The Beer Idiots visit Antwerp and find the cheapest beer in town at Café Sint-Janneke, the best poured Stella at Cafe De Vischmijn (where we interview the owner on how it is done), Cafe Kulminator, Billie’s Bier Kafétaria and Dr. Beer. Check out the 5 videos and photos below.
I have always wanted to be called an idiot when arriving at a bar. I have finally made the grade of being a Class A Idiot when I arrived at Billie’s Bier Kafétaria and Thom Morrell, who was standing outside with two friends, spotted me taking a photo of the bar and yelled ‘It’s the Beer Idiots’! Lovely. For that he got a Beer Idiots bottle opener.
Apparently Tom had been following our Facebook and Twitter posts as we wandered through the first three drinking spots on our coverage on 30 March of the Antwerp beer scene. The Beer Idiots set off from Antwerpen-Centraal, the main train station in the Belgian city of Antwerp to begin a series of visits and interviews at old and new watering holes in the city. Although Dieter is a native and Ahmed has been there a few times, they start acting like tourists on arrival at Antwerp’s central station. No matter. As you can see in the first of 5 videos below (and also the photos at the end) you get a sense of the city from Dieter. Then it’s time for the main course.
First stop Café Sint-Janneke – beer for €1.50
We headed off for Café Sint-Janneke on Lange Dijkstraat 10, 2060 Antwerpen, near Sint-Jansplein. It is a city known as a cocaine hub, and over the past four weeks there have been 7 explosions in the streets around North Antwerp, some of the caused by grenades tossed under empty cars to get a scare going. Anyway the Sint-Janneke is safe. Why are we here? It might just qualify for the winner in our cheapest beer search in Belgium. that’s €1.50 for a bottle of Jupiler. Have a drink on me!
Second stop Cafe De Vischmijn – the perfect Stella Artois
The Beer Idiots interview Yves Van Roy, who along with his family put their hearts into serving the perfect draft Stella Artois at the Cafe De Vischmijn, Riemstraat 20, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium. Here Yves describes the process and care in the pour. Later he told us one of the key bit players to highlight the star of the story: osmosis filtering to get the purest water so there are no deposits on the glasses and a washing machine powerful and hot enough to remove old yeast and other deposits. Mmm…lager in the sunshine and a welcoming clientele who wanted to entertain the Beer Idiots. Shame we had to go. It is on our hit list! Thanks everyone for the beers and the offers of more beers!
Third stop Cafe Kulminator – the shrine of Antwerp
Well hello old friend. The Beer Idiots know the bar, or should I say shrine, well enough and were lucky to get in at 17h on 30 March 2019. You ring the bell and Dirk Van Dyck answers. Just you two he asks the Beer Idiots, looking up the street to ensure we are not fronts for hordes of nerd packs. None were about. We clambered in amid the clutter of the Cafe Kulminator, Vleminckveld 32, 2000 Antwerpen. One can find new delights each visit and if you are a discerning drinker, some decent enough deals. We are under the casual care of Dirk and Leen and this is their place so we ordered the taps as tasters. That was fantastic. We ordered the whole tap list as tasters, except for the Rodenbach 2014, for which both Beer Idiots had to have full glasses for themselves.
Cafe Kulminator – time to sum up
Yep, we made it to outside the Cafe Kulminator after drinking through the taps. What a tasting. Our next stops were Billie’s Bier Kafétaria and Dr. Beer. The Beer Idiots have already interviewed Stéfan Cauwenbergs of Billie’s Bier Kafétaria. We will have to leave interviews with Jeroen Peeters of Dr. Beer and with Ben Floren of Beerlovers Bar for another day. We did meet Jeroen and Ben at Dr. Beer as you can see from the photos below.
Photos
Tour
