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Beer is the world’s oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage. Brewing already started around 7000 B.C. in Mesopotamia. However, the term ‘beer’ refers to a malt brew made by monks at a North Gaul (now Belgium) monastery in the Middle Ages. Until recently, the production of beer, like wine, was a wonderful combination of art, science, and luck.

The different (and local) ingredients used, the water quality, and the brewing traditions all add up to the flavor of the beer. This means that many regions have their own brands of beer. Especially in Belgium, every region or small town has their own signature beer. If you go to Hoegaarden, you will find a Hoegaarden beer. If you visit the Ardennes, you will find Bière d’Ardenne ambree.

Belgium has the most varied and numerous collections of beers in the world. There are about 125 breweries that produces 500 different varieties of beer in Belgium. Its beer-brewing origins go back to the Middle Ages in which it enjoyed an unparalleled reputation for its specialty beers. The choices are endless with raspberry beer, chocolate beer, cherry beer, white beer, brown beer and of course the lambic beer.

The beers can be divided into two categories; ales and lagers. Ales are top-fermented beers. They ferment quickly at warm temperatures and the yeast rises to the top of the tank. Ales are strong-flavored and high in alcohol. Lagers use yeast that ferments slowly age for a long period of time. Lagers are light, crisp tasting beverages. Belgium is best known for its ales as Trappist and Abbey beer, but the lagers (Stella Artois and Jupiler) make up almost 75 percent of Belgian beer production.

Belgium’s famous Trappist beers are entirely produced and supervised by monks in a Trappist monastery. The Abbey beers are similar, but brewed by commercial brewers and license their name from abbeys, using the recipes of an abbey that has ceased brewing itself. These beers are usually presented with blonde and brown versions and in the dubbel or tripel styles.

Besides the ales and lagers, Belgium produces lambic beer. This beer is neither top-fermented nor bottom-fermented, but being prepared through spontaneous fermentation by wild yeasts. Lambic beers are exclusively brewed in the Pajottenland region of Belgium (southwest of Brussels). Unblended lambic beer is generally three years old, but a good geuze, for example, may have matured for over 6 years or more.

Belgium contains literally thousands of pubs offering a wide selection of beers and yearly there are many beer and brewing festivals throughout the country. Here the beers are served with a great deal of care, at their ideal temperatures and each in its own glass. The glasses are differently shaped to give the bubbles that travel up the sides of the glass different paths and therefore enhance the flavor and aroma of the particular beer. This behavior is similar to the wine snobbery of the French, but Belgians do take their beer seriously and connoisseurs (as Michael Jackson) have a high esteem of Belgian Beer.