Few things are prettier than the view from an airliner's window seat on a clear or semi-clear day. Few places also make one so gently or pleasantly lightheaded, particularly with a $6 Canadian and Soda in hand. So, some airborne musings are in order...
A Close Encounter with John McCain
I saw John McCain on my way out of Phoenix this morning. No, not on TV or a billboard or on a yard sign of a diehard in deep denial. No, the actual Senator from Arizona, waiting in the United/Continental departure lounge at Phoenix' Sky Harbor Airport, all 72+years of his freed POWness, about 15 meters away.
I normally avoid celebrities. And when given a chance to avoid a celebrity who accuses other celebrities of being celebrities, my instincts reared up again. For what would I say to Arizona's Senior Senator?
"That was a damn fine concession speech, Senator McCain"? "What was it that you were smoking when you picked that wacky Tina Fey lookalike as your running mate"? "Would you actually trust a clogged toilet in one of your homes to Joe the Unlicensed Plumber"? No I was having none of that. But as I allowed myself to indulge in some unexpressed partisan snarkiness, I noticed I had left my camera at my parents' house in Scottsdale. And as I boarded the Washington Dulles-bound Airbus, I only quickly recalled that my new Blackberry could have recorded this near-brush with near-greatness.
Backing Bret Bielema
Back in 2005 (or was it 2004?), I had the pleasure to meet Wisconsin Football Coach (American Gridiron, that is) Bret Bielema at a gathering of the Badger faithful in a Washington, DC pub. Bielema impressed me with his sense of perspective and his acceptance of the nature of the big time coach's role-the CEO of a multi-million dollar enterprise who is completely held responsible for that enterprise's on and off-field results.
This year, the results haven't been that great for the Badgers, a 7-5 season including three narrow league losses and a narrow overtime win over lower-division competition. And despite several 9+ win seasons, some of my fellow Badgers bray for Bielema's head.
Sure, Bielema made some mistakes this year. But I for one think he has the ability to learn from his mistakes. I also think, as a Badger who can remember the 0-11 seasons under previous coaches, some of my fellow Badgers have become jaded.
What makes Badgerdom unique among American college teams are our raucous "5th Quarter"post-game celebrations--win or lose. While the 5th Quarter tradition has continued unabated (save for a one-match suspension of the Band for off-field excesses), the underlying spirit is being undermined by a sense of expectation. Such a sense of expectation--indeed of entitlement--will do the Badgers far more ill than another season with Bielema at the helm.
Grisette--The Best Light Beer of All Time
I'm not a light beer fan. But, one major discovery of my return to Belgium is a light beer that really tastes great--and really is less filling. I speak not of an American brew but a Belgian offering called Grisette Blonde. Grisette comes from Belgium's storied St. Feullien brewery, which brews a number of high-octane abbey brews under its saintly moniker, but Grisette is a paradigm shft. Grisette Blonde is, at 4.1% alcohol, rather weak compared to most abbey blonds, but balances that weakness with a spicy and yeasty flavor generally unknown in such a lower-alcohol brew.
It's become a house favorite--real flavor without the heaviness of traditional Belgian brews or their concomitant alcoholic punch. And for all the grandeur of the heavy and storied trappist and abbey ales, something that tastes good with a burger has its place.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Obamelot, Slumdog Millionaire, and Hip Hip Harry
Obamelot...or "Politics as Team Sport"
Despite the portent of economic gloom and little but the scattered shards of the national piggy bank with which to fight it, the beatific glow left by Barack Obama's decisive, historic and world-changing Presidential victory had not yet left Washington when I returned four days afterward. One of my IABC friends said on her facebook page "Obama is bigger than Kennedy." I replied "Obama is bigger than the Kennedy family."
For one who enjoys gratuitous hyperbole as much as I do, the events of election week still leave me flabbergasted. In sports terms, this election was the combination of The World Cup, a heavyweight championship and a Civil War rolled into a single encounter.
It is impossible to overestimate the bigness of this election. In one swell foop, America not only elected its first Black president, it also decided to rejoin the human race. It validated the newfound political enthusiasm of today's youth, and sounded the political arrival of today's middle age. It signalled the political color change of three states of the Old Confederacy, and gave my home state of Illinois a second president to call her own--yet neither Lincoln nor Obama were native sons.
What makes this election massive, as I learned quickly, was the sense of shared ownership of this victory. Obama didn't win this election. "We" won this election. The sweeping electoral college margin belied a narrow popular vote victory and razor-thin wins in a good number of key states, eked out through tremendous campaign discipline and the steadfastness of the millions of supporters who streamed to the polls and--all too often--queued in seemingly endless lines.
It is perhaps this sense of the broad partnership Barack Obama has forged with us supporters that the percentage of Americans who think Obama's presidency will be a success was 62% in a recent poll, well exceeding his margin of victory and even belying the massive economic mess he has inherited. Politics in America is once again a team sport--and perhaps so to is governing. For me, that's Change I can Believe In.
Slumdog Millionaire
It has been a while since I last went to the cinema, but one film that has left quite an impression is Slumdog Millionaire--a film about the unlikely victory of a humble "chaiwalla" (tea-boy) on India's version of So You Want To Be A Millionaire (or whatever it's callled).
What struck me about the film were a number of things--breathtaking cinematography of the best and ugliest scenes India has to offer, an innovative use of flashback until the final climactic scene, and the outstanding acting of the child actors who featured prominently in the flashback scenes. I will leave the details to the viewing--but I recommend this film very highly.
Hip Hip Harry!
One of the low points of 2008 was the collapse in the form of my beloved Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, which failed to win a single match until the much-needed ouster of enigmatic and taciturn Spanish coach Juande Ramos. His replacement, the far more expressive, transparent and English Harry Redknapp, has turned the Yid Army's fortunes around, with Tottenham yielding one loss in our last six matches and moving from bottom position to a more promising if not comfortable fifteenth position out of 20.
While it is unlikely Tottenham will be able to continue at this pace, most observers think Redknapp and Tottenham will now be able to avoid the bottom three league places that form the trap door of "relegation", soccer's quaint tradition of ejecting poor performers from a higher league and replacing them with top performers from a lower league.
Indeed, two big wins over Liverpool, a gen-u-wine top flight contender, has some of us Yids thinking bigger, and Tottenham has indeed qualified for the League Cup quarterfinals and could end up repeating as League Cup winners. Still though, simply having a manager who transparently knows what he is doing is reassuring. YID ARMY!!!
Despite the portent of economic gloom and little but the scattered shards of the national piggy bank with which to fight it, the beatific glow left by Barack Obama's decisive, historic and world-changing Presidential victory had not yet left Washington when I returned four days afterward. One of my IABC friends said on her facebook page "Obama is bigger than Kennedy." I replied "Obama is bigger than the Kennedy family."
For one who enjoys gratuitous hyperbole as much as I do, the events of election week still leave me flabbergasted. In sports terms, this election was the combination of The World Cup, a heavyweight championship and a Civil War rolled into a single encounter.
It is impossible to overestimate the bigness of this election. In one swell foop, America not only elected its first Black president, it also decided to rejoin the human race. It validated the newfound political enthusiasm of today's youth, and sounded the political arrival of today's middle age. It signalled the political color change of three states of the Old Confederacy, and gave my home state of Illinois a second president to call her own--yet neither Lincoln nor Obama were native sons.
What makes this election massive, as I learned quickly, was the sense of shared ownership of this victory. Obama didn't win this election. "We" won this election. The sweeping electoral college margin belied a narrow popular vote victory and razor-thin wins in a good number of key states, eked out through tremendous campaign discipline and the steadfastness of the millions of supporters who streamed to the polls and--all too often--queued in seemingly endless lines.
It is perhaps this sense of the broad partnership Barack Obama has forged with us supporters that the percentage of Americans who think Obama's presidency will be a success was 62% in a recent poll, well exceeding his margin of victory and even belying the massive economic mess he has inherited. Politics in America is once again a team sport--and perhaps so to is governing. For me, that's Change I can Believe In.
Slumdog Millionaire
It has been a while since I last went to the cinema, but one film that has left quite an impression is Slumdog Millionaire--a film about the unlikely victory of a humble "chaiwalla" (tea-boy) on India's version of So You Want To Be A Millionaire (or whatever it's callled).
What struck me about the film were a number of things--breathtaking cinematography of the best and ugliest scenes India has to offer, an innovative use of flashback until the final climactic scene, and the outstanding acting of the child actors who featured prominently in the flashback scenes. I will leave the details to the viewing--but I recommend this film very highly.
Hip Hip Harry!
One of the low points of 2008 was the collapse in the form of my beloved Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, which failed to win a single match until the much-needed ouster of enigmatic and taciturn Spanish coach Juande Ramos. His replacement, the far more expressive, transparent and English Harry Redknapp, has turned the Yid Army's fortunes around, with Tottenham yielding one loss in our last six matches and moving from bottom position to a more promising if not comfortable fifteenth position out of 20.
While it is unlikely Tottenham will be able to continue at this pace, most observers think Redknapp and Tottenham will now be able to avoid the bottom three league places that form the trap door of "relegation", soccer's quaint tradition of ejecting poor performers from a higher league and replacing them with top performers from a lower league.
Indeed, two big wins over Liverpool, a gen-u-wine top flight contender, has some of us Yids thinking bigger, and Tottenham has indeed qualified for the League Cup quarterfinals and could end up repeating as League Cup winners. Still though, simply having a manager who transparently knows what he is doing is reassuring. YID ARMY!!!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Running out of Blog?
It's been a long while since I've posted anything. I'm sure this has left many of my readers concerned, so I figured I should come up for air and reassure you about a number of things.
1. I am still in Brussels.
2. I have not opted to join the Federal Witness Protection Program.
3. Yes, I noticed that Tottenham Hotspur was last in the English Premiership until yesterday, following the dramatic jettisoning of the uncommunicative Spanish coach Juande Ramos and his replacement by the ever-loquacious Cockney, Harry Redknapp.
4. I did not fall into doubt about Barack Obama or swoon at the red-meat appeal of Sarah Palin, ever-so-aptly named Moose-o-lini by her Alaska detractors.
5. I am still following the Wisconsin Badgers as our season descends into a bowl-free abyss.
6. I did not follow the Chicago Cubs' descent into baseball playoff futility, having abandoned hope at the outset.
7. I'm in the US more weekends than I am in Belgium so far. And I'll be in Washington this weekend and would love to see everyone.
8. I've seen Chicken McNuggets being made. And I still like them, too.
9. Despite still liking Chicken McNuggets, I've lost 7 pounds (3 kilos) in the last month.
10. I have a week off for Xmas and no plans for what to do with it.
11. I've joined an awesome English-language synagogue called the International Jewish Centre.
12. I've had a few new beers lately--best is Saison Regal, very flavorful, amber in colored, with a very refined flavor.
13. I remain single--but unbowed nonetheless.
So, that's the last two months in a nutshell. While I have been running out of Blog, I haven't been running out of things to do. My words will come back soon--and thanks for reading.
1. I am still in Brussels.
2. I have not opted to join the Federal Witness Protection Program.
3. Yes, I noticed that Tottenham Hotspur was last in the English Premiership until yesterday, following the dramatic jettisoning of the uncommunicative Spanish coach Juande Ramos and his replacement by the ever-loquacious Cockney, Harry Redknapp.
4. I did not fall into doubt about Barack Obama or swoon at the red-meat appeal of Sarah Palin, ever-so-aptly named Moose-o-lini by her Alaska detractors.
5. I am still following the Wisconsin Badgers as our season descends into a bowl-free abyss.
6. I did not follow the Chicago Cubs' descent into baseball playoff futility, having abandoned hope at the outset.
7. I'm in the US more weekends than I am in Belgium so far. And I'll be in Washington this weekend and would love to see everyone.
8. I've seen Chicken McNuggets being made. And I still like them, too.
9. Despite still liking Chicken McNuggets, I've lost 7 pounds (3 kilos) in the last month.
10. I have a week off for Xmas and no plans for what to do with it.
11. I've joined an awesome English-language synagogue called the International Jewish Centre.
12. I've had a few new beers lately--best is Saison Regal, very flavorful, amber in colored, with a very refined flavor.
13. I remain single--but unbowed nonetheless.
So, that's the last two months in a nutshell. While I have been running out of Blog, I haven't been running out of things to do. My words will come back soon--and thanks for reading.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Stuff for September
It's been a while since I've written anything substantial here--radio silence is not my normal style, and the preceding weeks have been anything but boring. After all, the Olympics and Paralympics, a Cubs divisional baseball pennant, the Democratic and Republican conventions and the fissure of the bloc comprising the Flemish Christian Democrats and the New Flemish Alliance have thus far passed without my comment. But as I recline in my Geneva-bound TGV seat, Grimbergen Blond in hand, there are some things which jump to mind.
Obama-a turning point?
I think the last week of the presidential campaign has left Democrat Barack Obama in the ascendancy. First by replying to Republican John McCain's bid to suspend campaigning during the economic crisis by saying to the effect that the public had a right to expect a president to be able to walk and chew gum simultaneously, and then by coming off as lucid, well-informed and well-tempered in the face of increasingly desperate lunges by McCain during the first presidential debate, Obama clearly demonstrated the demeanor of a viable President.
Add in the embarrassing display by McCain running mate Sarah Palin on a national news program, and Obama is now in a position to stake a claim on the 10+ percent of voters currently claiming to be undecided. Fold in the shift in campaign focus towards the economy, stronger ground for Obama, and the coming weeks should see a clear lead begin to emerge. Of course, the decisive factor come election day will be voter mobilization and peer-to-peer contact among voters. This was a key Obama strength in the primaries; whether it will be qualitatively and quantitatively superior to Republican efforts is still an open question.
Murderball Gold
Longtime readers of mine will recall my fondness for the 2005 documentary Murderball, which chronicled the fortunes of the US Wheelchair Rugby side during its unsuccessful quest for gold at the 2004 Athens Paralympics. While the deep portrayal of these gladiators (whose sport features quadriplegics slamming into each other in armor-plated wheelchairs) in Murderball illustrated that all that is golden in life is not necessarily so rewarded, the American boys came home with the Gold this year after a pitched finals battle with Australia.
What was less golden was the television coverage. For all of the hours of Olympic coverage on NBC in the US, there were very little of the Paralympics. The irony-while much was made of the personal stories of Olympians, the personal stories of paralympians like my personal hero, Mark Zupan, the tattooed and talismanic leader of US Wheelchair Rugby didn't make the air.
BBC coverage was much better--even allowing me to catch a half of quad rugby between Great Britain and eventual silver-winners Australia in a characteristically hard-hitting match.
As for seeing the US--I'll be ordering my London 2012 tickets as soon as they are available.
Domestic Affairs
After two months of achieving my long-sought return to Belgium, things are settling well. Sure there are issues, most of which pertain to an apartment with an absentee landlord which also happens to be 20 square meters too small for two.
Still, having welcomed a new flatmate, a Washington friend in his late 20s who is pursuing a grad degree here a few weeks ago, life is infinitely more interesting. Aside from the financial side (particularly acute as I have yet to secure coveted non-resident tax status here), having a flatmate has its appeal on a number of fronts. A good flatmate makes for a more convivial environment, particularly when it's time to pull beer from the fridge. Lost keys become less traumatic. Long absences are less filled with concern about ransacking.But what's most positive so far is that it's good practice to live with someone if one seeks to live with a sweetie in the future.
My main domestic project this year is to learn to be a better person to live with.
Blueberry Beer
At a recent visit to Delirium, a Brussels venue best described as beervana. I had the occasion to try a fascinating brew that defied all expectations.
While most Belgian fruit-spiked beers tend to be sweet, tangy and low in alcohol, Bon Secours avec Myrtilles (Bon Secours with Blueberries) was refreshing, dry and fairly strong at 7% alcohol. The blueberry flavor is very much pronounced, but missing all but the tiniest hint of sweetness. I suspect it would work well with most foods that pair with a light red wine, and is more than adequate on its own.
Its ceramic-topped bottle is reminiscent of a short Grolsch bottle.
And finally...
Was saddened by the passing of Paul Newman this weekend. While I loved Newman in a number of roles-Cool Hand Luke and Slapshot among others, none was the equal of Ari Ben Canaan, the Israeli independence fighter in Exodus.
I'll never forget the first time I saw Exodus. It was in 1982, in an air raid shelter/mess hall on an Israeli Army base in the Golan Heights. I was among the dozens of fervent young 16 year olds overnighting on the base, and there was no more receptive audience to the warm, smart and clear-headed fighter for his people and homeland that Newman portrayed--someone who exemplified that which was great about Israel then...and remains great about Israel to this very day.
Sleep well, Ari Ben Canaan. To my fellow tribespeople in KL18 land, Shana Tova. And to all my readers, welcome back and thank you. ---
Obama-a turning point?
I think the last week of the presidential campaign has left Democrat Barack Obama in the ascendancy. First by replying to Republican John McCain's bid to suspend campaigning during the economic crisis by saying to the effect that the public had a right to expect a president to be able to walk and chew gum simultaneously, and then by coming off as lucid, well-informed and well-tempered in the face of increasingly desperate lunges by McCain during the first presidential debate, Obama clearly demonstrated the demeanor of a viable President.
Add in the embarrassing display by McCain running mate Sarah Palin on a national news program, and Obama is now in a position to stake a claim on the 10+ percent of voters currently claiming to be undecided. Fold in the shift in campaign focus towards the economy, stronger ground for Obama, and the coming weeks should see a clear lead begin to emerge. Of course, the decisive factor come election day will be voter mobilization and peer-to-peer contact among voters. This was a key Obama strength in the primaries; whether it will be qualitatively and quantitatively superior to Republican efforts is still an open question.
Murderball Gold
Longtime readers of mine will recall my fondness for the 2005 documentary Murderball, which chronicled the fortunes of the US Wheelchair Rugby side during its unsuccessful quest for gold at the 2004 Athens Paralympics. While the deep portrayal of these gladiators (whose sport features quadriplegics slamming into each other in armor-plated wheelchairs) in Murderball illustrated that all that is golden in life is not necessarily so rewarded, the American boys came home with the Gold this year after a pitched finals battle with Australia.
What was less golden was the television coverage. For all of the hours of Olympic coverage on NBC in the US, there were very little of the Paralympics. The irony-while much was made of the personal stories of Olympians, the personal stories of paralympians like my personal hero, Mark Zupan, the tattooed and talismanic leader of US Wheelchair Rugby didn't make the air.
BBC coverage was much better--even allowing me to catch a half of quad rugby between Great Britain and eventual silver-winners Australia in a characteristically hard-hitting match.
As for seeing the US--I'll be ordering my London 2012 tickets as soon as they are available.
Domestic Affairs
After two months of achieving my long-sought return to Belgium, things are settling well. Sure there are issues, most of which pertain to an apartment with an absentee landlord which also happens to be 20 square meters too small for two.
Still, having welcomed a new flatmate, a Washington friend in his late 20s who is pursuing a grad degree here a few weeks ago, life is infinitely more interesting. Aside from the financial side (particularly acute as I have yet to secure coveted non-resident tax status here), having a flatmate has its appeal on a number of fronts. A good flatmate makes for a more convivial environment, particularly when it's time to pull beer from the fridge. Lost keys become less traumatic. Long absences are less filled with concern about ransacking.But what's most positive so far is that it's good practice to live with someone if one seeks to live with a sweetie in the future.
My main domestic project this year is to learn to be a better person to live with.
Blueberry Beer
At a recent visit to Delirium, a Brussels venue best described as beervana. I had the occasion to try a fascinating brew that defied all expectations.
While most Belgian fruit-spiked beers tend to be sweet, tangy and low in alcohol, Bon Secours avec Myrtilles (Bon Secours with Blueberries) was refreshing, dry and fairly strong at 7% alcohol. The blueberry flavor is very much pronounced, but missing all but the tiniest hint of sweetness. I suspect it would work well with most foods that pair with a light red wine, and is more than adequate on its own.
Its ceramic-topped bottle is reminiscent of a short Grolsch bottle.
And finally...
Was saddened by the passing of Paul Newman this weekend. While I loved Newman in a number of roles-Cool Hand Luke and Slapshot among others, none was the equal of Ari Ben Canaan, the Israeli independence fighter in Exodus.
I'll never forget the first time I saw Exodus. It was in 1982, in an air raid shelter/mess hall on an Israeli Army base in the Golan Heights. I was among the dozens of fervent young 16 year olds overnighting on the base, and there was no more receptive audience to the warm, smart and clear-headed fighter for his people and homeland that Newman portrayed--someone who exemplified that which was great about Israel then...and remains great about Israel to this very day.
Sleep well, Ari Ben Canaan. To my fellow tribespeople in KL18 land, Shana Tova. And to all my readers, welcome back and thank you. ---
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Surreal for Breakfast
August finds me back in Belgium--the long-sought objective of my decade-plus European wanderings and ponderings. Yet, as I pause my commute for an ever-so-unctuous Grimbergen Double, thoughts turn to the old Chinese curse, "be careful of what you wish for..."
August is a strange time to land in Belgium. This is the time of year when those wacky"Flems" and "Loons" with their fully-vested 32 vacation days blow the bulk of them in sunnier climes, and the time when I found out I would not be so generously vested until 2010. The place has a post-neutron bomb air to it, even as it retains its considerable visual, imbibatory and gustatory charms.
Waking up daily to quintessentially Bruxellois scenes is surreal for me--hence the term "surreal for breakfast." And waking up as an actual Employee of an honest-to-Buddha US multinational (with a concomitant cut to my comparatively lordly consulting pay across the Dutch border) makes things weirder still.
But in Belgium, weirdness is normal. Indeed, the second to last stop on my commute is named for it. "Weerde."
August is a strange time to land in Belgium. This is the time of year when those wacky"Flems" and "Loons" with their fully-vested 32 vacation days blow the bulk of them in sunnier climes, and the time when I found out I would not be so generously vested until 2010. The place has a post-neutron bomb air to it, even as it retains its considerable visual, imbibatory and gustatory charms.
Waking up daily to quintessentially Bruxellois scenes is surreal for me--hence the term "surreal for breakfast." And waking up as an actual Employee of an honest-to-Buddha US multinational (with a concomitant cut to my comparatively lordly consulting pay across the Dutch border) makes things weirder still.
But in Belgium, weirdness is normal. Indeed, the second to last stop on my commute is named for it. "Weerde."
Minnesota, Hats Off to Thee
Much of my August was spent at the spanking new offices of my global programme team in Suburban Minneapolis. That too resulted in weirdness. I actually liked the place-a lot. I actually liked the people-a lot.
Having avoided extended tours in the Midwest since my days at the University of Wisconsin (How 'bout dem Badgers, eh?), two weeks in The Twin Cities were a revelation. Great food, great people, nice lakes and rivers and a relocated Danish London Business School buddy who has adopted baseball's Minnesota Twins with unseemly fervor.
I'll effectively be splitting my time between Belgium and Minnesota for a while. It will be interesting to see who wins in the end.
Having avoided extended tours in the Midwest since my days at the University of Wisconsin (How 'bout dem Badgers, eh?), two weeks in The Twin Cities were a revelation. Great food, great people, nice lakes and rivers and a relocated Danish London Business School buddy who has adopted baseball's Minnesota Twins with unseemly fervor.
I'll effectively be splitting my time between Belgium and Minnesota for a while. It will be interesting to see who wins in the end.
Two Sides of the Beer Spectrum
Two recent brews are front of mind at the moment. In the Minnesota corner is Grain Belt Premium. Grain Belt is a beer the likes of which have all but disappeared in North America--a clean, fresh, malty, locally produced lager/pilsner to serve as an accompaniment to life's bigger and smaller occasions.
Having had several at Nye's Polonaise Polka Bar and Retro Emporium in Mpls (the perfect vinyl-upholstered old school setting for the quintessential old school American brew) I had wistful thoughts about the other local lagers that guided my early beer developments: Huber, Augsburger, Regal Brau, Point (which has been reduced to knocking off Belgian style wheat beer), Leinenkugel (before it started coloring its beers red) and the all-time classic, Genesee Cream Ale (mockingly called Genocide by thirsty but broke and resentful grad students at SUNY-Albany, where I spent a watershed year majoring in Buffalo Wings and minoring in wanting to leave Albany).
Grain Belt is distinctly American in flavor, but could compete well with Europe's commodity lagers. In contrast, Trappieter, my Belgian Beer for this month, is a unique combination of the citrusy flavor seen in many Belgian brews with an assertive (but not overwhelming) hoppiness evocative of English ales and American Microbrews.
Trappieter, at the moment, is not in mass production or circulation. Indeed, after sampling some with the brewer himself in a small beer cafe on Ghent's fabled Graslei canal, it became clear that Trappieter is, for the moment, a labor of love. It is brewed at the Proefbrouwerij in nearby Lochristi, a contract producer of recipes generated by independent brewers and brewenthusiasts. But despite the limited production, this struck me as a brew with some legs. At a comparatively weak 6.5% alcohol, it could be sold in the US and UK without facing hefty tax. At any rate, it's the first (and best) beer I've had in Belgium with the actual brewer at hand.
Until September, that's FlightKL18!
Having had several at Nye's Polonaise Polka Bar and Retro Emporium in Mpls (the perfect vinyl-upholstered old school setting for the quintessential old school American brew) I had wistful thoughts about the other local lagers that guided my early beer developments: Huber, Augsburger, Regal Brau, Point (which has been reduced to knocking off Belgian style wheat beer), Leinenkugel (before it started coloring its beers red) and the all-time classic, Genesee Cream Ale (mockingly called Genocide by thirsty but broke and resentful grad students at SUNY-Albany, where I spent a watershed year majoring in Buffalo Wings and minoring in wanting to leave Albany).
Grain Belt is distinctly American in flavor, but could compete well with Europe's commodity lagers. In contrast, Trappieter, my Belgian Beer for this month, is a unique combination of the citrusy flavor seen in many Belgian brews with an assertive (but not overwhelming) hoppiness evocative of English ales and American Microbrews.
Trappieter, at the moment, is not in mass production or circulation. Indeed, after sampling some with the brewer himself in a small beer cafe on Ghent's fabled Graslei canal, it became clear that Trappieter is, for the moment, a labor of love. It is brewed at the Proefbrouwerij in nearby Lochristi, a contract producer of recipes generated by independent brewers and brewenthusiasts. But despite the limited production, this struck me as a brew with some legs. At a comparatively weak 6.5% alcohol, it could be sold in the US and UK without facing hefty tax. At any rate, it's the first (and best) beer I've had in Belgium with the actual brewer at hand.
Until September, that's FlightKL18!
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