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Recently, I was walking around Greenwich Village in New York City, which is my home when I'm not traveling.

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Just off bustling, Bleecker Street known for its bars and clubs, my friend and I wandered onto MacDougal Street in search of a watering hole.

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We just had a fabulous dinner at a sort of hole in the wall Vietnamese place, and wanted to chase that meal with a beer.

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Lo and behold, we saw black doorway down a set of stairs, and it seemed to have music blaring from inside.

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A small black and white sign in adhesive vinyl on a black mailbox said "124 Old Rabbit Club."

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Under it was a neon pink spray-painted rabbit, and we thought, "But why not?"

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I've been to underground bookstores in the West Village, The House of Yes, if you know what that is, in Brooklyn and more on my adventures living in New York City. 

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The rest of the story in this podcast relates to the beginning of this story,

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and it circles over the pond to Belgium, where I got introduced to the beer I'd ultimately toast with at The Old Rabbit on a May evening in New York City.

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We're taking you to New York City's Greenwich Village for a pint of La Chouffe beer, and then over to Europe to Belgium, in French-speaking Wallonia,

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where I sit down in the small village of Achouffe to beer taste with Chris Bauweraerts, one of the founders of Brasserie d'Achouffe.

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Cheers! Yeah. 

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Let's go beer tasting in this "Travels with Darley" podcast episode, where by traveling with locals and being a bit curious about our world,

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we have a great time drinking, eating, adventuring, and best of all, learning something new.

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Back in New York's Greenwich Village, I wondered if I should knock on the non-descript door.

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We're talking about that door that said Old Rabbit on it, it didn't look like a building sign or anything.

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I did a quick Google search to learn that inside, was The Old Rabbit Club, and it was called one of the top bars in the world.

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Yes, listed on many of the "best bars" lists, 

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you'll find that this underground bar is probably one of the few true modern speakeasies. 

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I pushed the door open to find a dimly lit no frills bar just wide enough for the actual bar and some stools lining it.

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The walls of The Old Rabbit Club are covered in small white coasters, with art done by the patrons.

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Many a funky rabbits were drawn in markers, as well as other beer-geek doodles,

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pigs, dogs, marker mazes, and more.

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What one draws when drinking one, or likely more than one, of the over 70 imported beers listed on this menu,

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you might get a little creative.

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The old black tin ceiling was accented with subdued lights and candles lined the bar

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where just a few people were sitting and enjoying beers, served by a tattooed armed bartender.

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After reading through pages of beers, my eyes got a bit blurred in the candlelight,

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and I turned to my right and saw that little wooden gnome with his signature red Santa hat and long beard,

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representing Chouffe beer, and I knew what I had to order,

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because I'd been to the brewery and met one of the founders, and that leads me to the next part of this podcast.

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First lesson, always open mysterious dark basement doors in Greenwich Village

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(well, really, don't)

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and the second, well, I'll share that at the end of this podcast.

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And you might pick it out from this podcast's special guest, Chris Bauweraerts,

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he and his brother founded Chouffe beer in 1982.

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They wanted to make a sustainable beer before that was even really a thing, using a traditional brewing method

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and today, you can visit their brewery and take a tour in the small village of Achouffe.

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In the main tasting room at a long wooden table, I sit down with Chris Bauweraerts, one of the founders.

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He's introducing us, not only to his beers, but beer tasting

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and we try a lot of beers in the process.

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I first advise to try the Chouffe, the La Chouffe, because there is three times more hops in Houblon Chouffe, so it will...

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Overpower, yeah. 

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It will overpower the taste of La Chouffe.

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It is a very, certainly, a very commercial taste because 80% of our output is La Chouffe. 

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Now...

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That's a big volume.

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We're sitting amid the wooden walled tasting room with two beers in front of us.

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One is in a tall glass filled with Houblon Chouffe beer, and the other in a short round glass, sort of resembling a wine glass with Chouffe beer.

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These glasses mind you are well known around the world as the glasses to drink for these types of beers,

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so I figured they had significance,

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but Chris tells me...

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I'm seeing two different glasses, types of glasses here, and all over Belgium, I'm seeing all different types of glasses.

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What's the story with that?

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Why, is there a scientific reason behind this?

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No, there is not...

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but when we started the brewery, uh we started with nothing.

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So we chose this glass because it was the cheapest glass available all over the country because wine glasses were, are still 

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this type of wine glass is very popular.

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Now, marketing wise, it brings our beer close to wine philosophy, so you can taste the beer, and uh so that was the reason. 

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And then for Houblon Chouffe, it took a smaller glass uh because it pours different.

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But I think the tasting, it's the two, is the same for me.

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Now, when I'm tasting this beer, is there something special that I should do?

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Because I notice a lot of foam here, which I don't see a lot in the US.

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Yes. You're right. It's a part of our uh tradition. In Belgium, it's a must.

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If you have no foam in Belgium, they say to the waiter, "Take it back."
Off with your head? 

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Yeah. And in the States, it's the same. If you don't have enough foam, then they say, "Hey, you are stealing me."

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But the foam is very important. If you taste the foam now, right the foam, or the lace, then uh just only the foam

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and then in one minute you taste the beer, you will taste it's different, 

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you have two different tastes in the foam, and the other one in the beer.

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We want uh foam on the beers.

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In the States, people actually, a lot of times, don't want the foam.

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It's not part of... They don't want it on there at all. They try to avoid it.

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But then you should try the foam here, or the head

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and then the beer, after one or two minutes, it will taste, really, it's different.

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And then okay. You lose that in the States if you want the full pint.

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You lose one of the two tastes.

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Slurp of the foam.

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Yeah, it's good.

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One of the scientific reasons behind wanting to have the foamy head is that that foam carries scents

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that cue our brain to what's coming, what we smell has a huge impact on how we taste.

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Mmm. I like it. It's refreshing.

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Oh, thank you.

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Yeah. No, it's nice.

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It's nice beer for a nice, pretty day. Like a refreshing...

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Cheers, let me say, "Cheers." We don't this... we cheers.

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Yeah.

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Who knew drinking beer was so much like drinking wine? I had no idea.

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There's a whole culture around it in Belgium.

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Yes.

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So what, which is your favorite Chris?

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For me uh, it's the Houblon Chouffe.

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It's not our best seller, it's La Chouffe,

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for 80% our production is La Chouffe.

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But in the States, Houblon Chouffe and La Chouffe, it's uh tied 50, 50.

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This one.

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Okay.

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That voice in the background that you may have heard,

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it's our director of photography because at the same time we're taping for this podcast,

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we're filming for my long-running PBS and streaming series, "Travels with Darley."

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So you can go watch the video version of this segment in my actual TV show,

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but this podcast lends itself to longer interviews, 

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so you're going to get the kind of behind the scenes and extended interviews

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when you listen here.

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Cheers. Another "Cheers."

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Hoppy beer.

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You're lucky we don't have five beers to try.

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Chris's comment on the amount we're drinking for takes and retakes makes me laugh

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because sometimes we do a lot of sipping to get different shots and angles.

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I actually sometimes have to warn my on-camera counterparts that we're going to be sipping a lot,

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so just sip.

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Sometimes they don't and you know they might have a few too many while we're filming for "Travels with Darley."

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That's just part of the process.

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We're filming with just one camera for this specific segment

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but we try to make it look like two or three to show you different angles,

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which means we have to do retakes.

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I like that one it has a little, has a bite to it.

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Yes, and when... okay, now I'm discussing as beer lover

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If you drink this after a La Chouffe, you forget La Chouffe. 

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So hops is something good for beer. 

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And American hops. The second one. 

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Yes, this is the Houblon Chouffe, 

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we use two American hops in this beer, uh Amarillo and Tomahawk. 

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We got a little bit of America here in Belgium. 

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Cheers. 

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Cheers.

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I think you made a hop revolution in the States and it got over to Europe, so...

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it's maybe a good thing.

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So...

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We're sharing.

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Yeah, yeah.

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We have to teach you how to pour a beer and...

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We teach you about hops.

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You teach us how to pour.

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Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

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Hey, it's where the friendship begins.

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Yes.

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Well, I will go back home, Chris, and I will share my knowledge of the correct way to drink beer

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from what I learned in Belgium.

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Cheers.

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So my second lesson learned,

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when you have the chance to drink with an entrepreneur, a founder, or an expert on anything,

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say cheers and have as many sips as needed to get the story.

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I could have talked to Chris all day, but alas, I had to part for another Belgium adventure.

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If you want to learn more about Belgium, places to try beer, travel, meet cool locals,

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and have interesting adventures, check back to my previous episodes of this podcast

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taking you around the world.

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And please subscribe for more great adventures to come.

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(upbeat music)

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[music fades out]