Brouwerij Achilles, one of the tiny home breweries for which Belgium is rightly famous, is wedged into a crowded garage on quiet street in a small Flemish town, Itegem. It's hard enough finding the town on the map -- there are so many places ending in 'gem' in Flanders, anyway -- but you will have a near impossible time finding the brewery without GPS. There are no signs until you're actually there, and even then you can be forgiven for wondering if this is really a brewery. Cast aside your doubts, however, and step inside. The proof is all there: mash tuns, brew kettles, fermentation tanks, and even a tiny bottling line ready to roll. If you're over six feet tall, be prepared to duck as you come in. Right behind, in what used to be a family living room, is a very tasteful, simple, and quiet café, where local folk come to share beer and conversation, and support the local boy ...
The local boy, Achilles Va de Moer, is a gentle, unassuming home-brewer who has all but left his job as a music teacher to realize his dream of a self-sustaining commercial brewery. Achilles (sometimes spelled Achiel, and pronounced Ah-sheel in Flemish or French) makes simple, honest beers. All of the beers are unfiltered and unpasteurized, and will re-ferment a bit in the bottle, which of course means much more flavor, and a longer shelf-life. As with any tiny craft brewery -- and this one right now makes the equivalent of only about three truck-loads of beer every year -- there can be variation from batch to batch, and thank goodness for that! Though they vary some, they're always good.
The first batch of Serafijn beer -- the Donker, the Celtic Angel, the Tripel, and the Grand Cru -- arrives this August, 2007, exactly eight years after the brewery opened in 1999. Achilles took as his symbol the Seraph, a six-winged high angel of Heaven. Seraphim are noted for their delicate celestial song, and Achilles, the musician and music teacher, hears their sweet, soothing notes as he brews the beers he named for them. Music and song are a joy and a centering point for Achilles, and the brewery. We haven't heard for ourselves, but it is reported to us that Achilles and his musical wife Jo deliver a startlingly beautiful duet on occasion. Perhaps we'll have more to say about that around Christmastime, when Achille's Christmas Angel hits the docks in beautiful, musical New Jersey.
Dulft 9A
Heist op den Berg-Itegem, Belgium B2222
