How beer saved lives?

Well, while travelling you come across interesting stories. This one is particularly good and deserves a mention. My knowledge about beer is extremely limited but you can’t help acquire some interest in beer when you are in Belgium. They have the largest variety in beer and a glass for each type of beer. Do a brewery tour and you get to know the most interesting part about the popularity of beer . 

Saint Arnold is the saint of all Belgian breweries. Around the 16^th century, plague was widespread in Europe. Saint Arnold urged people to drink beer instead of water. The water is boiled at very high temperatures during the preparation of beer thus making it hard for any bacteria/virus to survive. He thus saved a lot of lives, was proclaimed as the saint of Belgian breweries and has a day named after him (St. Arnold's feast day is 14th August). Pretty interesting, right?

Talking of Beer 101, a local explained to us the thumb rules for trying different types of beer. I have listed them below:

1.       You shouldn’t mix different colors of beer. So either stick to blond, amber, brown or black

2.       The alcohol content increases as the color darkens. This one is pretty obvious.

3.       For people who love breaking rules and are planning to break the first one mentioned here, if you wish to mix beers, start with the light colored one and then progress to the dark one.

Also if in Bruges, I highly recommend Cabrinas. They have an amazing selection of beer.

We tried the award winning Flemish golden blond beer ‘Brugse Zot’ which means Fool of Bruges….I love how the Flemish name things. A street after a donkey and now a beer after a fool.  Extremely creative!

And I save the best for the last, the beer that I loved the most.  “Cherry Beer” it is. I had almost three of them. And I typically stop at two. Among all the fruit beers I have tried, Cherry Beer tops the list. Can’t wait to have it again :)