Photo by Grant.

The first beer is called Delirium Tremens, and prominantly features a pink elephant, one of the stereotypical hallucinations experienced by those with the “trembling madness” caused by withdrawal from alcohol. It is a very young recipe, as it was released to the public on December 26, 1989. It is a strong, golden ale that is made from three different strains of yeast, and contains 8.5% alcohol. The producers love calling it “the best beer in the world” because it won the 1998 World Beer Championships. While I don’t really like the taste of the beer, the sight of those cute pink elephants on the glass will often win me over. After the tour I bought two Delirium Tremens mugs and four bottles of the Delirium Noel seasonal brew, simply because they had skiing elephants in Santa hats on their label.

My second favourite Hughe beer is Floris Passion, and beer purists will insist that it shouldn’t be called a beer at all, as it is a white beer with a great deal of passion fruit syrup added. It is an even younger recipe, as the range of Floris fruit beers was first released in 1993. We were given the so-called Floris Kriek to try. This beer, while delicious, is not a true Kriek lambic. The brewers use one specific strain of yeast, rather than the a variety of wild airborn yeasts required for a traditional kriek. I returned home with six Floris Passion beers and two Floris glasses. When unpacking, I discovered that I had sadly broken both the glasses, but luckily the beers themselves were safe. We will have to return to the Delirium Cafe for some replacements in the near future.

Photo by Grant.

The brewery is in Melle, a small town that doesn’t have much else to speak of. We tried to find lunch, and we were first drawn to a cafe called Melle Rose Place. However, it was full of smoke, so we spent a long time walking up and down the two main roads to see if we could find a smoke-free restaurant. Finally, we settled on a small frituur (fries shop), which turned out to be excellent. I ate my fish-burger while watching the arrival of Sinterklaas and his entourage on television.

Photo by Grant.

The tour was conducted in Flemish, and our translator was a retired professor who was mostly deaf. So while we didn’t get to hear much about the brewery, we were able to walk through the various stages of brewing. We explored the warehouses containing the blank bottles, painted to resemble grey ceramic rather than glass. We finished the tour with a beer tasting in the old museum, filled with Hughe memorabilia from 1654 to today.

Photo by Grant.

The beer is only brewed between October and May when the conditions are perfect. In summer it is too hot, and the wrong bacteria will enter and spoil the beer. After the water from their own well is mixed with and wheat and barley are boiled in giant copper boilers, the liquid is then poured into a broad shallow pool up in the attic. The windows are opened, and 86 different types of wild yeast drift inside to impregnate the liquid. Wooden beams line the rafters to act as a sponge and slowly release the microorganisms over the day. In order to prevent spoilage, aged dry hops are added to the beer to prevent bacterial spoilage.

The department of health decided that this process was not safe for public consumption. So the association of lambic brewers went to the European Commission to plead the case. The EC recognised that it was a unique and important process, and granted them permission to continue brewing in this method. They drafted strict rules to ensure that any beer marked as a traditional lambic had to follow a specific brewing process, including a round of pasteurization to sterilise the beer.

We sampled four different beers. Faro, Gueuze Cuvée René, the traditional Kriek Cuvée René, and the modern Kriek.

Faro is one of the simplest types of lambics to brew, based upon the recipe discovered in the middle ages. It is a blonde beer that is quick and easy to make, with candied sugar added at the end of the process to make it sweeter. The Belgians call it a light, low alcohol beer, as it is only 4.2%.

The gueuze is a mixture of lambics of different ages to give a particular sweetness and taste. The young beer contains enough sugar to permit fermentation for another year in the bottle, producing bubbles and peals. Our guide called it the champagne of beer.

The traditional old-style kreik lambic is fermented for at least three years in giant wooden barrels along with whole black cherries, then fermented again in the bottle. It is not filtered and all the sugar has been fermented into alcohol. It is dark and murky, and tastes muddy and sour.

The new modern kreik is much sweeter and is fermented for less than a year in metal drums. Cherry juice and sugar are added to the broth, and the result is a very sweet and delicious drink. While it was interesting to taste the traditionally-brewed lambics, I still prefer the taste of the modern sugary kriek.

We drove around the Kotor Bay with its numerous small settlements, then made a stop in the Medieval Kotor, a most beautiful, fortified town. Then proceeded up towards the mountains to visit Cetinje, which once used to be the center town of the Montenegrin rulers. It was quite a journey, 1200m elevation with around 25 hairpin bends in quite a large bus. We ended our tour with a stroll around in Budva, the ancient town which is today a lively tourist resort, before returning to Croatia and having a very eventful night.