Deep in the Ardennes forest, almost at the Luxembourg border, there be Gnomes. Brewing gnomes.  Ok, so maybe the Achouffe brewery isn’t actually run by gnomes, but you’d never know that from looking at a bottle.  Each one is decorated with a gnome, hunched over with a bundle of malt and hops grasped in its arms.   For our visit, the head gnome, Chris Bauweraerts gave us an outstanding tour of their operations, plus, much, much more.

“Hey Chris, what’s in that barrel in the corner?”

“That’s some special distilled beer”

“Ooooooh.  Can we try some?”

“No”

 

This is not a brewery standing still either.  Chris showed us how he’s incorporating rice hulls to get better extraction from his mash.  A trick he learned from Brooklyn Brewing.

 

Homebrewers: want to know what temperature to ferment your belgian ales at?  Look closely and get out your calculators to convert from metric.

 

On piece conspicuously missing from the brewery was the bottling line.  Chris explained they had grown too big for it to fit in the same space.  So now all of the beer is loaded into trucks, and moved a to a larger facility on the other side of town for packaging.  Chris claims they now produce more beer than Orval.

 

 

After the tour, Chris loaded us into his car, and drove us around the local countryside.  Chris is extraordinarily proud of his local region – as he should be.

 

His favorite oak tree:

 

Back at the brewery’s restaurant, we piled into a booth to sample some beers and food.

 

 

Houblin Chouffe – Their Triple IPA.   Something akin to an American IPA, built on top of their classic belgian triple. I’ve had it in bottles in the US before – it’s vastly superior on tap here, with all of the delicate hop aromas in tap.

 

Local Ardennes Smoked Ham:

The classic La Chouffe Golden Ale:

And lunch.  Eli had the trout, I had the rabbit legs, braised in McChouffe (their Scotch style Belgian Ale)

For dessert, local wild berries – delicious with…

 

 

Dessert.  A Beer sabayon, with a scoop of ice cream hiding in the bottom.  When you order it, you can hear it being whisked by hand back in the kitchen.  A lot of elbow grease goes into this dessert.

 

PS – Need a place to stay nearby?  I highly recommend La Vieille Forge, located just down the street, who besides being great hosts, Pol and Tine homebrewers themselves. Try Pol’s Witte for a great belgian classic, brewed on premises.

 

Tags: achouffe, ardennes, Belgium, brewery

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