As some of you might have read, last Friday I visited the Duvel Moorgat brewery.  I’m sure that even my foreign friends know Duvel beer, as this is probably one of the most well-known Belgian beers. For those who aren’t sure, see the picture below to refresh your memory

I’m going be honest with you guys,  I’m not much off a beer drinker … Don’t get me wrong, I’ll drink it when people serve it…but I don’t like it that much.  So that is actually the first reason why I wanted to visit the brewery, to actually get to know more about how beers are made, what the best way is to serve it, etc… Because as a Belgian you cannot not be a beer lover… And this brings me to my second reason, just to learn how to enjoy some good beer.

So which beer better to start with than with the pride of Belgium, Duvel!?  And on top of that it is an Antwerp beer 🙂 , as the brewery is located just a few kilometers outside of the city of Antwerp, next to the old highway towards Brussels

Everybody might know Duvel, but how good do you know it? Our tour actually started with a little hisotry lesson about the Duvel brewery or Moorgat brewery as it is actually called was already founded in 1871 by Jan-Léonard Moortgat. What actually surprised most, was that it was not until vetween1918-1923 that the Duvel beer found its life and got produced as Victory Ale….Which actually a pretty long time?

You might be wondering how and why they gave it the name Duvel (which means devil in dutch)? Well the story behind it is actually quite funny 🙂 The name ‘Duvel’ came after a beer tasting 🙂 with notable people, and at that time people were not used to drink strong beers, they were used to drink regular quite light beer… So you probably see where I’m going…. they all got drunk and one of the guests  Mr. Van de Wouwer ( a shoemaker) started shouting that this beer was a real devil…. And from that day on this beer goes under the name Devil or Duvel. OK, enough history 🙂

Just to get all the confusion out of this world. Duvel is a specialty or fermented beer and not a regular beer. First off all because Duvel has an alcohol percentage of 8,5% and a regular beer is only max 5%. Another difference is that it is not pasteurized.

Ok, this is all that I’m telling you today… please stay tuned if you want know more about  my visit to the brewery and the picture below 🙂 ok and if they got me to love beer…

To be continued…