During the fifteenth Belgian Beer Weekend, more than four hundred different Belgian beers will flow from the taps on the Grote Markt/Grand-Place and in the “Beer Street” behind the Beurs/Bourse building. Beer tourists from all over the world will be there. A good excuse for a chat about Belgian beer with Ray Cokes.
“Unfortunately it was always very rainy when I was at the Beer Weekend,” says Cokes. “But I have a special connection with it, because the Knighthood of the Brewers’ Mash Staff [the Brewers’ guild co-organising the event - MB] made me an honorary knight. That means I can visit the Brewers’ House on the Grand-Place any time. They even said to me that I can use the little bedroom upstairs if I can’t find a place to sleep!”
“Before I did Tournée Générale [a Flemish television series about beer - MB] I didn’t really drink beer. I would go to the pubs in England with my friends and they’d be drinking pints of terrible lager or brown ale; I would always have a glass of wine, and they would joke and say ‘four pints of lager and a glass of wine for the lady, please’. I was never a real macho man in the pubs.”
“But since Tournée Générale my taste buds have changed and now I regularly drink beer. Albeit always the same: the one that turned me on when we were shooting an episode of the second series of Tournée Générale in the Bockor brewery near Kortrijk. Their traditional blond Omer really hit me. It was like an epiphany. Similar to Duvel, but somehow brighter, lighter, more easily palatable, and with a less bitter aftertaste. I really liked it and said that so many times in the press that they sold out at a certain moment.”
“The problem with good Belgian beer for me is that it is often too strong to drink just in a refreshing way. I’m not an intellectual beer drinker. In summertime I tend to drink the Mexican Corona, which is nice and clean, almost like water, but with a good taste. And I have an occasional Leffe blond as well. I’m obviously a blond man.”
“The Lambic beers of the Brussels area, like gueuze and kriek, are definitely an acquired taste. We went to Cantillon, and I tried them many times. Some people really love them, but I just couldn’t understand it.”
“In the end Tournée Générale for me was also about Belgium and the Belgians. There were so many fantastic stories, family traditions, and centuries-old brasseries. The passion that every single person had for the beer that they were making with recipes from their grandparents was absolutely fascinating. We got invited to amazing places – the Palm breweries with their horses, the Rodenbach family home and their beautiful grounds. Sometimes we ended up in a cafe that took you back fifty years in time... Belgians really know how to live well and I was happy to spread that word.”
BELGIAN BEER WEEKEND 6 > 8/9, 16 > 21.45 (6/9), 11 > 20.45 (7/9), 11 > 19.45 (8/9), Grote Markt/Grand-Place & Zuidstraat/rue du Midi, www.belgianbrewers.be
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