Nate B.
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- Belgium Lives Between
Kansas and Cleveland
- by Nate B.
Several weeks ago, The Economist asserted that
“Belgium has served its purpose” and the orderly
dissolution of the country as a whole should not be
delayed. Sure, you could cite the bloated welfare state
or the vast differences between the Flemish-speaking
North and French-speaking South as factors hastening
the decline of Europe’s 175 year old C-student. But it’s
the utter indifference of its citizenry to a united Belgium
that may strike the death blow to the current seat of EU
power.
I probably won’t be going out on a limb to say that
readers of this page, like me, consider Belgium’s greatest
asset to be its beer. And while there will always be a
place for the monks in the highest echelons of discerning
booziness, we need not look exclusively to ”Old Europe”
for beer that, as college students, we would have kicked
our own asses for drinking. (Somewhere, former
Secretary Rumsfeld is laughing… and plotting… and
laughing.)
The explosion of American talent in the area of Belgian-
style brewing during the last decade has been
astounding. From breweries like Russian River to Avery
to Allagash, the Belgian genius spans coast to coast.
Somewhere in the middle, say between Kansas and
Cleveland (as once posited by a classmate at a top 25
university) lies Indianapolis and an upstart brewery
called Brugge Brasserie.
Begun in 2005 by a group of high school friends,
including ER actor Abraham Benrubi, Brugge brews
onsite and carries an ever-changing list of Belgian-style
favorites. Their popular offerings include the “Tripel de
Ripple,” winner of a Silver Medal at the 24th Annual
Great American Beer Festival. Demand for the brews
has outpaced the limited onsite facilities, leading to
offsite expansion at the former Terre Haute Brewing
Company. The additional capacity means that Brugge’s
beers will soon be available in stores. Whether you
choose to knock back a Champagne-style bottle of the
Tripel over an episode of Cops, or tackle the Grand Cru
on draft during the Colts game, you’ll be enjoying some
of the best Belgian-style beer this side of Flanders.
Ultimately, should the indifference of the Belgian people
prevail and the Belgium identity falter, the idea of
Belgian beer as we know it may never be the same. This
will not stop the indefatigable monks from putting out
world-class beer—thankfully. Nevertheless, the notion
of Belgian beer doesn’t work too well without a Belgium
(Prussian vodka anyone?) Fortunately for us, the
diaspora of brewing talent extends to the “New World.”
And should he find himself exiled from the battleground
of Europe, there is a town somewhere between Kansas
and Cleveland where Belgium’s King Albert II could still
get a great beer.
| Lightning strikes at the Brugge Brasserie in Indianapolis, IN |
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