Christmas beer tasting het Anker

Christmas beer night @ brewery het Anker (Mechelen) presented by Luc De Raedemaeker (bierinhuis.be)

Christmas beers are special beers brewed around this time.  
It was a very interesting evening.  Luc is a great host.  The tasting covered things like the ingredients of beer and the effect on the product, a brief history of beer,  basics of beer tasting and the differences with with wine -tasting and of course the practical beer tasting on this selection.

Presented beers by Luc:

Dobbel Palm (5,7%)

This was given as an introduction / "warming up"

St-Feuillien Christmas (9%)

For me the best beer in this selection.  You should really try this one!

Delirium Chirstmas (10%)

N’Ice Chouffe (10%)

Sint-Bernadus X-mas (10,5%)

Gouden Carolus Christmas (10,5%)

A nice ending of the Ankeravonden in 2014,  curious what 2015 will have in store for us :-)

More Westvleteren stuff

De Vrede 

... and the "fanshop"

The Pick up point

 The Abbey and surroundings

 

Westvleteren, Ploegsteert and Westhoek in Belgium

I often make visits to the Westhoek region to resupply my stash of Westvleteren.

It's the ideal moment to visit this beautiful region and its war memorials.   In WW1 this area was drained in blood.  Almost 450 000 people lost their lives in the trenches during the first industrialized conflict.  For the first time things like gas and tanks were used.
There are lots of interesting things to see like the Menin gate  in Ypres,  and the Tyne Cot Cemetery in Zonnebeke.
This time we went a little bit further to Ploegsteert.  Technically it's not Westhoek anymore, as it is situated in the Walloon part of the country.  

In 1990 the English band The Farm released a song 'All together now' about the extraordinary events that took place on Christmas 1914 in this little town. 

People from both sides came to a 'truce' and played a football match in 'no mans land'.   There's now  a memorial.  They even constructed some trenches next to the monument.

  

 Next to it is a cemetery.  Such a waste of young lives.  

In Ploegsteert we also vistited the Hyde Park Memorial.

A few km's from this memorial (back in Flanders) we also stopped at the Island of Ireland Peace Park.  Definitely worth a visit.