Siphon Cassandra Oyster Stout

Franklin Verdonck & Breandán Kearney, Siphon Brewing

At its narrowest, The English Channel is only 20-something miles wide—not far enough to discourage swimmers, let alone the influence of great beers. Belgians have long experience with borrowing styles from the British Isles and putting their own accent on them, and they’ve been doing that with stouts at least since the Industrial Age. A key part of the story begins with a lemonade stand, of sorts. In 1909, John Martin—an English brewer and entrepreneur—set up a business close to the port of Antwerp in Belgium, with a view to selling tonics and lemonades. In 1912, Martin struck a deal to become the official importer of Guinness into Belgium. He promoted the beer in his first tavern at Antwerp zoo to large numbers of Belgian and international visitors. (The marketing venture was so successful that he started his own advertising agency in 1921.)

While still in the midst of World War II, Martin convinced Guinness to brew a new stout for the Belgian market only—one designed for a nation that was becoming more accustomed to higher-alcohol “specialty” beers with more intense flavors. In 1944, they launched the 8-percent ABV Guinness Special Export—a beer that is still to this day produced at St. James’s Gate in Dublin, exclusively for the Martin family business in Belgium. That beer has probably done more than any other to inform the Belgian idea of what “stout” is.

Belgian-brewed stouts had been around before Martin brought them over. Examples include Cross Stout, produced at Bekaert’s breweries (est. 1794) in West Flanders; an Extra Stout from Brasserie Soye (est. 1892) in the Gaume, on the French border; and a Red Heart Extra Stout from Brasserie Kirchman (est. 1899) near Liège.

Later, after World War I, a whole community of brewing families in Belgium’s devastated northwestern corner pooled their money to establish one mega brewery in the city of Ieper. They named it the Ypersche Centrale Brouwerij and in 1937 released an Extra Stout called Belfort—a Belgian echo of the stouts that British soldiers had brought to the trenches around their city. tioning, adding touches of acidity as well as tannins and vanillins, if not the character of the alcohol previously stored in the wood.

Brouwerij De Ranke brews Back to Black, which they describe as a “porter” with 100 IBUS and an ABV of 9.5 percent ABV. It ages nine months in a foeder, where it develops a lactic-acid edge and softened hop profile. In 2015, Gueuzerie Tilquin and Brasserie de Rulles began producing variations on Rullquin, a blend of one-eighth Tilquin lambic with a modified, more stout-like Rulles Brune. The Ardennes Stout from Brasserie Minne ages in oak, showcases roasted spelt, and is hopped with Mosaic, Belgian Goldings, and Hallertau. And while he doesn’t use wood for his superb Extra Export Stout, Kris Herteleer of De Dolle Brouwers insists on a mixed-culture fermentation with Saccharomyces and Lactobacillus as a nod to the history of London porter.

In 1993, the same company that brought Guinness to Belgium bought Timmermans, which claims to be the oldest lambic brewery in the world. Last year, Guinness and Timmermans released a new beer together. To produce their collaboration—a beer of 6 percent ABV named simply Lambic & Stout—they blended three existing beers: Guinness Special Export, Guinness West Indies Porter, and Timmermans Oude Kriek, a blend of young and old lambics with sour cherries. The result was a dark, chocolatey beer with pink-colored foam, some acidity, and notes of oak and cherry.

On one hand, Lambic & Stout showcases Belgium’s historical relationship with stout, as well as its own deep-rooted heritage of fermentation, oak, blending, and balance. On the other hand, it’s a reminder that you can never be certain of what to expect when you see the words “Belgian stout.”