The first visit to this little, old converted school house in the rural town of Oostvleteren was a few years back. You might say, “Vleteren sounds familiar.” The world wide draw of the Sint Sixtus Abbey has put this small place on the map. The monks at Sint Sixtus brew trappist beers named Westvleteren, after the town where the abbey is located. The Westvleteren beers were the reason I made the almost two hour trek from Brussels by car on that first visit. I made the trip with a friend who is also interested in beer. He said we have to find the crazy brewers of De Struise. He had heard of De Struise Brouwers online and was more interested by them than Westvleteren.
Although not really marked from the street, this place is not very hard to find in the tiny village of Oostvleteren. Walk though the hallway of the front house and you find yourself in the school yard. Recently, the guys of De Struise have slabbed over most of the old school yard in the preparation of what I can only guess is brew tanks and equipment. A few fermentation tanks have already been installed but are not online yet.
Across the courtyard you find the main building with beer shop, brewing room, and tasting room/classroom. The brewing room is tucked away down the hall. Everything necessary to brew great beer is here on a small scale. Most of the beer brewing is done in another location that has more volume capacity. Pipes and fittings have been installed to be able to get the beer from the brewing room to the courtyard where expansion is happening. Hopefully one of these days I will be around when beer is being brewed.
On the first trip to Struise Brouwers we met Carlo, one of the brewers, in the tasting room. Back then, they had one or two taps in the kegerator and the rest of their beers available by bottle. If you were lucky, you found a large selection of beers. If not, just a few but always good. Carlo explained the selection of beers to us and paired each one of us with an appropriate beer. The guys got the hoppy Pipedream IPA (collaboration beer with Alvinne, De Struise, and Pipeworks) and gals got the more dark, sweet Pannepot.
At the front of the room there is a diagram in Dutch on the large chalk board of how they brew; you can study while enjoying the beers. Chatting with Carlo you can find out a lot about the beers which can be very helpful in finding the next ale you are going to try. Now-a-days when you visit choosing the next beer might be hard as they have 30 taps of their ales. It’s a great way to be adventurous and try beers that you might not want to buy a bottle of or will never find for sale. The old classroom has a great vibe for just kicking back and trying ales with friends.
Over the years I have visited with friends, mom, cousins and anyone who has the time to make the trip while in Belgium. This is a great spot to come and try a plethora of distinct creative Belgian ales and on the top of my list.
the belgian brew beer blog 