Jenna's Adventures in Germany!: Saturday 1/21

Woke up early, and a bit tired. Breakfast then went out to the street to meet our bus that would take us to two different breweries. The bus was supposed to pick us up at 9, but there was a mix up and the driver got sent to a different town that had a street with the same name as the one we were on, which we figured out after about 45 minutes of waiting there trying to figure out where he was. The language barrier was a huge problem. Once we figured everything out the bus arrived (about 11:00) and we headed out to Dubbison, which is about a 1.5 hour drive. The bus was very nice and it was perfect timing for a nap.

At Dubbison we experienced another huge language barrier when none of the employees spoke English. The tour was actually a video though, which had an English setting so that was nice. Then we got to taste a few of their beers, which were good. One was peach infused that I enjoyed; it reminded me of peach champagne. Not many others liked it though. I found it interesting that they opened up another brewery near a college campus where they created their troll symbol for marketing purposes. Their beer is of higher alcohol content, and tasted good, which is a good product to market towards people in college.

Once we finished at Dubuisson we got back on the bus and headed to Het Anker. We were pretty late at this point so we had to do a speedy tour in order to be done in time for him to give another one. Their brewery was very similar to the others that we have been to, but they also produce whisky. He didn’t explain how they make the whisky, but he told us about how it is stored in barrels and aged for 3 years. Good whisky needs to be in barrels for longer, but to keep revenues up they sell their whisky after 3 years. Their brewing process was pretty cool, and they actually brew one beer with licorice, and they brew with star anise which I thought was interesting. My dad would like it. I was going to purchase one to bring home but didn’t have any euros at the time They also had a good marketing strategy, where they bottle their beers in multiple different sizes. The largest was a 9 liter bottle, which is about 18 glasses. I thought that was a pretty unique and interesting method of marketing. Creating those large bottles is unique compared to any other brewery we’ve been to. Then we got to taste their beers, which were pretty good! I liked their dark ale that had licorice in it the best. Once we were done with the tour it was about 4:00pm and we hadn’t eaten since 8:00am, so we were all pretty hungry and had a hard time focusing on the beer. I can’t believe monks could go for 49 days just drinking dark beer. Probably a good weight loss plan though…maybe I should try it for lent.

Once we got back we grabbed some frites which were delicious, then hung around until dinner at 8. The first day in Brussels we made the mistake of going to dinner at 6, when here dinner doesn’t start until later. Dinner was great, then we came back to the hotel and hung out for a bit, then Emma, Lindsey, Keith and I went out to the Irish Pub again, where they had pints for 2 euros until 12 which rocks. Then we went upstairs to tear up the dance floor. It was a very interesting scene. A lot of older men were standing around the sides which was kind of creepy, but then a ton of people around our age in the middle. They weren’t really dancing at first, but Emma and I got this big show off dance circle going which was hilarious, so we take credit for starting the dancing. The night continued, we had a blast and showed Brussels what’s up.