The COLLECTION

I offered to bring a few beers from Belgium to the Czech Republic.  A simple premise you say?  No!  A heroic undertaking!

The Glassware

From left to right:  the beers and whether or not they made it to the promised land.

- Westvleteren Glass

- St. Bernardus Glass

- Boon Kriek (Made it)

- Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus (Made it)

- Grimbergen Tripel (Cut)

- Grimbergen Gold (Cut)

- Bink Blond (Cut)

- St. Bernardus Abt 12 (Made it)

- Westvleteren Blond (Cut)

- Westvleteren 8 (Cut)

- Westvleteren 12 (Made it)

- Orval (Made it)

- Rochefort 8 (Made it)

- Rochefort 10 (Made it)

- Westmalle Tripel (Made it)

- Westmalle Dubbel (Made it)

- Westmalle Glass

- Westvleteren Glass

Collecting

The best part of making a beer collection is trying a host of different beers and determining which of them make the grade.  Even better is trying the beers which you already know make the grade, but which you've only read about.

The collection ranged from all over Belgium.  Orval in the far south east, Westmalle in the north and Westvleteren in the south west.

The picture of the collection above isn't completely authentic, either.  There were more beers in the collection at one point, but they didn't make the final cut.  There are also several beers in the picture which were consumed that night to reduce weight and to save space.  Lastly, there are two beers that should be in the picture:  Delirium Tremens and De Garre Quadrupel.  The first is missing because I forgot to buy it and the second because it isn't bottled.

The COLLECTION is also very focused on Trappist beers.  During my beerlgrimage through Belgium I focused on visiting the Trappist abbey breweries, which accounts for Orval, Westmalle, and Rochefort.  Missing is Achel & Chimay.  LaTrappe is also missing, but its Dutch so it doesn't quite count.  The last of the seven, Westvleteren, we managed to find in a bottle shop in Bruxelles.  I tried frequently to call the abbey's "beer phone" to arrange to pick some up, but had no luck whatsoever getting through.

Travel

The final list that made the journey was 3 glasses and 9 bottles.  I brought a over the shoulder messenger bag, a collapsible duffel bag and a 75L backpack on the trip with me.  Before even getting a single beer into it my backpack was quite full.  Where was I going to put it all?

With some ingenious packing, using socks as beer covers, using a duffel bag as dirty laundry storage, and by strapping as much as humanly possible to the outside of the backpack I managed to get it all in.  But, goddamn was it heavy.

As I started traveling from west to east I started to use ride sharing almost entirely.  Public transport with a massive backpack is REALLY unpleasant, but ride share?  Easy.  I traveled from Lille to Bruxelles, to Amsterdam, to Utrecht, to Arnhem, to Berlin, to Prague, and finally to Breclav with all the extra weight.  By the time we finally got down to drinking I had a back made of iron and neck muscles like steel cables.

Consumption

At long last I made it to Pohansko-Breclav.  Not more than seconds after getting out of the taxi did I suddenly feel excitement.  Not only to ditch the weight, but also to try all of those beers again!

We went out for a nice dinner that evening and when we got back the tastings began.  It was an excellent evening.  The new friends I made and the amazed look on their faces as they tried the strange, yet delicious, beers was priceless.  In the end, it felt completely worth the effort and I hope everyone that got to try them enjoyed them!