What’s on your mind?

[yaxomoxay]

On my mind… the fact that K-12 teachers believe that parents have the time to read two-page long weekly emails, often with attachments and/or “see on this website” links, for each class, each one of them formatted differently. It’s just insane.

 

[Mylodon]

What is the biggest difference between German beer and Belgian beer?

 

[decafjava]

What is the biggest difference between German beer and Belgian beer?

There isn't just one, German beers tend to the lager type while Belgian tend to be darker but both are darn good.

 

[VulchR]

On my mind… the fact that K-12 teachers believe that parents have the time to read two-page long weekly emails, often with attachments and/or “see on this website” links, for each class, each one of them formatted differently. It’s just insane.

They've been made to do this by some manager (at the behest of one or more pushy parents) and the teachers probably loathe it far more than you do.

EDIT: I work at a UK University and it took us 4 years to coax, cajole, and finally coerce staff to use a standardised document template for their course guides. I'd swear they'd rather use each other's toothbrushes and wear each other's underwear than do things in a standardised way.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

What is the biggest difference between German beer and Belgian beer?

I'm not an expert, just an enthusiastic (and fascinated) amateur, with an interest in history and an absolute fascination with the history of food and drink.

German brewing and beer are governed by the beer purity law, known as the Reinheitsgebot, which dates from 1516.

Obviously, this beer purity law pre-dated German unification, but came to cover the entire country (and still does) post unification (in 1871, and, more recently, in 1990).

This law aimed to protect consumers (drinkers) on grounds of price, and quality: Prices were set, wheat was prohibited (to reserve it for baking bread), and - with the exception of three ingredients - all other ingredients from the flavoursome - caraway, apples, fruit, - to the downright dodgy - were prohibited (and still are).

For years, only three ingredients, barley, hops, and water were allowed when brewing beer; latterly, wheat (which had been prohibited in the original Reinheitsgebot in order to reserve wheat for baking bread), has been permitted - originally, in Bavaria (where they have long - long predating Bavaria becoming part of Germany - brewed their famous wheat beers - Weissbier etc), and now, nation wide.

However, to this day, German beer can only be brewed from these four ingredients: Malted grains (barley or wheat), hops, water and yeast (the role of yeast in brewing hadn't been fully understood in 1516).

German beer styles include clear beers (Helles, and Pils, among others) and well known lager styles - plus, the more cloudy styles that include Weissbiers (which are usually wheat beers).

They also brew dark beers. Weihenstephaner brews a dark (dunkel is the word used to describe it) beer, as does Erdinger; actually, Weihenstephaner brews a number of dark beers - a "Traditional Bayerische Dunkel" and a dark Weissbier, their "Hefeweissbier Dunkel".

They brew bock, and dopplebock (double bock) style beers, which are both dark and strong, (and often, seasonal specialities).

Their bock and dopplebock styles are not unlike the Belgian "dubbel".

Most German towns and cities and areas will have (will brew) their own local versions of beer styles that are popular nation wide, and there will be some specific regional specialities as well.

In the 1980s, the German brewing industry sought to protect access to the German beer market by prohibiting the sale of other beers (stating that they didn't meet the purity law requirements); citing open markets, free trade, and rights to market access, the EU challenged this national monopoly. The German argument was that this was not a national protection racket (although almost everyone suspected that this is exactly what it was), but an insistence on consumer and brewing industry protection by maintaining brewing standards, and that any foreign beer that met these purity (natural product) requirements could also enjoy (untrammeled) access to the German beer market and could be openly sold in pubs and off licences.

In any case, in practice, this meant most beers were denied access to the German beer market (which was, and is, vast, and thus exceedingly profitable), but this also meant that Guinness (which also uses only natural ingredients) could enjoy access to the German market (if you are going to use purity standards - rather than nationality, which was illegal under market access & free trade rules in the EU - as your reason for excluding foreign beers from your market, you must admit those foreign beers which do meet this requirement), which is why Irish pubs also appeared in Germany as long ago as the 1980s.

Now, because Belgium does not have a beer purity law, Belgian breweries have been a lot less confined, a lot less limited, a lot less restricted, in how they could approach the brewing of beer, and what they could add to the beer, and thus, the styles, (and varieties) of beer available in Belgium are far wider (and a lot more alcoholic at the strong end) than what you will find for sale in Germany.

Belgium has thousands of different beers, and they do differ - at times dramatically - from one another, and here, you will find, for example, fruit beer styles, sour beers, dark beers, lager style beers, session beers, as well as the legendary 'dubbel' beers (which are dark, and range from 6.5-7.7% abv) 'tripel' beers, (which are light in colour but high in alcohol, and would range from 8.0-9.5% abv), and the superlative 'quadrupel' beers, which are both very dark and very strong (clocking in at around 10-11.5% abv).

I've been in Belgian pubs where the beer list is as large, and as heavy, and as endless, as a telephone directory (for those who remember what that was).

To my mind, many of the best of the Belgian beers come from Trappist monasteries or abbeys - monks brewing beer to fund the needs and upkeep of the monasteries - and their standards are superb.

To be defined as a Trappist beer, three conditions must be met: Firstly, a beer must be brewed in the vicinity of the monastery (or abbey), or actually in the monastery itself, secondly, the brewing process must be (either) supervised by - or carried out by - the monks, and lastly, the profits should be intended for funding the needs of the monastic community, and for charitable works and development projects compatible with the Trappist order's own specific rules.

Some of the best known (and highly regarded) Belgian beers are Trappist beers: For example, Rochefort Trappistes, Westmalle, Orval, Chimay etc.

St Bernardus (which is not Trappist, but which brews beer to that standard) has had close links with Westvleteren - which is Trappist, and which nowadays produces tiny amounts of (difficult to find) beer - (and which is also regarded by some as possibly the best beer in the world). Westvleteren releases (small) amounts of (much sought after) beer to the market when they are in need of funds. Otherwise, one must travel (in person) to the monastery - and its adjacent shop/store - to acquire some of their legendary beer.

At one stage, St Bernardus actually brewed their (Westvleteren) beers under licence, (a time, I suspect, when Westvleteren needed market exposure and sales in order to obtain funds for monastery refurbishment). Even now, the St Bernardus Abt 12 is supposed to resemble (or is said to derive from) the legendary Westvleteren Trappist 12.

 

[Clix Pix]

Thank you, SS, for that very informative post! Next time I savor either a German or a Belgian beer I will have even more appreciation of it!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Thank you, SS, for that very informative post! Next time I savor either a German or a Belgian beer I will have even more appreciation of it!

Agreed. Very informative post!

 

[Apple fanboy]

I'm not an expert, just an enthusiastic (and fascinated) amateur, with an interest in history and an absolute fascination with the history of food and drink.

German beer is governed by the (purity beer law), known as the Reinheitsgebot, which dates from 1516.

Obviously, this beer purity law pre-dated German unification, but came to cover the entire country (and still does) post unification (in 1871, and, more recently, in 1990).

This law aimed to protect consumers (drinkers) on grounds of price, and quality; Prices were set, wheat was prohibited (to reserve it for baking bread), and all other ingredients from the flavoursome - caraway, apples, fruit, - to the downright dodgy - were prohibited (and still are).

For years, only three ingredients, barley, hops, and water were allowed when brewing beer; latterly, wheat (which had been prohibited in the original Reinheitsgebot in order to reserve wheat for baking bread), has been permitted - originally, in Bavaria (where they have long brewed their famous wheat beers - Weissbier etc), and now, nation wide.

However, to this day, German beer can only be brewed from these four ingredients: Malted grains (barley or wheat), hops, water and yeast (the role of yeast in brewing hadn't been fully understood in 1516).

German beer styles include clear beers (Helles, and Pils, among others) and well known lager styles - plus, the more cloudy styles that include Weissbiers (which are usually wheat beers).

They also brew dark beers. Weihenstephaner brews a dark (dunkel is the word used to describe it) beer, as does Erdinger; actually, Weihenstephaner brews a number of dark beers - a "Traditional Bayerische Dunkel" and a dark Weissbier, their "Hefeweissbier Dunkel".

They brew bock, and dopplebock (double bock) style beers, which are both dark and strong, (and often, seasonal specialities).

Their bock and dopplebock styles are not unlike the Belgian "dubbel".

Most German towns and cities and areas will have (will brew) their own local versions of beer styles that are popular nation wide, and there will be some specific regional specialities as well.

In the 1980s, the German brewing industry sought to protect access to the German beer market by prohibiting the sale of other beers (stating that they didn't meet the purity law requirements); citing open markets, free trade, and rights to market access, the EU (then, the EC, or perhaps even the EEC) challenged this national monopoly. The German argument was that this was not a national protection racket (although almost everyone suspected that this is exactly what it was), but an insistence on consumer and brewing industry protection by maintaining brewing standards, and that any foreign beer that met these purity (natural product) requirements could also enjoy (untrammeled) access to the German beer market and could be openly sold in pubs and off licences.

In any case, this meant most beers were denied access to the German beer market (which was, in is enormous, and thus profitable), but this also meant that Guinness (which also uses only natural ingredients) could enjoy access to the German market (if you are going to use purity standards - rather than nationality, which was illegal under market access & free trade rules in the EU - as your reason for excluding foreign beers from your market, you must admit those foreign beers which do meet this requirement), which is why Irish pubs also appeared in Germany as long ago as the 1980s.

Now, because Belgium does not have a beer purity law, Belgian breweries have been a lot less confined, a lot less limited, in how they could approach the brewing of beer, and what they could add to the beer, and thus, the styles, (and varieties) of beer available in Belgium are far wider (and a lot more alcoholic at the strong end) than what you will find for sale in Germany.

Belgium has thousands of different beers, and they do differ - at times dramatically - from one another, and here, you will find, for example, fruit beer styles, sour beers, dark beers, lager style beers, session beers, as well as the legendary 'dubbel' beers (which are dark) 'tripel' beers, (which are light but high in alcohol), and the superlative 'quadrupel' beers, both very dark and very strong (10-11% abv).

I've been in Belgian pubs where the beer list is as large, and as heavy, and as endless, as a telephone directory (for those who remember what that was).

To my mind, many of the best of the Belgian beers come from Trappist monasteries or abbeys - monks brewing beer to fund the upkeep of the monasteries - and their standards are superlative.

To be defined as a Trappist beer, a beer must be brewed in the vicinity of the monastery (or abbey), or actually in the monastery, the brewing process must be (either) supervised by - or carried out by - the monks, and the profits should be intended for the needs of the monastic community, and for charitable works and development projects compatible with the Trappist order's own specific rules.

Some of the best known (and highly regarded) Belgian beers are Trappist beers: For example, Rochefort Trappistes, Westmalle, La Trappe, Orval, Chimay etc.

St Bernardus (which is not Trappist, but which brews beer to that standard) has had close links with Westvleteren - which is Trappist, and which nowadays produces tiny amounts of (difficult to find) beer - (and which is regarded as possibly the best beer in the world), and, at one stage, actually brewed their beers under licence, (a time, I suspect, when Westvleteren needed market exposure and sales).

Combining two of your favourite subjects. Beer and history. Fascinating.

 

[Apple fanboy]

The flooding where I live is on my mind. Journey into work was very dicey. Lots of rain and standing water on the roads.

It had mostly cleared up by the time I came home. Just a minor detour needed.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Combining two of your favourite subjects. Beer and history. Fascinating.

Yes, you are absolutely right, beer and history are two of my favourite subjects, and when they are combined, well, what can I say? - other than this is fascinating to me.

For anyone interested in the history of wine (also a fascinating subject), I (passionately) recommend Hugh Johnson's magisterial (and brilliant, and beautiful) work "The Story of Wine".

 

[Apple fanboy]

Yes, you are absolutely right, beer and history are two of my favourite subjects, and when they are combined, well, what can I say? - other than this is fascinating to me.

For anyone interested in the history of wine (also a fascinating subject), I (passionately) recommend Hugh Johnson's magisterial (and brilliant, and beautiful) work "The Story of Wine".

I’ve never been a wine drinker. Never enjoyed the taste.
These days I’m rarely a beer drinker either. Probably less than 10 pints a year. I used to manage nearly that on a Friday night many decades ago!
These days I’d rather a nice hot cup of tea and an early night!
Whatever happened along the way?

 

[Chuckeee]

I'm not an expert, just an enthusiastic (and fascinated) amateur, with an interest in history and an absolute fascination with the history of food and drink.

German brewing and beer are governed by the beer purity law, known as the Reinheitsgebot, which dates from 1516.

Obviously, this beer purity law pre-dated German unification, but came to cover the entire country (and still does) post unification (in 1871, and, more recently, in 1990).

This law aimed to protect consumers (drinkers) on grounds of price, and quality: Prices were set, wheat was prohibited (to reserve it for baking bread), and all other ingredients from the flavoursome - caraway, apples, fruit, - to the downright dodgy - were prohibited (and still are).

For years, only three ingredients, barley, hops, and water were allowed when brewing beer; latterly, wheat (which had been prohibited in the original Reinheitsgebot in order to reserve wheat for baking bread), has been permitted - originally, in Bavaria (where they have long - long predating Bavaria becoming part of Germany - brewed their famous wheat beers - Weissbier etc), and now, nation wide.

However, to this day, German beer can only be brewed from these four ingredients: Malted grains (barley or wheat), hops, water and yeast (the role of yeast in brewing hadn't been fully understood in 1516).

German beer styles include clear beers (Helles, and Pils, among others) and well known lager styles - plus, the more cloudy styles that include Weissbiers (which are usually wheat beers).

They also brew dark beers. Weihenstephaner brews a dark (dunkel is the word used to describe it) beer, as does Erdinger; actually, Weihenstephaner brews a number of dark beers - a "Traditional Bayerische Dunkel" and a dark Weissbier, their "Hefeweissbier Dunkel".

They brew bock, and dopplebock (double bock) style beers, which are both dark and strong, (and often, seasonal specialities).

Their bock and dopplebock styles are not unlike the Belgian "dubbel".

Most German towns and cities and areas will have (will brew) their own local versions of beer styles that are popular nation wide, and there will be some specific regional specialities as well.

In the 1980s, the German brewing industry sought to protect access to the German beer market by prohibiting the sale of other beers (stating that they didn't meet the purity law requirements); citing open markets, free trade, and rights to market access, the EU challenged this national monopoly. The German argument was that this was not a national protection racket (although almost everyone suspected that this is exactly what it was), but an insistence on consumer and brewing industry protection by maintaining brewing standards, and that any foreign beer that met these purity (natural product) requirements could also enjoy (untrammeled) access to the German beer market and could be openly sold in pubs and off licences.

In any case, in practice, this meant most beers were denied access to the German beer market (which was, and is, vast, and thus exceedingly profitable), but this also meant that Guinness (which also uses only natural ingredients) could enjoy access to the German market (if you are going to use purity standards - rather than nationality, which was illegal under market access & free trade rules in the EU - as your reason for excluding foreign beers from your market, you must admit those foreign beers which do meet this requirement), which is why Irish pubs also appeared in Germany as long ago as the 1980s.

Now, because Belgium does not have a beer purity law, Belgian breweries have been a lot less confined, a lot less limited, in how they could approach the brewing of beer, and what they could add to the beer, and thus, the styles, (and varieties) of beer available in Belgium are far wider (and a lot more alcoholic at the strong end) than what you will find for sale in Germany.

Belgium has thousands of different beers, and they do differ - at times dramatically - from one another, and here, you will find, for example, fruit beer styles, sour beers, dark beers, lager style beers, session beers, as well as the legendary 'dubbel' beers (which are dark) 'tripel' beers, (which are light but high in alcohol), and the superlative 'quadrupel' beers, both very dark and very strong (10-11% abv).

I've been in Belgian pubs where the beer list is as large, and as heavy, and as endless, as a telephone directory (for those who remember what that was).

To my mind, many of the best of the Belgian beers come from Trappist monasteries or abbeys - monks brewing beer to fund the needs and upkeep of the monasteries - and their standards are superb.

To be defined as a Trappist beer, a beer must be brewed in the vicinity of the monastery (or abbey), or actually in the monastery, the brewing process must be (either) supervised by - or carried out by - the monks, and the profits should be intended for funding the needs of the monastic community, and for charitable works and development projects compatible with the Trappist order's own specific rules.

Some of the best known (and highly regarded) Belgian beers are Trappist beers: For example, Rochefort Trappistes, Westmalle, La Trappe, Orval, Chimay etc.

St Bernardus (which is not Trappist, but which brews beer to that standard) has had close links with Westvleteren - which is Trappist, and which nowadays produces tiny amounts of (difficult to find) beer - (and which is also regarded by some as possibly the best beer in the world). Westvleteren releases (small) amounts of (much sought after) beer to the market when they are in need of funds. Otherwise, one must travel (in person) to the monastery - and its adjacent shop/store - to acquire some of their legendary beer.

At one stage, St Bernardus actually brewed their (Westvleteren) beers under licence, (a time, I suspect, when Westvleteren needed market exposure and sales in order to obtain funds for monastery refurbishment). Even now, the St Bernardus Abt 12 is supposed to resemble (or is said to derive from) the legendary Westvleteren Trappist 12.

Fascinating. Just one side-note, the reason why so many mass produced beers from the United States taste so awful is that they made using rice as one of their ingredients.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I’ve never been a wine drinker. Never enjoyed the taste.
These days I’m rarely a beer drinker either. Probably less than 10 pints a year. I used to manage nearly that on a Friday night many decades ago!
These days I’d rather a nice hot cup of tea and an early night!
Whatever happened along the way?

I think with wine, it depends, not just on whether one prefers red or white wine, but on stuff such as grape varietal (or blends), country (a Chardonnay from France is not quite the same as one from, say, Australia), soil (terroir), personal preferences, and also - unfortunately - price, for, with wine, price tends to have some sort of co-relation with quality, as, all too often, the higher the price the better the quality, and the challenge is to find that sweet spot, where price and quality intersect.

For me, for beer, a summer spent in Germany as a student was an utter revelation; prior to that, I had been a wine drinker, as that was what my parents (neither of whom much cared for beer) served at home.

However, I'm not a spirit drinker, and never was, and am happy to confine myself to wine and beer; never enjoyed the taste, nor the sensation of spirits.

While I am fine with both with both sherry and port (fortified wines), and - at a pinch - will sample (very occasionally, brandy/cognac (which is also a distant member of the wine family), I steer clear of spirits.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I think with wine, it depends, not just on whether one prefers red or white wine, but on stuff such as grape varietal (or blends), country (a Chardonnay from France is not quite the same as one from, say, Australia), soil (terroir), personal preferences, and also - unfortunately - price, for, with wine, price tends to have some sort of co-relation with quality, as, all too often, the higher the price the better the quality, and the challenge is to find that sweet spot, where price and quality intersect.

For me, for beer, a summer spent in Germany as a student was an utter revelation; prior to that, I had been a wine drinker, as that was what my parents (neither of whom much cared for beer) served at home.

However, I'm not a spirit drinker, and never was, and am happy to confine myself to wine and beer; never enjoyed the taste, nor the sensation of spirits.

While I am fine with both with both sherry and port (fortified wines), and - at a pinch - will sample (very occasionally, brandy/cognac (which is also a distant member of the wine family), I steer clear of spirits.

Not much of a spirit drinker either. Most are pretty sweet. I used to drink a bit of whisky, but not very often since my teens.
And the after effects of alcohol are so much more pronounced than they used to be for me.

 

[Clix Pix]

Fascinating. Just one side-note, the reason why so many mass produced beers from the United States taste so awful is that they made using rice as one of their ingredients.

Rice ?!!! -- and also too much water! Some famous US brands are really quite watery when one tastes them..... If I want to drink water, I'll reach for either a bottle of spring water (carbonated or still) from some reputable source or if desperate and only needing a little bit in a hurry, I'll have a couple of sips from the tap!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

While @Apple fanboy has correctly commented on the fact that beer and history comprise two of my interests, cheese is another, and - combining all three of these interests, beer, cheese and history - some of the Trappist (and, for that matter, other, non-Trappist monasteries, such as the Cistercians for example), as well as brewing beer (for themselves, for their own consumption, and in order to be able to sell the beer, to support the monastery), also produced - and still, sometimes produce - cheese (sometimes, superb cheese) which, yes, they consume and sell.

When one visits the small shops/stores attached to - or, adjacent to - many of these monasteries, one can buy both beer and (their often, amazing) cheese.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Not much of a spirit drinker either. Most are pretty sweet. I used to drink a bit of whisky, but not very often since my teens.
And the after effects of alcohol are so much more pronounced than they used to be for me.

In the Balkans - and other parts of the former communist world - they were not so much sweet, as sharp, and horribly robust and absolutely lethal.

The best are smooth.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Fascinating. Just one side-note, the reason why so many mass produced beers from the United States taste so awful is that they made using rice as one of their ingredients.

Fortunately, we do have widespread availability of excellent quality beer in Europe; apart from the excellent beers available in Belgium and Germany, (among others), over the past twenty/thirty years, the micro brewery movement has transformed the quality of beer available in both the UK and Ireland.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Reading about Trappist beers, (and cheese) and reading about monasteries that produce beer and cheese.

Not all Trappist monasteries - or, very good beer producing monasteries - are to be found in Belgium (though many, if not most, are), a few lie elsewhere.

In the Netherlands, the La Trappe (Trappist monastery) also produces excellent beer and cheese, as does the Mont des Cats Cistercian monastery in France (not far from the border with Flanders in Belgium).

The latter - Mont des Cats - have a brilliant blog/diary, which I have just stumbled across, and have spent some time reading, this evening.

I think that @yaxomoxay would love it.

I've taken the liberty (the original is in French, but they have an English translation, which I have taken the liberty of quoting, and copying, here) of posting their entries from September, 2023:

Actually, the entry for Saturday, 9th September, is gloriously, inexpressibly, wonderfully expressed.

"Friday 1st : Nine of us are going to join Ghent and its bishop who is none other than Dom Lode, former abbot of Orval as some know. After a warm and fraternal welcome to the bishopric by the bishop himself, head to the cathedral for a very beautiful 3D visit to Van Eyck's famous Mystical Lamb and then contemplate it "in real life" at the interior of the said and very beautiful cathedral. After the Sext service, sharing of the bishop's table. Then after a good tour of the city, visit the Saint Pierre Abbey to end the day at the bishopric over a good ice cream and coffee. Very nice day. Deo gratias.

Wednesday 6: Father Abbot leaves to join the ND de la Treille cathedral to represent the community on the occasion of receiving the pallium from Mgr Le Boul'ch

On this Friday 8th feast of the Nativity of the Virgin , we have the joy of seeing Jamie again who, from the status of a spectator that he was some time ago, takes on that of a postulant. We pray for him and vice versa.

Saturday 9 : After discernment, Brother David was asked to put an end to his monastic experience. Firstly he goes to join his Dad who lives not far from La Trappe Abbey.

Sunday 10 : Brother Marc-André and Brother Jean-Luc are going to join our motherhouse in Tamié for the final inter-novitiate session of the year focusing on affectivity. They will have the opportunity to talk about it again after their return scheduled for the 18th.

Monday 11 : On the kitchen side, Brother Gilles becomes monastic interlocutor in place of Brother Oswaldo.

Friday 15 : Father Abbot and some brothers attend the official and secular inauguration of the Snowy Owl at the Canadian memorial located… 30 meters from the abbey. This bird symbol of Quebec is intended to be, on the Canadian Memorial at the entrance to the abbey, a Peace Owl.

Sunday 17: This evening, we discover what the ministry of a priest could have been during the Great War of 14-18 with “Omer Denis, a priest under machine gunfire”

From this Monday 18th and for a good week, the hotel industry “is invaded by PSP”. In fact, around twenty Little Sisters of the Poor are on retreat among us. Retreat preached by Father Podvin in person which will give us the opportunity to listen to him this Tuesday 19 commenting on the current news, highlighting the debate regarding France's aid to Morocco, the victim of a terrible earthquake. The French army, for its part, finds itself at odds following the coup d'état in Gabon. Father Podvin also highlights China being in economic crisis. He further notes the rapprochement between North Korea and Russia. The country of Molière finds itself in the midst of a crisis in terms of school bullying leading some young people to kill themselves. Terrible. Finally, Father Podvin finds the debate on secularism very short, for example with everything that revolves around the Pope's coming to Marseille and the presence of the President of the Republic at the papal mass.

Saturday 23 : Axel comes to spend a month with us “to see the effect it has”.
The heatwave being “far behind us”, we are putting on the sink or the screed for the services.

Thursday 28 : Mr. Yohan Laffort, documentary director, comes to present to us the film project he would like to make on monastic life as it is lived at Mont des Cats.

Read in the refectory: the autobiography of a certain Jean Espinasse, priest in Corrèze."

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

What's on my mind? Well, actually in my stomach.
Raisin Toast.
And what's with Cafe Style raisin toast that is so thick that the butter can't go all the way through and you can't toast it all the way through, so you have this thick layer of dry, untoasted bread in the middle?
Anyway the only place around here you can find proper, not so thick, raisin toast is Aldi.

 

[Apple fanboy]

What's on my mind? Well, actually in my stomach.
Raisin Toast.
And what's with Cafe Style raisin toast that is so thick that the butter can't go all the way through and you can't toast it all the way through, so you have this thick layer of dry, untoasted bread in the middle?
Anyway the only place around here you can find proper, not so thick, raisin toast is Aldi.

Never a fan of raisins. I used to pick them out of my museli as a youngster.

On my mind is a weird dream I had. I was in a line at a hotel reception waiting to be shown my room.
Anyway the 5 people in front of me got shown theirs and then I’m stood waiting next in line. Then the staff just ignored me. Eventually I grabbed a member of staff to complain. They said they would send someone over. When they came they showed the person behind me to their room.
It was one of those very vivid dreams where you can recall all the details and you awake angry that this has happened, until you realise it never did!

What a strange dream.

 

[avz]

On my mind is a weird dream I had. I was in a line at a hotel reception waiting to be shown my room.
Anyway the 5 people in front of me got shown theirs and then I’m stood waiting next in line. Then the staff just ignored me. Eventually I grabbed a member of staff to complain. They said they would send someone over. When they came they showed the person behind me to their room.
It was one of those very vivid dreams where you can recall all the details and you awake angry that this has happened, until you realise it never did!

What a strange dream.

"I'm the invisible man, incredible how you can see right thru me."

 

[Apple fanboy]

"I'm the invisible man, incredible how you can see right thru me."

Love me a bit of Queen!

 

[Mylodon]

Reading about Trappist beers, (and cheese) and reading about monasteries that produce beer and cheese.

Not all Trappist monasteries - or, very good beer producing monasteries - are to be found in Belgium (though many, if not most, are), a few lie elsewhere.

In the Netherlands, the La Trappe (Trappist monastery) also produces excellent beer and cheese, as does the Mont des Cats Cistercian monastery in France (not far from the border with Flanders in Belgium).

The latter - Mont des Cats - have a brilliant blog/diary, which I have just stumbled across, and have spent some time reading, this evening.

I think that @yaxomoxay would love it.

I've taken the liberty (the original is in French, but they have an English translation, which I have taken the liberty of quoting, and copying, here) of posting their entries from September, 2023:

Actually, the entry for Saturday, 9th September, is gloriously, inexpressibly, wonderfully expressed.

"Friday 1st : Nine of us are going to join Ghent and its bishop who is none other than Dom Lode, former abbot of Orval as some know. After a warm and fraternal welcome to the bishopric by the bishop himself, head to the cathedral for a very beautiful 3D visit to Van Eyck's famous Mystical Lamb and then contemplate it "in real life" at the interior of the said and very beautiful cathedral. After the Sext service, sharing of the bishop's table. Then after a good tour of the city, visit the Saint Pierre Abbey to end the day at the bishopric over a good ice cream and coffee. Very nice day. Deo gratias.

Wednesday 6: Father Abbot leaves to join the ND de la Treille cathedral to represent the community on the occasion of receiving the pallium from Mgr Le Boul'ch

On this Friday 8th feast of the Nativity of the Virgin , we have the joy of seeing Jamie again who, from the status of a spectator that he was some time ago, takes on that of a postulant. We pray for him and vice versa.

Saturday 9 : After discernment, Brother David was asked to put an end to his monastic experience. Firstly he goes to join his Dad who lives not far from La Trappe Abbey.

Sunday 10 : Brother Marc-André and Brother Jean-Luc are going to join our motherhouse in Tamié for the final inter-novitiate session of the year focusing on affectivity. They will have the opportunity to talk about it again after their return scheduled for the 18th.

Monday 11 : On the kitchen side, Brother Gilles becomes monastic interlocutor in place of Brother Oswaldo.

Friday 15 : Father Abbot and some brothers attend the official and secular inauguration of the Snowy Owl at the Canadian memorial located… 30 meters from the abbey. This bird symbol of Quebec is intended to be, on the Canadian Memorial at the entrance to the abbey, a Peace Owl.

Sunday 17: This evening, we discover what the ministry of a priest could have been during the Great War of 14-18 with “Omer Denis, a priest under machine gunfire”

From this Monday 18th and for a good week, the hotel industry “is invaded by PSP”. In fact, around twenty Little Sisters of the Poor are on retreat among us. Retreat preached by Father Podvin in person which will give us the opportunity to listen to him this Tuesday 19 commenting on the current news, highlighting the debate regarding France's aid to Morocco, the victim of a terrible earthquake. The French army, for its part, finds itself at odds following the coup d'état in Gabon. Father Podvin also highlights China being in economic crisis. He further notes the rapprochement between North Korea and Russia. The country of Molière finds itself in the midst of a crisis in terms of school bullying leading some young people to kill themselves. Terrible. Finally, Father Podvin finds the debate on secularism very short, for example with everything that revolves around the Pope's coming to Marseille and the presence of the President of the Republic at the papal mass.

Saturday 23 : Axel comes to spend a month with us “to see the effect it has”.
The heatwave being “far behind us”, we are putting on the sink or the screed for the services.

Thursday 28 : Mr. Yohan Laffort, documentary director, comes to present to us the film project he would like to make on monastic life as it is lived at Mont des Cats.

Read in the refectory: the autobiography of a certain Jean Espinasse, priest in Corrèze."

Thanks for sharing!! I used to go to Spain and the beer here is much better than in the US, so I plan to Germany/Belgium to try, this gives me a guide really, grateful for it. Trappist beers are on my list now. Germany's beer history impresses me, would love to try all of it, my friend highly recommended dark beers. And I like red wine and whiskey, red wine is what I bring back from the EU and whiskey is better than drinking US beer trust me.

 

[decafjava]

I'm not an expert, just an enthusiastic (and fascinated) amateur, with an interest in history and an absolute fascination with the history of food and drink.

German brewing and beer are governed by the beer purity law, known as the Reinheitsgebot, which dates from 1516.

Obviously, this beer purity law pre-dated German unification, but came to cover the entire country (and still does) post unification (in 1871, and, more recently, in 1990).

This law aimed to protect consumers (drinkers) on grounds of price, and quality: Prices were set, wheat was prohibited (to reserve it for baking bread), and all other ingredients from the flavoursome - caraway, apples, fruit, - to the downright dodgy - were prohibited (and still are).

For years, only three ingredients, barley, hops, and water were allowed when brewing beer; latterly, wheat (which had been prohibited in the original Reinheitsgebot in order to reserve wheat for baking bread), has been permitted - originally, in Bavaria (where they have long - long predating Bavaria becoming part of Germany - brewed their famous wheat beers - Weissbier etc), and now, nation wide.

However, to this day, German beer can only be brewed from these four ingredients: Malted grains (barley or wheat), hops, water and yeast (the role of yeast in brewing hadn't been fully understood in 1516).

German beer styles include clear beers (Helles, and Pils, among others) and well known lager styles - plus, the more cloudy styles that include Weissbiers (which are usually wheat beers).

They also brew dark beers. Weihenstephaner brews a dark (dunkel is the word used to describe it) beer, as does Erdinger; actually, Weihenstephaner brews a number of dark beers - a "Traditional Bayerische Dunkel" and a dark Weissbier, their "Hefeweissbier Dunkel".

They brew bock, and dopplebock (double bock) style beers, which are both dark and strong, (and often, seasonal specialities).

Their bock and dopplebock styles are not unlike the Belgian "dubbel".

Most German towns and cities and areas will have (will brew) their own local versions of beer styles that are popular nation wide, and there will be some specific regional specialities as well.

In the 1980s, the German brewing industry sought to protect access to the German beer market by prohibiting the sale of other beers (stating that they didn't meet the purity law requirements); citing open markets, free trade, and rights to market access, the EU challenged this national monopoly. The German argument was that this was not a national protection racket (although almost everyone suspected that this is exactly what it was), but an insistence on consumer and brewing industry protection by maintaining brewing standards, and that any foreign beer that met these purity (natural product) requirements could also enjoy (untrammeled) access to the German beer market and could be openly sold in pubs and off licences.

In any case, in practice, this meant most beers were denied access to the German beer market (which was, and is, vast, and thus exceedingly profitable), but this also meant that Guinness (which also uses only natural ingredients) could enjoy access to the German market (if you are going to use purity standards - rather than nationality, which was illegal under market access & free trade rules in the EU - as your reason for excluding foreign beers from your market, you must admit those foreign beers which do meet this requirement), which is why Irish pubs also appeared in Germany as long ago as the 1980s.

Now, because Belgium does not have a beer purity law, Belgian breweries have been a lot less confined, a lot less limited, a lot less restricted, in how they could approach the brewing of beer, and what they could add to the beer, and thus, the styles, (and varieties) of beer available in Belgium are far wider (and a lot more alcoholic at the strong end) than what you will find for sale in Germany.

Belgium has thousands of different beers, and they do differ - at times dramatically - from one another, and here, you will find, for example, fruit beer styles, sour beers, dark beers, lager style beers, session beers, as well as the legendary 'dubbel' beers (which are dark, and range from 6.5-7.7% abv) 'tripel' beers, (which are light in colour but high in alcohol, and would range from 8.0-9.5% abv), and the superlative 'quadrupel' beers, which are both very dark and very strong (clocking in at around 10-11.5% abv).

I've been in Belgian pubs where the beer list is as large, and as heavy, and as endless, as a telephone directory (for those who remember what that was).

To my mind, many of the best of the Belgian beers come from Trappist monasteries or abbeys - monks brewing beer to fund the needs and upkeep of the monasteries - and their standards are superb.

To be defined as a Trappist beer, a beer must be brewed in the vicinity of the monastery (or abbey), or actually in the monastery, the brewing process must be (either) supervised by - or carried out by - the monks, and the profits should be intended for funding the needs of the monastic community, and for charitable works and development projects compatible with the Trappist order's own specific rules.

Some of the best known (and highly regarded) Belgian beers are Trappist beers: For example, Rochefort Trappistes, Westmalle, Orval, Chimay etc.

St Bernardus (which is not Trappist, but which brews beer to that standard) has had close links with Westvleteren - which is Trappist, and which nowadays produces tiny amounts of (difficult to find) beer - (and which is also regarded by some as possibly the best beer in the world). Westvleteren releases (small) amounts of (much sought after) beer to the market when they are in need of funds. Otherwise, one must travel (in person) to the monastery - and its adjacent shop/store - to acquire some of their legendary beer.

At one stage, St Bernardus actually brewed their (Westvleteren) beers under licence, (a time, I suspect, when Westvleteren needed market exposure and sales in order to obtain funds for monastery refurbishment). Even now, the St Bernardus Abt 12 is supposed to resemble (or is said to derive from) the legendary Westvleteren Trappist 12.

This post needs to be saved somewhere ... excellent post!