Belgium: Muddy roads and beer
Philadelphia Daily News columnist Don Russell (Joe Sixpack) hooks up with big time beer hunters in Belgium - scouting out news beers with Tom Peters Of Monk’s Cafe and Daniel and Will Shelton of importing company Shelton Brothers.
“There’s always another great Belgian beer, right around the corner,” Peters says early on. But it’s the images this phrase conjures up that makes you want to be along: “We geared through a muddy road toward the De Ryck brewery in this village 25 miles west of Brussels.”
Russell points out that importers are looking for still more Beligan beers to import, and Belgian brewers are understandably happy to sell them beer.
Last year, brewer Dany De Smet showed off his powerful Slaapmutske Triple, and the Sheltons quickly scooped it up for distribution in America. “I think people in America appreciate Belgian beer more than we do in Belgium,” De Smet told me, explaining his interest in exporting. “The U.S. is so big - it’s such a big market for me.”
Hard to imagine a European specialty beer brewer saying that not many years ago.
