Gouden Carolus in Mechelen

On day two in Belgium, I planned to head to the nearby city of Mechelen to visit one of the countries oldest breweries, Het Anker, purveyors of the wonderful 'Gouden Carolus'.

Mmmmm...

In my Brussels hotel I was up relatively bright and early in the morning.  Remarkable, seeing as I wasn't able to resist a visit to Moeder Lambik the previous evening, drinking some wickedly strong beers after my gig was finished at Magasin 4.

The morning's blue sky and sunshine turned out to be a false dawn: grey skies and a touch of rain took it's place before the train had pulled in to Mechelen.
But who needs sunshine to brighten things up, when you've got big yellow street-art like this...

Mechelen is a small city, midway between Brussels and Antwerp and home to just over 86,000 folks.

I made a long detour around suburban streets despite the brewery being well signposted, eventually making it to the home of Gouden Carolus.

Brasserie Het Anker (Guido Gezellelaan 49 -2800 Mechelen - web)

You can visit the brewery.  I didn't as I was scared of having to cancel a booking at the last minute and be charged the whopping €90 (!!!) late cancellation fee shown on their website.

So, no pictures of shiny fermenting vessels - just a grey, dull picture of the brewery tap...

Brasserie Het Anker and the brewery in the background.

But the Brasserie alone really is worth a visit. 
You can drink sensible strength beers with the 'Maneblusser' ales, but surely you've come for the traditional 'Gouden Carolus' that Het Anker is famed for.
It's named after the golden coins produced by Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who lived in Mechelen in the early 1500's.
I ordered the 'Hopsinjoor', a modern, hoppier interpretation, launched in 2008 and brewed with 5 varieties of hops to appeal to IPA enthusiasts.

Stopping for a second, I reverted to the 'Classic', a delicious 8.5% ABV amber brew.  You get raisins, caramel and orange, with a lingering sweet, alcoholic finish... I really have no idea what I'm talking about...
Also worth a visit is the shop to the rear of the brasserie, with good value bottles available, including some wonderful limited editions and barrel-aged versions.

Mechelen - looking grey but looking good.

Leaving Het Anker behind, I returned to the cathedral spire and paid my (hefty) entrance fee for the pleasure of climbing 500+ steps to reach the top.
St Rumbold's cathedral tower was designed to be 167m high, which would have made it the world's highest church spire, but financial restraints led to plans been curbed.
Even with the grey skies, Brussels and the Atomium were visible, with some great views in all directions.

Mechelen does, of course, have more than one bar worth visiting, but in my case I wanted to get back to the capital by mid-afternoon, with tickets in hand for more live music in the evening.

Back in Brussels...

A fleeting mention, if I may, for Le Barboteur Birotheque (Avenue Louis Bertrand 23, 1030 Brussels) which I detoured to, hopping off the train at Brussels Schaerbeek station (actually nowhere near this bar - my understanding of 'scale' on a map is getting worse).
Le Barboteur offered a great choice of beers from microbreweries, plus a large choice of bottles and cans on shelves along one wall.  On tap, I chose some imperial porter madness, with a 'Decontrol: Marshmallow & Vanilla Pie', an 11% bad-boy from Moscow's Zagovor Brewery.

Street corner beer cafe - Le Barboteur.

Across the other side of Brussels there is somewhere completely different...

Beerstorming (Chaussée d'Alsemberg 75, St Gilles - web)
Beerstorming is a micro-brewery located in a shop unit in the St Gilles district.  It consists of one single table at the front and dinky stainless steel brew-kit to the rear.
Their logo is "Our brewery is yours" and what they do is offer small groups the chance to learn about the brewing process before being unleashed on the kit to concoct their own.  These beers are brewed in 75 litre batches and, judging by those on offer to try today, the trend is to conjure up something wild 'n' wacky.

Easy to walk past... the unassuming Beerstorming Craft Brewery.

I had a 'Zwanzibar' which should have had chilli peppers in the mix, but they'd been disappointingly shy and you could barely taste them.  A little more flavoursome was the 'God Save the Beer' a 5.2% ABV IPA brewed with Earl Gray tea.
Also on the tap list was a sage beer and a nutmeg brown ale.

Beerstorming is well worth a visit, although don't expect your average bar - and be prepared to sit at the solitary table and chat all things beery with the staff and other visitors.

It's also only open Friday 2-6pm and Saturday 2-8pm.