Home of the Ch'Ti in Northern France

The people of this department of Northern France refer to themselves at the, "Ch'Ti," which is how the flagship beer of Brasserie Castelaine got its name.  We had a nice tour in English by our guide, "Loic." who came all the way from Brussels to be with us.  Thanks, Loic.  Afterwards we sample some beer, then raided the gift shop to buy more beer and breweriana.

We also visited the brasseries of La Choulette, Thierez, Dubuisson, DuPont, Blaugies, Fantome and Kerkom Brewery.  We spent one night in the scenice Ardennes Mountain town of Durbuy and our final night in Leuven.  I'll share more experiences  and pics of of this great tour later.  Computer time lately has been minimal.  Breakfast this morning concluded this grand Farmhouse Ale Tour.  This group was fun and interesting.  I enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know them.  Good beer people. 

I'm  off to Brussels today to meet a new group of beer hunters to begin the Lonely Monks Trappist Tour.  I hope you are enjoying following along.  Thanks for the comments!

Farmhouse Ale Tour of Belgium & France

The Farmhouse Ale Tour has been in full swing this week. We are basing out of the magnificent Brouwershuis B&B at the St. Bernardus Brewery near Watou, Belgium. So far we have had visited the St. Bernardus Brewery, Brasserie Castelaine in Benifontaine, France; Brasserie La Choulette in Hordain, France; and Brasserie Thierez in Esquelbeque, France. All had amazing, but very different beers. Northern France, while little known to the general beer public, has some great beers. We've enjoyed meeting our new French beer friends. Pictured to the right are beer hunters Bryan, John David and Allen on the other Abbey Road, which leads to the great farmhouse breweries of the region.  More to come!