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Marbehan! And the Brassigaume Beerfest

And so, last weekend we went to a little town on the Luxembourg-Brussels rail line – obviating any possibility of drinking and driving by using public transport.

Marbehan is a small dormitory town serving Arlon and more importantly Luxembourg has been the location of an unusual beer festival for the last 5 or so years. I learned about it from the ‘always handy’ Tim Webb guide to Belgium and LUXEMBOURG. First time we went there it was a revelation; we got off the train to what seemed a barren spot in the desert. Then we found the way to the festival by luck more than judgment – in actual fact the festival was and still is held in a tent at the local sports centre. These days there are good signposts put up by the organizers – for those of you that have NOT been there yet.

As I said it is an unusual beerfest. Their precepts are that only invited small brewers from the Gaume (a region that covers the surrounding area into France and Luxembourg too.) are there, mind you, there are the odd aberrations – this year a British Brewer was there as well as one from northern Italy, one of the stalwarts was not invited – Millevertus, as the Organiser thought he was now contract brewing – against the ‘rules’ – bit of a play on words, as the organizer is the brewer/owner of the Rullesbrewery, close by.

Enough of the background/preamble. We arrived at the station to find that we were not the only people to alight there; it seemed a bunch of teachers from the International School in Luxembourg had the same idea as us. Unlike us, they had no idea where to go, so it was the arm in the air, and the usual – ‘follow us we know where to get decent beer in this town.’ Basically a 15 minute walk downhill (shame, I would have liked the slope the other way, so the stumble for the train is easier). We got to the sports centre easily – it was still light!

When we entered the tent, we had the usual waves of recognition from the usual brewers we see at beer fests in Belgium, and having brought our ‘last years’ glasses with us, all we needed was tokens as this was an all token festival, – even down to the food offerings in the beer tent. In the tent door, you could have gourmet cuisine á la Biére on camping tables – tres chic! That you had to book for.

Naturally the Brasserie de Rulles was there along with the likes of Caracole – being served by the ‘Confrérie des Decapsuleurs’ – AKA ‘The brotherhood of the Bottle Openers,’ some really nice guys who also make their own brews – yum yum. The Brasserie de Fantome was notable by his absence, and when I asked Gregoire – ‘Mr Rulles’ he just went off in a kind of huff, as he had no idea why Danny of Fantome had just disappeared into the ether. All in all there were around 25 different breweries there, all you need to do is Google Brassigaume, and you’ll see the list of them, so pointless reiterating this. I did ask about the British brewer who was supposed to have been there, I was told – Douane! Á Calais! The guy had been held up at Calais by the customs officers, and him with a truck full of beer… can’t think why…

Shortly after that Stuart of the Tigertops Brewery actually arrived, on his own. So, guess what, I went back into beerfest mode – just like NERAX earlier this year. We hauled his stand out assembled it, and no sooner than we had the hand pumps laid on the bar top, we had people wanting to buy beer !!!! (what is this – anyone would think we’re at a beer festival!) – 20 minutes later we tapped the racked casks (for anyone wondering, racking is a process where the cask conditioned beer is allowed to settle and mature in one cask so it’s ready for serving – like in a pub, it’s then decanted into another sterile cask, so the beer is real and cask conditioned, but as easily usable as keg – but has to be used within a day or so.). As Stuart had been on the road since 5am he took a well needed breather, and I began to serve the draught beer – using the real handpumps he had brought – a novelty for the locals!

As it was quite early the punters were still quite thin on the ground, but the line grew when they heard I speak not only French, but Luxemburger in addition to English, on account the visitors predominantly were Francophones, and few had any English to ‘speak of’ – oops what a pun…. I even had a German guy turn up and try his English on me… I understood his English, but he had no idea what I said in reply – one of the problems when you know a little language… It’s not the formulation of the question that’s the problem, it’s understanding the reply! – been there…

The beers Stuart had brought were really quite good, a beer called Challenger, no not named for the shuttle, but named after the hop content – and being a hophead, that was my mainstay for the rest of the fest. The other was a ‘Ginger Beer’, but saying that, it was not a soda, far from it. The beer was excellent and had so much Ginger root added it was like… Well dare I say an American brew readied for the GABF, absolutely brilliant. As I could describe the beers to the locals in their vernacular sales went well. For myself I had been trawling up and down the inside of the island bar setup, sampling snifters of the other breweries’ wares, so I was quite well on the way.

The beerfest went on into the evening, very pleasantly I have to say, as I was still tippling the wares of the other brewers – just on grounds of quality control of course……hic…

Sadly, all things had to come to a conclusion, we had calculated it would take 15 minutes to get back to the station so left in time to catch a fast train back to Luxembourg.

I decided we would leave the fest 25 minutes before the train arrived – it took us the additional time to say all our goodbyes, and then to find the station after taking a wrong turn, ignoring my wife’s suggested subsequent directions and using my innate knack of getting back on the correct route, we arrived 5 minutes before the train – phew!

In fact the bus driver would not take payment, as we were ‘International Travelers’ our rail ticket was good for the bus too!

And that was our day at the Brassigaume. What I didn’t mention was I didn’t travel home empty handed, as Stuart was very grateful for the help, I had a 75cl and two 33cl’s in the backpack – all unusual beers – vis-à-vis, one was the ‘Podges Stout’ for my wife. (This beer, named for a friend of ours is a really quaffable beer.)

And so to bed, to dream of the trip to Hasselt in a couple of weeks and their super beerfest.