130 Belgian Beers on the Wall…

Chef Robert Wiedmaier Has The Beer Necessities

If you’re looking for Belgian beer in and around the nation’s capital, you’d do well to seek out the best Belgian food, which is the purview of Robert Wiedmaier, Belgian chef. 

Although there’s not much demand for beer at Marcel’s, his elegant and celebrated flagship, it’s by far the beverage of choice at Brasserie Beck, and Mussel Bar, where the cuisine is decidedly less refined and the beer flows freely.  At Brasserie Beck, it flows from a beer menu consisting of 140 bottles and eleven draft beers.

The beer program at Brasserie Beck is Belgian-focused, highlighting the country’s craft beer movement, and including other countries’ efforts at Belgian-style brews.

The Menu des Bières is a document of heft and distinction, cataloguing, after the drafts, scores of bottled Belgian brews in over a dozen categories, even before branching out into the international selections.  There’s Saison; Blond Ale; Dubbel Ale; Tripel Ale; Strong Golden Ale; Strong Dark Ale; Belgian IPA; Sweet Lambic; Sour Lambic; Fruit Beer; Bière Brut; Witbier; and Belgian Specialty Ale.  Then there are offered beers from the U.S. [eight;] Germany [three] France [six;] Canada [twelve] Switzerland [three;] and even two from Japan.

Despite this embarrassment of choice, Wiedmaier set out early on to secure a custom brew, a nice light ale to complement the brasserie’s signature mussels cooked in white wine.  After working with other members of his team and tasting numerous unmarked samples and a round or two of tweakings, Antigoon Double Blond Ale was born.  Brewed by the master behind the Troubadour ales, this new ale is named for the giant in Brussels’ own David-and-Goliath legend whose hand is cut off by the hero Brabo.  The team at Brasserie Beck directed the designer to create a graphic label depicting the story’s aftermath, featuring rivers of blood in the Art Nouveau style.  The beer has been picked up by Whole Foods and other national retailers, and the brewer and distributor are now having a custom blood-red draft tower manufactured for the wildly popular ale.  With the unpredicted widespread success of Antigoon, it was only a matter of time before Brabo Pilsner was commissioned, this time from Huygle, a highly regarded Belgian brewer.  A light, easy-drinking unfiltered lager with broad appeal, so far it is only available on tap at BRABO and Mussel Bar where they go through ten 50-liter kegs a week.

At Brasserie Beck, Antigoon is the popular favorite, served in its own handsome logo-ed glass.  Bavik Pilsner, “a light and easy ‘beer-flavored’ beer,” is another top choice.  Over at Mussel Bar, Brabo Pilsner and Delerium Tremens usually win the day; although the Kasteel beers on tap are also widely ordered and the bar’s dramatic backdrop, a floor-to-ceiling glass case of bottled brews, attracts plenty of attention, too. 

For those with a big beer appetite who may be overwhelmed or unconcerned by all these choices and decisions, Brasserie Beck also carries five “large format” bottles, including one that logs in at a whopping nine liters.  Who orders this $900 beauty?  “It’s always for major celebrations, and usually at the chef’s table [which seats ten,]” the team at Brasserie Beck says, adding that they often need several people to help lift and pour that celebratory first glass.