來比利時,你對啤酒的認知將會改變(上)

Belgians are crazy about beer. Young Belgians are weaned on beer with soda, and old Belgians drink it with breakfast. Even the monks in Belgium make beer. The country has been in the brewing tradition since the 1100s—before it even was a country—and time has only served to open the doors for more and better ways to make the inebriating honey of the gods. We visited a few places in Belgium where beer is nigh religion and tasted for ourselves the holy fervor that has stood to make this country a bastion of alcoholic enlightenment. In the process, we've come to an inescapable conclusion: These guys are crazy about beer, and we love it.

比利時人民瘋狂地愛着啤酒。在比利時，孩子們從小就習慣上喝摻了蘇打的啤酒，而大人們更是連早飯也要就着啤酒來吃。連比利時的僧侶們也會釀造啤酒。比利時的啤酒釀造傳統可以追溯到公元12世紀—— 當然這是早於比利時王國成立的 —— 而歷史的作用也僅僅只是讓比利時向全世界敞開了釀酒的大門以及讓人們能更多地喝到這醉人的神露。我們造訪了一些在比利時具有特殊意義的地方，因爲在這些地方啤酒已經近乎一種宗教聖物了；同時我們也感受到了比利時人對酒的狂熱，正是這樣的狂熱才讓比利時得享"酒鄉"的美譽。造訪過程中，我們無可避免地要得出這樣的結論：這羣人瘋狂地愛着啤酒，但我們也愛着他們的瘋狂。

s Per Capita

10.種類繁多的啤酒

Belgium has more individual styles of beer per capita than any other country in the world. With a population barely scraping past 11 million, they produced a whopping 1,132 distinct types of beer in 2011. Fast-forward to 2013 and that number is a mind-blowing 3,043 beers that were brewed among all 10 provinces of Belgium. The Flemish Brabant, a province in the north of Belgium, makes 457 beers on its own.

比利時所擁有的啤酒品類多於世界上任何一個國家。雖然整個國家總人口還不到區區1千1百萬，但他們卻在2011年釀造出總數多達1132種不同種類的啤酒。到了2013年這個數字爆炸性地增加到3043種，這是整個比利時10個省區的釀造總數。而其中位於比利時北部的佛蘭德布拉班特省釀造出了其中的457種。

The region's interest in beer began when the Catholic Church sanctioned the use of abbeys to brew and distribute beer to raise money for upkeep near the end of the 10th century. Over the years, the nuns in the abbeys began pioneering new ways to brew, strengthening the diversity that was available to the locals in brewing villages. At the turn of the 20th century, there were over 3,000 breweries in Belgium, but the two World Wars had a devastating effect on the Belgian economy that reached deep into the brewing industry. Now, there are only about 180 breweries in Belgium.

比利時地區對啤酒的熱愛起源於10紀末左右，天主教會佔領該地區的修道院開始釀造並銷售啤酒使寺院能夠自負盈虧。時光飛逝，寺院的修女們開始研發新的釀造手段，此舉的目的是爲了讓當地的酒坊也能夠釀造出更多種類的啤酒。到了20世紀初，比利時已經有超過3000家啤酒廠，但隨後的兩次世界大戰對比利時的經濟造成了毀滅性影響，釀酒行業也沒能倖免於難。如今，比利時僅僅只有180家啤酒廠。

taneous Fermentation

9.自然發酵的美味

Known in Belgium as lambic, spontaneously fermented beers have been brewed since the 14th century. The process isn't at all unique to Belgium, but they're certainly pioneering the modern form of spontaneous fermentation. Normal beer is made with three ingredients—malt, hops, and yeast. The malt makes it sweet, the hops add the bitter taste, and the yeast ferments the whole thing into alcohol.

朗貝克啤酒在比利時享譽盛名，這是一種早在14世紀就發明出來的自然發酵的啤酒。雖然釀造過程在比利時屬於非常常見的，但他們確實發明了現在所稱的自然發酵的形式。

Typically, the yeast is added from a package or a live culture. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a common brewing yeast, although there are others. But in spontaneous fermentation, the malt and hops are left to cool in the open air. This introduces wild yeast into the mixture, giving the brew a quality that is unique to the region where it was brewed, since it depends on the natural yeasts in the air to start the fermentation. Lambic is made exclusively in Belgium's Zenne valley, where the wild yeasts Brettanomyces bruxellensis and Brettanomyces lambicus thrive. Lambic by itself is acidic and flat, but if there's one thing you can say about Belgian brewers, it's that they never give up on a beer. To fix it, they brew a batch of lambic and then age it for six months. Then, they brew a fresh batch and mix the two together. Finally, while it's still fermenting, they bottle it, trapping the carbon dioxide and keeping it nice and bubbly. When you throw all those steps together, the result is an even more unique beer type known as Geuze (pronounced like a heavily accented "goose"). Now that's dedication.

啤酒通常由三種原料製成：麥芽、啤酒花和酵母。麥芽能使啤酒香甜可口，啤酒花能帶來啤酒特有的苦澀味，而酵母能讓這些原料發酵變成酒精。通常情況，酵母會以酵素包或者活酵母培養基的形式加入。啤酒酵母菌就是一種常見的釀酒酵母，儘管還有其他的酵母菌。但在自然發酵工藝中，麥芽和啤酒花都會混合起來晾曬在空氣中使之自然冷卻。這時會在這種混合物加入天然酵母菌，這個步驟會使每樣成品都有一種特殊的性質，因爲這取決於混合物內部的天然酵母自然發酵的時間。郎貝克啤酒只在比利時的珊妮谷纔有生產，這裏是布魯塞爾屬和朗貝克屬這些天然酒香酵母的盛產地。朗貝克啤酒本身味道平平並且很酸澀，不過還是要讚美一下比利時的釀酒藝人們，就是他們絕對不會放棄任何一種似乎要失敗的釀造。爲解決這個問題，他們會首先釀造第一批朗貝克啤酒，然後將它們陳放六個月。六個月後他們會釀造第二批朗貝克，然後將新舊兩批混合在一起。最後，雖然兩批都還在發酵過程，但匠人們依舊直接裝瓶，將二氧化碳密封起來，將還在冒着泡沫的啤酒存放好。當他們將所有的步驟完成後，釀造的結果是另一種更加獨特的啤酒——古斯（Geuze:發音類似於單詞"goose"發重音）啤酒。這就是全部工藝了！

Cocktails

8.啤酒式雞尾酒

Jurgen Bollion and his brother Steven are the joint owners of the Taste M, a little bar bolted to the front of a small art museum in Leuven. Jurgen, a jovial man with a linebacker build and perpetually flushed cheeks, visits each table in person with a tray full of "fixings" for his signature drinks: beer cocktails.

尤爾根·博利昂和他的弟弟史蒂芬·博利昂是Taste M店的合夥經營人。Taste M是位於比利時勒芬市一個美術館門口的一家小酒吧。掌櫃尤爾根是個有着和橄欖球后衛球員一樣壯碩身材，但整天都樂呵呵的男人，他會照顧到酒吧裏每一桌上的每一位客人，當然還會給他們倒上他的招牌酒品：啤酒雞尾酒。

The only way to describe a beer cocktail is "whatever Jurgen wants to put in it." But you're in good hands. As he works, he explains what each ingredient does for the drink: Sweetwood (part of the licorice family) for a tart flavor, tonic for a bitter middle taste, several shots of gin for strength, a bottle of Caulier 28 tripel for the beer, and ice to give the flavor more variety. He explains that, as the ice melts and the sweetwood seeps into the drink, the flavor changes, making each sip a little different. Then he makes a round of the table to tip more gin into each glass with a gruff "drink more." And that's just one cocktail. Jurgen has created hundreds of recipes for unique beer cocktails, each one meant to emphasize a different taste profile. One of his goals is to get past the perception that beer is a "man's" drink. In his words, everybody likes beer, you just have to find the right one—"They say to me, ‘I don't like beer.' And I say, ‘No, you don't like the beers that you have tried up to this point.' " He wants to find everybody's perfect beer. That's a man with an admirable mission.

我想只能用一句話來形容什麼叫啤酒雞尾酒：隨便尤爾根往裏面放什麼都成。但他肯定會把你照顧周到。因爲在尤爾根調配雞尾酒的時候，他會告訴你酒裏的每種成分。月桂（甘草綱目中的一種）能帶來酸酸的味道，奎寧水的苦味能夠中和酸味，隨後加入的杜松子酒能夠強化味覺上的刺激，再在啤酒裏斟上一瓶Caulier 28 triple蘋果酒混合，最後冰塊的加入能夠使這杯雞尾酒的味道更加多元化。他如此解釋道，因爲味道會隨着冰塊的逐漸融化以及月桂的不斷滲入而不斷變化，這就使得你每酌一口都會有不同體驗。最後他還會在酒吧裏轉一圈給每位客人再添上一些杜松子酒，每次都會粗聲粗氣地說着："要多喝點哦！" 這還只是尤爾根調配的其中一種。尤爾根了發明了好幾百種獨特的啤酒雞尾酒配方，而每一種配方都有一種最強烈的味道。其實尤爾根這樣做有一個目的——讓人們都認同啤酒就是"男人們的飲料"。用他自己的話來說，就是每個人都是喜歡啤酒的，而你只需要找到最適合你的口味，"他們對我說，‘我不喜歡啤酒'，但是我對他們說，‘不是這樣的，你只是不喜歡你現在喝的這種口味。'"他甚至想給全世界每個人都找出一種最適合他們的啤酒。他的這種持之以恆的態度確實令我們感到敬佩。

7."The Longest Bar In The World"

7.世界上最長的酒吧街

This is a local colloquialism for a square officially known as the Oude Market, located in Leuven. The market is basically a long, open courtyard with a line of businesses running along one side. So why is it called the longest bar in Europe? Well, over 40 of those businesses just happen to be bars. Since each bar has an outdoor patio, the experience is one of an unbroken outdoor terrace that runs for nearly half a kilometer (0.3 mi).

這其實是一個位於比利時勒芬市被當地人稱作老市場的廣場而已。廣場其實是一條長長的半邊商業步行街式的庭院。那爲什麼要稱其爲歐洲最長的酒吧街呢？其實是因爲這條步行街上有超過40家酒吧。基於這裏的每家酒吧都設置了室外的露天區，因此置身其中你就能感受到一個完整的露天平臺區都長達（0.3英里）半公里。

Of course, despite its name, it's not actually the longest bar in the world, or even Europe. There are several contenders to the title, most of them named by generations of locals who grew up with the phrase and simply want to keep it alive in their home town. Nevertheless, the Oude Market is a unique place to visit, and one of the bars, Domus, is even supplied by a direct pipeline to its nearby the other side of the square? That's a university. In many parts of Belgium, especially Leuven, college students get beers for 1 euro as a thanks from the brewers to their best customers.

當然可別被這個牛氣沖天的稱號給迷惑了，實際上這個廣場並不是世界上最長的酒吧街，甚至在歐洲也不算最長的。其實關於該廣場的命名尚有好幾個，而其中大多數名字都是當地土生土長的人們一代一代口口相傳的，並且他們希望這些名字永遠不會被家鄉人忘記。不過，老市場依然是個獨特的旅遊好去處，尤其是其中一家叫做Domus的酒吧，該酒吧甚至通過一條管道來獲取它旁邊一家啤酒廠的直接供應。那廣場的另一邊是什麼呢？好吧，是一所大學。在比利時很多地方，尤其是勒芬市，大學生們能夠以1歐元的超值價購買啤酒，這都是出於當地的啤酒廠商們對他們最忠實的顧客的感謝之情。

Bruges Beer Pipeline

6.布魯日啤酒管道

When the De Halve Maan brewery opened up a new bottling plant at the outskirts of Bruges, they hit a snag: As the last brewery in downtown Bruges, their facility has become something of a cultural icon. Bruges was once the proud home of dozens of breweries both large and small, but one by one they each closed their doors for the last time. De Halve Maan has been standing since the 16th century, and over 100,000 tourists flock to Bruges to view their brewery and beer museum every year.

當半月啤酒廠要在布魯日的市郊新開一家裝瓶廠時，他們遇到了意外的麻煩。作爲布魯日市中心的最後一家啤酒廠，半月啤酒廠的釀酒設施已經成爲一種文化符號。布魯日市曾引以爲豪的是當地所擁有的衆多大大小小的釀酒廠，但這些酒廠卻在最後一個接一個關門倒閉。唯有半月酒廠從16世紀至今依舊屹立不倒，每年來布魯日造訪他們唯一的酒廠以及啤酒博物館的遊客超過了10萬人。

So moving the brewery closer to the bottling plant is definitely not an option, but as it stands now, a fleet of 500 trucks is required to transport the beer from barrel to bottle, a fleet that accounts for 85 percent of Bruges's current commercial traffic. The streets are literally clogged with 's all going to change with an underground beer pipeline. It won't be the first in the world—Germany has a beer pipeline running under the Veltins-Arena football stadium, and the Great Lakes brewery in Cleveland has a small underground system. But while Great Lakes only pipes their beer across the street, De Halve Maan is building a monstrosity that runs 3 kilometers (1.8 mi) under the city. It'll pump 100 liters (26 gal) of freshly brewed beer every minute.

因此要將這家釀酒廠搬到裝瓶廠附近肯定不是明智之舉，但如今最大的問題是，需要一支500卡車的車隊來轉運桶裝啤酒去裝瓶，而這支車隊佔了如今布魯日市商業交通運輸總量的百分之八十五。如果是這樣的話，街道都會被啤酒桶塞滿的。知道地下輸送管道的出現才使得事情有了轉機。這種運輸方式在世界上也並非絕無僅有——比如德國就有穿過維爾廷足球場地下的啤酒運輸管道，以及美國五大湖區的克利夫蘭市也有小型的地下運輸系統。但五大湖區最多也只能在街區之間進行地下啤酒運輸，半月酒廠卻在建造長達3公里（1.8英里）的巨型城市地下管道。如果建造成功，那麼將能夠每分鐘泵送100升（26加侖）新鮮啤酒。

翻譯:楊學進 來源:前十網