De Dolle is seriously a magical place. Once you pull up to gate and you are greeted by the Oerbier man, how much better can life get?
This little person, Oerbier man, is a simple creature who holds a brewers fork in his right hand, symbolizing the work and science, but looking to the other side, the result of all this, the glass of (Oer)beer.
When you arrive you walk back through a bricked courtyard into a large spacious warehouse, where you will see paintings, Oerbier men, and De Dolle Label art adorning every wall. The space is as colorful as Kris’ work, the owner/brewer of De Dolle.
We walk through and find the bar/tasting room. There are quite a few people milling about, and it was a beautiful day to enjoy their patio. Kris was conducting a tour, and we were told he would be with us shortly. You know who Kris is as soon as you see him. He’s wearing what looks like an old beer sweater, with big block letter stitching. He walks around casually but you know he’s the man.
While we waited, we consumed the iconic Oerbeer we all know and love and their Extra Special Export Stout!
And on to the tour, Kris was actually in the process of brewing Oerbier so every now and then during the tour he would scamper up the stairs to attend to something. The De Dolle brewery was built in a very interesting way. The building was basically built around the fact that it was going to be a brewery and everything in the brew process would be fed downward. On the top floor would be the brew kettle and mash tun, and on down the fermentation room, and so on.
Doesn’t that fork look familiar?
Check out the Oerbier phone!!
Two fun stories about the tour… First is that while Kris was showing us around we walked into the fermentation room, instead of seeing huge stainless steel vats that I was used to, these are literally just rectangular well-type containers built into the room!
I was a bit baffled by this set up and I asked curiously if this is the fermentation? And he laughed and tried to explain it to me like I’m a novice, which is what happens a lot when you are a lady traveling in the beer world. Then I remarked about how frothy the krausen was and that is when I saw his eyes light up. One word proved that I was no ordinary lady, I was a beer lady.
The second isn’t so much a story but it was more of an experience. We got to watch Kris add the candy sugar to the Oerbier boil. He let us sample the Belgian candy sugar and it was absolutely divine. Sweet but not too sweet, and was hard like rock candy.
Unfortunately, that was the end of the tour and Kris had to get back to work. As we were leaving he gave me three kisses on the cheek, the only brewer in Belgium to do so. That is one of the few things that is fun about being a chick in the beer world, the satisfaction of proving you know what you are talking about, or just that you simply know what krausen is!