Cafe Craenenburg, De Garre & 2Be - Our visit to Bruges

When you think of Belgium what do you think?
Beer and Chocolate...their two most famous exports.
So when Liz & I booked onto a P&O MiniCruise to Bruges we knew that we could enjoy a well deserved break full of beer and chocolate.
As this is a beer blog I will not bore you with a full account of our trip, but will just focus on two of the best bars that we found. However, in a nutshell we would fully recommend the P&O Mini Cruises...value for money and the town itself is beautiful, we will be visiting again soon!

This cafe/bar is well worth a visit

Lets begin our beer tour. We spent out morning exploring the town, after a couple of hours we were well in need of a coffee. The weather was great for November and the market was full of stalls from the Christmas Market. We found an empty table at the Grand Cafe Craenenburg, the waiter came out and we ordered our coffee...well we intended on a coffee and ended up with a couple of beers. The cafe/restaurant was clearly aimed at tourists, but felt really welcoming and a million miles away from town centre chain restaurants that we are all used to in the UK (in a whole day we only saw 2 brands that are found in the UK!).

Better than ordering Coffee!

Liz wanted a fruity beer, as she normally has cider back home we just asked for what the barman recommended, he brought her a glass of Belle Vue Kriek 5.2%, it had an intense cherry flavour, but was not too sour. As for me, my first drink in Belgium was a beer that can be found everywhere in the UK, but as it is one of my favourites I could not resist, Leffe Brune 6.5%, this having slight fruit notes but mainly caramel/coffee flavours that you would expect with a dark beer...thats what I love about belgian dark beers, they are easier drinking and not as heavy as english Stouts, but still pack in the flavour. Both drinks were served in typical chalice glasses and whilst sat on the
market square watching the world go by we both knew, we would be back!

De Garre, blink and you miss it.

Following a hotdog and a wander around the Christmas Market we searched for De Garre. Now when I say search, I mean search. This bar is situated down an alley which if you do not know what you are looking for you will walk right past it. It's like the Diagon Alley of the Beer world. Walking down the alley we did question whether we were in the right place, this being due to the uneven cobbles and the fact we were venturing down a dark alley. Luckily we were in the correct place.
De Garre is like a traditional english country pub, as you walk in you are greeted by the barman, the room itself is tiny with maybe 8 tables inside. As all the tables were full we ventured up the old wooden staircase to the second floor, where once again we found a small bar and about 6-7 tables. We  took a table next to a group of old english blokes who we laughing and made sure we knew they had been drinking strong belgian beer for 3 days!

Just a sneak peak of the huge selection
of beer on offer in De Garre

Once again we were undecided as to what to drink, the menu was full of a variety of different beers to match all pallets...I have to admit though that the menu was a little overwhelming. At this stage we looked to our english friends in the corner for a recommendation. We were torn between the house Tripel and the house Dark beer...so as their were two of us we ordered one of each. What arrived were two small doorknob shaped glasses full of foam above some deliciously strong beer. These were served with a small portion of cheese.

Best two beers of the trip, in the best bar.

The house triple is actually named after the bar itself. At 11% the amber ale was full of flavour, it did not taste as strong as it was...which could have lead to us drinking a lot without realising how hard it would be to walk after. I chose to try the house dark beer, Gulden Draak 10%. Brewed at the same brewery as the house ale, Gulden Draak was surprisingly fruity considering it was a dark beer. Our drinks were accompanied by a small helping of cheese. If we had more time to spend in Bruges we would have likely stayed here for a couple more rounds...one thing to note is that due to the strength you are limited to 3x beers each! At 9 euros for the two drinks I thought it was a bargain, considering the strength of the beer.

Wall of Beer !

Our trip to De Garre was followed by a shopping trip. We had decided that we would purchase a couple of beer glasses for the bar, as I do not own any form of beer chalice...I have been jealous of my twitter friends for some time. The shopping trip lead us to the 'Wall of Beer', the clue is in the name here! Down an alley we found a long glass cabinet filled with bottles and beer glasses from hundreds of different Belgium beers.

View of 2Be from the Canal

 As we reached the end of the bar we entered 2Be Bar. We had noticed this place earlier in the day as we noticed beer drinkers in a courtyard overlooking the canal and made a point of deciding to have our last beer there. The bar itself was very modern (in comparison to De Garre), but kept a slight traditional feel due to the old building that it was situated in. Looking at the menu I was undecided, Liz ordered a medium glass of Kriek Boon 4.5% which was very similar to the Belle Vue cherry beer that Liz tried in Craenenberg. As I could not make my mind up I ordered a sample platter. For 10 euros I enjoyed 4x small beers alongside some chorizo and peanuts. I sampled all four then drank in order of least - favourite. Now when I say 'least' I do not mean that I didn't enjoy it, because I did, it was just the least enjoyable of the four. I started with the Blanche de Namur 4.3%, this was a smooth wheat beer that had a sour aftertaste...similar to Hoegaarden, the sour aftertaste was not too overwhelming and left you wanting more. After this I had some of the Kriek Boon, which is what Liz ordered (see above). I have to admit, I found it difficult to choose my favourite of the last two, the strongest of the four Paix Dieu 10% was an abbey triple which similar to the De Garre beer didn't taste as strong as it actually was, it would not be out of place in a craft beer pub in the UK. They did make a point of telling us that this is only brewed during the Full Moon !!! As I write this I have now decided, the Gouden Carolus 8.5% was my favourite...surprise surprise it was a belgian dark beer, from this I found it to be not too sweet but with an subtle caramel taste...Yum ! it is no surprise that this was voted the best dark beer in the world 2012 by WBA.

One happy beer drinker!

So there you have it, a run down of the beer from our trip. We are already talking of going again with friends for my birthday next year. For the money, the P&O day trip is a bargain.

-Sam