Redheads and...Well, That's About It

Day #634 Rookop / Brouwerij De Plukker, Poperinge, Belgium
Previously from this brewery: Keikoppenbier and more Keikoppenbier

Fantasy Football draft night, which means I've been spending hours pouring over data and draft magazines and figuring out what the 3rd string fullback had for lunch I'll probably just draft whoever.

Beer always sounds good, and today's beer is the second offering from De Plukker, a bottle of Rookop. This dubbel has a brown hue with an off white head.  There's an earthy aroma with plenty of malt, and the taste has nice notes of caramel and lightly toasted malt.  Not as much malt sweetness as some of the other bruins I drank, but certainly has a nice even flavor.  Well worth a sample if you ever find yourself in Poperinge.  I believe the name of this beer loosely translates to "redhead", if my notes and rudimentary understanding of Flemish are on target.

Smiley beer label = happy beer

From their website, a beer named Rookop "s to be brewed in the St-Joris brewery in Reningelst, Belgium until 1963 when the brewing activities stopped. The brewery was restored back to its original condition in 2012 and now functions as a meeting centre for families with children."  

De Plukker brought this beer back to life, albeit with a new recipe.  I love that an old brewery is now a community center for kids.  De Plukker is for the children!!

Thing to Think About Today:
Beer named after a redhead means... I have no idea.  I guess maybe this means I can drop in some famous redhead Florence Welch and let Dog Days are Over take us home.  Night, folks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsr8oXxzFEI

Agriculture and Old School Rap; Perfect Together

Day #631  Keikoppenbier / Brouwerij De Plukker, Poperinge, Belgium
Previously from this brewery: Keikoppen

Back home after a  road trip to New Jersey to watch football yesterday.  Not a perfect day by any stretch of the imagination, but it did include a PSU win, which is always welcome.

I mentioned yesterday that part of the Beercycling tour took us through the region of Belgium famous for growing hops, and right in the middle of this was Brouwerij De Plukker, notable for being the first organic brewery as well as for growing their own hops on the farms next door.  We had a chance to meet the owners, Joris and Kris, who were nice enough to take time out of their day to give a Masters class in hop farming and brewing, share some of their beers, and let us wander around and take pictures.  In case you didn't know (and I didn't):
1. Hops grow on vines that are staked and supported by wires, and the vines grow at least 20 feet high or so
2. There are male and female versions of the plant
3. Having male versions of the plant in your hop field can get you in hot water, as only unpollinated plants have lupulin, the oil that helps preserve and flavor beer (or something like that)
4. Hops enjoy the same soil qualities as potatoes; hence, you often see them in places like Belgium and the Pacific Northwest
5. Hop cones smell DELICIOUS
6. De Plukker uses no pesticides on their farm, instead relying on natural methods to control pests

Grow up delicious!

Enough about agriculture, you're here for the beer.  We sampled a glass of Keikoppenbier, a blonde ale with a huge head and a dark gold hue.  There are light aromas of citrus and pine, and the taste pleasantly reminded me of an American Pale Ale in hoppiness and flavor.  It was dry and earthy, with a touch of bitterness on the finish.  Very enjoyable beer, and I greatly enjoyed meeting the brewers/farmers and hearing their story.

so pretty.....

Per the owner, the name of this beer is derived from a nickname of someone who lives in Poperinge, and describes someone who is stubborn and hard headed.

Thing to Think About Today:
All that learning about hops today means more hops are still needed.  If I need more hops, then I'm taking you back in time to 1993 to let Naughty By Nature drop some Hip Hop Hooray on us all.  Hooray for hops!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA2_-eQ26tY

"cause I'm naughty by nature, not 'cause I hate ya"

Day 588: Beercycling to De Plukker

From July 5 to July 17, Mr. Blog Named Brew and I were off on an adventure of a lifetime--nearly two weeks spent exploring Belgium and Luxembourg. Ten of those days were spent with a group from Beercycling. What's Beercycling? Only the greatest way ever to experience Belgium! Evan and Henk are fantastic guides and I can't begin to express how much I appreciated Henk hanging with me at the back of the pack while we were tackling hills. Hills are not part of my regular rides and they gave me plenty of grief in Belgium. Lucky for me, Henk has the patience of a saint.

Evan, Mr. Blog Named Brew, me and Henk celebrating
the finish (victory?) at Cantillon.

The Beer Cycling Gang!

I honestly can't recommend this trip enough. If you like cycling even a little bit and if you like amazing Belgian beer, you need to start saving your pennies and make this trip happen. We enjoyed it so much, we're already talking about doing it again in a couple of years. Here's some highlights from the trip. I hope to recap in a bit more detail during the next several days. I'm still having a hard time believing I actually did this!

Location of our first beer of the trip

What was it like? We saw towns and cities of all sizes...from sleepy Zwalm to bustling Bruges to historic Ghent. Most of the brewery tours were incredibly personal as in a sixth generation family brewer came to hang out with our group and open a magnum of Gulden Draak that's been aging since 2009. Yeah, that happened.

Seriously. The entire country looks like a damn postcard.

Those experiences were contrasted nicely with a couple of "standard" tours like the one at De Halve Maan.

More history, less brewery in action. Loved the Bruges Zot!

It was peaceful. It was hot--evidently I can't flee far enough to get away from the heat. It even finds me halfway around the world! I learned so much about beer and about Belgium. I also learned that I am a hell of a lot stronger than I give myself credit for. The nine miles of hills on Tuesday morning proved that. Pedaling 220+ miles in broiling temperatures also provided some evidence.

Typical lunch setting. Park the bikes, set up a picnic,
pinch myself to prove it's really real.

It wasn't all biking, beer and goofing off. This is the Last Post
ceremony--conducted every day to honor the war dead. Poignant.

After the tour ended, we were off to Luxemburg City for about 30 hours. I think I'm going to let the photos do the talking. 

Memorial celebrating Luxembourg's freedom

Luxemburg City. A city divided by a massive ravine. 

As we do here in the States, Luxemburg City had an art installation
involving tons of these fun little elephant statues. This one
reminded me of Belgium with the giant wind turbines!

I wasn't kidding about that ravine!

Sadly I won't be drinking these hops next year.
I don't think De Plukker will be distributing to the U.S. for awhile.

One of the highlights of this trip--and there were many--was the chance to meet the owner/brewer of such a variety of breweries. Take for example, De Plukker. We met Joris Cambie one of the two owners of what's best described as a nanobrewery. He comes from a long line of hop farmers and a couple of years ago with a good friend decided to start brewing with his own hops. The result? De Plukker blond. An amazingly refreshing blond ale that hit the spot during one of the hottest days on the tour. Coolest part about this stop on the tour? Sitting drinking a beer brewed with hops that were grown right outside the brewery's door.

The Keikoppen bier (blond) poured a hazy deep straw color with a huge craggy white head. It had a great--and very refreshing--citrus aroma. The flavor is well balanced with the hops having just a bit of an edge. Lots of good beer flavor, a hint of pepper, good amount of citrus. Very smooth. Maybe it was the heat or exhaustion influencing my notes, but I thought this was an excellent beer.

Beer stats
Style: Blond
ABV: 6.1%
IBUs: 32
Rating: Excellent

Previously reviewed from De Plukker
This is the first!