EP005 | Nino Bacelle of Brouwerij De Ranke

In 2020, three young Belgians started a brewery with an ambition to cohesively merge their widely diverging beer tastes—pastoral Belgian ales, traditional English styles, and mixed fermentation beers packed with fruit.

They’d have to do it against a challenging backdrop: disinterest from Brussels drinkers in unfamiliar styles, rolling pandemic lock-downs, the fracturing of their original triumvirate, a global energy crisis, and an increasingly cut-throat beer market.

In Belgian beer, it’s survival of the fittest: you live by the law of the jungle.

In this episode, Breandán Kearney sits down with Félix Damien and Christophe Bravin of Brasserie La Jungle.

Belgium has purchase on a roughly 65 kilometre stretch of North Sea coast. With a cumulative six Michelin stars in restaurants in the region, the coast has a density of just over 1 Michelin-starred restaurant for every 10 kilometres. 

There are breweries too—at least three, depending on your definition and geographical scope (Brouwerij St Idesbald, Jus de Mer, and Stadsbrouwerij Oostende ‘t Koelschip)—and many cafés, restaurants, and bistros with something to offer your non-Michelin guide reader.

These businesses and the towns they occupy are all strung out alongside or straddling the metal tracks of Tram 0, the Kusttram, Belgium’s coastal tramline.

67 kilometres long and comprising 68 stops, the tram has been trundling leisurely between these pleasure centres for 137 years. It’s the longest single tram line in the world.

Eoghan Walsh, beer writer and fellow Irishman in Belgium, took the Kusttram the length of the coast to explore its food and drink culture. 

Belgium has a rich festival scene. Every single weekend in the year, you could choose between a multitude of music shows, food markets, neighbourhood parties, and cultural shows. Its beer festival circuit is equally rich. From village fairs to international events, Belgians celebrate beer at festivals like few other nations.

In this podcast, we’re talking Belgian beer festivals with three guests who organise prominent, but wonderfully different beer festivals in Belgium: Stéfan Cauwenbergs of Billie’s Craft Beer Festival; Bart Vanneste of Bruges Beer Festival; and Jan Machiel van Bragt of the Kerstbierfestival.

We talked about the diverse profiles of each of their festivals, how beer festivals in Belgium might be different than in other countries, the challenges and joys of running a festival in Belgium, and how they see the festival scene evolving in the coming years.

The Lambic Roundtable was an event during the Toer de Geuze 2022 tailor-made for broadcasting in beer bars all over the world, and as you’ll hear from the discussion, we took questions live from bars with strong reputations for Lambic in different countries. Sitting at the Lambic Roundtable with were Gert Christiaens, Frank Boon, Kloris Devillé, and Stu Stuart.

During the evening’s conversation, we talked about the challenges of organising such an event after a COVID hiatus, the ways in which HORAL is changing as an organisation, how the Megablend was produced for the Toer, and why the internationalisation of Lambic is so important for its future. We also took questions from the bars and their patrons watching from around the world. 

We sat down with Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Jerry Franck to find out about his Lambic documentary "Bottle Conditioned".

We sat down with Marc Coesens of Brouwerij Liefmans, Rudi Ghequire of Brouwerij Rodenbach, and Alex Lippens of Brouwerij 't Verzet to discuss Oud Bruin, Flanders Red, and Flemish sours.

The story of Baarle, Ronald Mengerink, and De Dochter van de Korenaar is one of defying categorisation and rejecting boundaries set for you.

OMER Traditional Blond from Brouwerij Omer Vander Ghinste is a highly carbonated, fruity, and dry ale with a pleasant but subtle bitterness. But just how does it communicate the complex story of generational transition in Belgian family brewing?

Bart Delvaux and Ine Van der Stock opened Brouwerij De Coureur in 2020, a small brewery and taproom in the Kessel-Lo neighbourhood of Leuven.

The Brussels beer café is an institution that has enjoyed as much acclaim as it has suffered fatigue. 

This podcast is a panel discussion recorded in a Brussels beer café in front of an intimate live audience.

The central question we were trying to answer was whether the Brussels beer café is a doomed relic or a durable icon.