Some folks just don't know when to stop

Everyone knows that Belgian beer tends to the stronger end of the brewed beverage spectrum. The average beer will be 8% with anything below 6% being considered low alcohol and not really worthy of the title. With this comes a richness of taste which leads most of these beers to be categorised as "sipping" beers. Both from a richness and self preservation perspective. With this in mind, come the winter season Belgian brewers long ago put on their thinking hats and came up with a chipper idea for the cold weather and all the delights of the end of the year, Xmas Brews. It works like this; they take their standard recepies and make them richer and ... stronger than normal. Inspired.

Some folks in the lovely town of Essen thought this was such a good idea that they started an annual festival to showcase these insane examples of the brewer's craft. This is where we spent last Saturday.

Beards were in evidence

There were over a hundred beers on offer, so I really can't claim to have tried more than half of them. they were all pretty good though and (admittance bordering on sacrelidge) the "hot krieks" (of which there were 3) were shockingly drinkable.

Hot beer = wrong

Make mine a numer 47

It was quite a long trip, and 2 hour train journeys are not the greatest thing at the end of a harty day's drinking but all in all, it was definitely worth the trip. I'd suggest an overnighter next year, if anyone's interested. On the other hand, there are dozens of beer festivals in Belgium every year, some of them within staggering distance of our house, so maybe one of those (which also specialise in <10%>

Bomber out