I see you brought some Viven :)

It was the Viven Master IPA. Brought it home for my cousin. I drank one at Delirium. Wanted to try what Belgian Brewers considered to be an IPA. Nice beer but no where close to the west coast hop bombs we have. The other funny thing was at Delirium each floor's bar has different types of beer. The top floor was dedicated to IPA's and it was completely empty! They also had dedicated this area as a "quiet" area which was fine for us as we could actually sit down, talk and enjoy our beer.

Since I've been home, I have seen some Viven in a few stores near me but not the Master IPA.
 
Wanted to try what Belgian Brewers considered to be an IPA. Nice beer but no where close to the west coast hop bombs we have.

Belgium doesn't really get IPAs just yet. Hoppiness in Belgian beers is seldom what you'd look for in USA brews.
 
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