Jenna's Adventures in Germany!: Tuesday 1/24

Woke up at 6:45 (sooo early) got ready, ate breakfast, and left at 7:45 for Leuven. The town was only a 20 minute train ride from Brussels, and is a big university town. We made it there in time for our 9:00 tour of Domus. Their brewery was unique in the fact that they don’t bottle. They brew on a much smaller scale as well. When the beer has finished fermenting, it is transferred to bags that are in large metal cylinders. The bags are connected by piping to the taps at the bar, and pushed out with CO_2, which also carbonates it. Our tour guide works for the university, and has been brewing on the side for 10 years. He (and some other people) experiment with beers at home, then if they are good take them to the brewery. I know at least one of his beers is available at Domus. It was interesting to hear him talk about how they experiment with brewing. He said that he wanted to make a spin on a wheat beer and make it extra hoppy. In order to do this he made a few batches with different amounts of hops until he found one that tasted good. I believe that is the beer that can be found at Domus. The experimenting that he does really made me want to mess around with creating different beers myself. We were asking some questions and he said that once you start mashing and using your own malts and what not, it’s hard to mess it up, which is comforting. I bet I could make some good beer. We then went on to taste their Condomus (yes that’s what it’s called) beer, which the guide said was a favorite of the college kids. We had a good laugh about that. The beer was good, very bitter, but good. They use a lot of hops, which causes the bitterness. Then we tried their Christmas ale, which was also very good. It was sweeter, which was interesting with the bitterness, and also tasted a bit banana-y. I think I liked the Condomus better, but both were pretty good. It was another 10:00am tasting and we were still a little sleepy from waking up early, so it was pretty funny. The new saying has gone from “it’s 1 o’clock somewhere” to “it’s 10:00am somewhere.”

After the tasting we were able to venture around the town for a while. First thing me and a couple other people did was look for some coffee and a bathroom. Once we found that we strolled around the town. Found the university and walked through there for a bit. We felt a bit weird because there were students everywhere and we didn’t belong, but I think we fit in, we could have looked like students. Then we found the large church in the middle of the town and were able to walk through it. It wasn’t as intricate as the church in Ghent, but it was still beautiful. It leaves me awestruck every time I visit one of those huge, old churches. Then we did a bit of window shopping and actual shopping. I got two new head bands that are pretty cute and some new earrings, all for only 6 euros! Such a good deal.