Recently, I was walking around Greenwich Village in New York City, which is my home when I'm not traveling.
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.
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.
Lo and behold, we saw black doorway down a set of stairs, and it seemed to have music blaring from inside.
A small black and white sign in adhesive vinyl on a black mailbox said "124 Old Rabbit Club."
Under it was a neon pink spray-painted rabbit, and we thought, "But why not?"
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.
The rest of the story in this podcast relates to the beginning of this story,
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.
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,
where I sit down in the small village of Achouffe to beer taste with Chris Bauweraerts, one of the founders of Brasserie d'Achouffe.
Cheers! Yeah.
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,
we have a great time drinking, eating, adventuring, and best of all, learning something new.
Back in New York's Greenwich Village, I wondered if I should knock on the non-descript door.
We're talking about that door that said Old Rabbit on it, it didn't look like a building sign or anything.
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.
Yes, listed on many of the "best bars" lists,
you'll find that this underground bar is probably one of the few true modern speakeasies.
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.
The walls of The Old Rabbit Club are covered in small white coasters, with art done by the patrons.
Many a funky rabbits were drawn in markers, as well as other beer-geek doodles,
pigs, dogs, marker mazes, and more.
What one draws when drinking one, or likely more than one, of the over 70 imported beers listed on this menu,
you might get a little creative.
The old black tin ceiling was accented with subdued lights and candles lined the bar
where just a few people were sitting and enjoying beers, served by a tattooed armed bartender.
After reading through pages of beers, my eyes got a bit blurred in the candlelight,
and I turned to my right and saw that little wooden gnome with his signature red Santa hat and long beard,
representing Chouffe beer, and I knew what I had to order,
because I'd been to the brewery and met one of the founders, and that leads me to the next part of this podcast.
First lesson, always open mysterious dark basement doors in Greenwich Village
(well, really, don't)
and the second, well, I'll share that at the end of this podcast.
And you might pick it out from this podcast's special guest, Chris Bauweraerts,
he and his brother founded Chouffe beer in 1982.
They wanted to make a sustainable beer before that was even really a thing, using a traditional brewing method
and today, you can visit their brewery and take a tour in the small village of Achouffe.
In the main tasting room at a long wooden table, I sit down with Chris Bauweraerts, one of the founders.
He's introducing us, not only to his beers, but beer tasting
and we try a lot of beers in the process.
I first advise to try the Chouffe, the La Chouffe, because there is three times more hops in Houblon Chouffe, so it will...
Overpower, yeah.
It will overpower the taste of La Chouffe.
It is a very, certainly, a very commercial taste because 80% of our output is La Chouffe.
Now...
That's a big volume.
We're sitting amid the wooden walled tasting room with two beers in front of us.
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.
These glasses mind you are well known around the world as the glasses to drink for these types of beers,
so I figured they had significance,
but Chris tells me...
I'm seeing two different glasses, types of glasses here, and all over Belgium, I'm seeing all different types of glasses.
What's the story with that?
Why, is there a scientific reason behind this?
No, there is not...
but when we started the brewery, uh we started with nothing.
So we chose this glass because it was the cheapest glass available all over the country because wine glasses were, are still
this type of wine glass is very popular.
Now, marketing wise, it brings our beer close to wine philosophy, so you can taste the beer, and uh so that was the reason.
And then for Houblon Chouffe, it took a smaller glass uh because it pours different.
But I think the tasting, it's the two, is the same for me.
Now, when I'm tasting this beer, is there something special that I should do?
Because I notice a lot of foam here, which I don't see a lot in the US.
Yes. You're right. It's a part of our uh tradition. In Belgium, it's a must.
If you have no foam in Belgium, they say to the waiter, "Take it back." Off with your head?
Yeah. And in the States, it's the same. If you don't have enough foam, then they say, "Hey, you are stealing me."
But the foam is very important. If you taste the foam now, right the foam, or the lace, then uh just only the foam
and then in one minute you taste the beer, you will taste it's different,
you have two different tastes in the foam, and the other one in the beer.
We want uh foam on the beers.
In the States, people actually, a lot of times, don't want the foam.
It's not part of... They don't want it on there at all. They try to avoid it.
But then you should try the foam here, or the head
and then the beer, after one or two minutes, it will taste, really, it's different.
And then okay. You lose that in the States if you want the full pint.
You lose one of the two tastes.
Slurp of the foam.
Yeah, it's good.
One of the scientific reasons behind wanting to have the foamy head is that that foam carries scents
that cue our brain to what's coming, what we smell has a huge impact on how we taste.
Mmm. I like it. It's refreshing.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah. No, it's nice.
It's nice beer for a nice, pretty day. Like a refreshing...
Cheers, let me say, "Cheers." We don't this... we cheers.
Yeah.
Who knew drinking beer was so much like drinking wine? I had no idea.
There's a whole culture around it in Belgium.
Yes.
So what, which is your favorite Chris?
For me uh, it's the Houblon Chouffe.
It's not our best seller, it's La Chouffe,
for 80% our production is La Chouffe.
But in the States, Houblon Chouffe and La Chouffe, it's uh tied 50, 50.
This one.
Okay.
That voice in the background that you may have heard,
it's our director of photography because at the same time we're taping for this podcast,
we're filming for my long-running PBS and streaming series, "Travels with Darley."
So you can go watch the video version of this segment in my actual TV show,
but this podcast lends itself to longer interviews,
so you're going to get the kind of behind the scenes and extended interviews
when you listen here.
Cheers. Another "Cheers."
Hoppy beer.
You're lucky we don't have five beers to try.
Chris's comment on the amount we're drinking for takes and retakes makes me laugh
because sometimes we do a lot of sipping to get different shots and angles.
I actually sometimes have to warn my on-camera counterparts that we're going to be sipping a lot,
so just sip.
Sometimes they don't and you know they might have a few too many while we're filming for "Travels with Darley."
That's just part of the process.
We're filming with just one camera for this specific segment
but we try to make it look like two or three to show you different angles,
which means we have to do retakes.
I like that one it has a little, has a bite to it.
Yes, and when... okay, now I'm discussing as beer lover
If you drink this after a La Chouffe, you forget La Chouffe.
So hops is something good for beer.
And American hops. The second one.
Yes, this is the Houblon Chouffe,
we use two American hops in this beer, uh Amarillo and Tomahawk.
We got a little bit of America here in Belgium.
Cheers.
I think you made a hop revolution in the States and it got over to Europe, so...
it's maybe a good thing.
So...
We're sharing.
Yeah, yeah.
We have to teach you how to pour a beer and...
We teach you about hops.
You teach us how to pour.
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
Hey, it's where the friendship begins.
Yes.
Well, I will go back home, Chris, and I will share my knowledge of the correct way to drink beer
from what I learned in Belgium.
Cheers.
So my second lesson learned,
when you have the chance to drink with an entrepreneur, a founder, or an expert on anything,
say cheers and have as many sips as needed to get the story.
I could have talked to Chris all day, but alas, I had to part for another Belgium adventure.
If you want to learn more about Belgium, places to try beer, travel, meet cool locals,
and have interesting adventures, check back to my previous episodes of this podcast
taking you around the world.
And please subscribe for more great adventures to come.
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