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.
比利时人民疯狂地爱着啤酒。在比利时，孩子们从小就习惯上喝掺了苏打的啤酒，而大人们更是连早饭也要就着啤酒来吃。连比利时的僧侣们也会酿造啤酒。比利时的啤酒酿造传统可以追溯到公元12世纪—— 当然这是早于比利时王国成立的 —— 而历史的作用也仅仅只是让比利时向全世界敞开了酿酒的大门以及让人们能更多地喝到这醉人的神露。我们造访了一些在比利时具有特殊意义的地方，因为在这些地方啤酒已经近乎一种宗教圣物了；同时我们也感受到了比利时人对酒的狂热，正是这样的狂热才让比利时得享"酒乡"的美誉。造访过程中，我们无可避免地要得出这样的结论：这群人疯狂地爱着啤酒，但我们也爱着他们的疯狂。
10.种类繁多的啤酒
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.
比利时所拥有的啤酒品类多于世界上任何一个国家。虽然整个国家总人口还不到区区1千1百万，但他们却在2011年酿造出总数多达1132种不同种类的啤酒。到了2013年这个数字爆炸性地增加到3043种，这是整个比利时10个省区的酿造总数。而其中位于比利时北部的佛兰德布拉班特省酿造出了其中的457种。
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.
比利时地区对啤酒的热爱起源于10纪末左右，天主教会占领该地区的修道院开始酿造并销售啤酒使寺院能够自负盈亏。时光飞逝，寺院的修女们开始研发新的酿造手段，此举的目的是为了让当地的酒坊也能够酿造出更多种类的啤酒。到了20世纪初，比利时已经有超过3000家啤酒厂，但随后的两次世界大战对比利时的经济造成了毁灭性影响，酿酒行业也没能幸免于难。如今，比利时仅仅只有180家啤酒厂。
9.Spontaneous Fermentation
9.自然发酵的美味
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.
朗贝克啤酒在比利时享誉盛名，这是一种早在14世纪就发明出来的自然发酵的啤酒。虽然酿造过程在比利时属于非常常见的，但他们确实发明了现在所称的自然发酵的形式。
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.
啤酒通常由三种原料制成：麦芽、啤酒花和酵母。麦芽能使啤酒香甜可口，啤酒花能带来啤酒特有的苦涩味，而酵母能让这些原料发酵变成酒精。通常情况，酵母会以酵素包或者活酵母培养基的形式加入。啤酒酵母菌就是一种常见的酿酒酵母，尽管还有其他的酵母菌。但在自然发酵工艺中，麦芽和啤酒花都会混合起来晾晒在空气中使之自然冷却。这时会在这种混合物加入天然酵母菌，这个步骤会使每样成品都有一种特殊的性质，因为这取决于混合物内部的天然酵母自然发酵的时间。郎贝克啤酒只在比利时的珊妮谷才有生产，这里是布鲁塞尔属和朗贝克属这些天然酒香酵母的盛产地。朗贝克啤酒本身味道平平并且很酸涩，不过还是要赞美一下比利时的酿酒艺人们，就是他们绝对不会放弃任何一种似乎要失败的酿造。为解决这个问题，他们会首先酿造第一批朗贝克啤酒，然后将它们陈放六个月。六个月后他们会酿造第二批朗贝克，然后将新旧两批混合在一起。最后，虽然两批都还在发酵过程，但匠人们依旧直接装瓶，将二氧化碳密封起来，将还在冒着泡沫的啤酒存放好。当他们将所有的步骤完成后，酿造的结果是另一种更加独特的啤酒——古斯（Geuze:发音类似于单词"goose"发重音）啤酒。这就是全部工艺了！
8.啤酒式鸡尾酒
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.
尤尔根·博利昂和他的弟弟史蒂芬·博利昂是Taste M店的合伙经营人。Taste M是位于比利时勒芬市一个美术馆门口的一家小酒吧。掌柜尤尔根是个有着和橄榄球后卫球员一样壮硕身材，但整天都乐呵呵的男人，他会照顾到酒吧里每一桌上的每一位客人，当然还会给他们倒上他的招牌酒品：啤酒鸡尾酒。
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.
我想只能用一句话来形容什么叫啤酒鸡尾酒：随便尤尔根往里面放什么都成。但他肯定会把你照顾周到。因为在尤尔根调配鸡尾酒的时候，他会告诉你酒里的每种成分。月桂（甘草纲目中的一种）能带来酸酸的味道，奎宁水的苦味能够中和酸味，随后加入的杜松子酒能够强化味觉上的刺激，再在啤酒里斟上一瓶Caulier 28 triple苹果酒混合，最后冰块的加入能够使这杯鸡尾酒的味道更加多元化。他如此解释道，因为味道会随着冰块的逐渐融化以及月桂的不断渗入而不断变化，这就使得你每酌一口都会有不同体验。最后他还会在酒吧里转一圈给每位客人再添上一些杜松子酒，每次都会粗声粗气地说着："要多喝点哦！" 这还只是尤尔根调配的其中一种。尤尔根了发明了好几百种独特的啤酒鸡尾酒配方，而每一种配方都有一种最强烈的味道。其实尤尔根这样做有一个目的——让人们都认同啤酒就是"男人们的饮料"。用他自己的话来说，就是每个人都是喜欢啤酒的，而你只需要找到最适合你的口味，"他们对我说，‘我不喜欢啤酒'，但是我对他们说，‘不是这样的，你只是不喜欢你现在喝的这种口味。'"他甚至想给全世界每个人都找出一种最适合他们的啤酒。他的这种持之以恒的态度确实令我们感到敬佩。
7."The Longest Bar In The World"
7.世界上最长的酒吧街
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).
这其实是一个位于比利时勒芬市被当地人称作老市场的广场而已。广场其实是一条长长的半边商业步行街式的庭院。那为什么要称其为欧洲最长的酒吧街呢？其实是因为这条步行街上有超过40家酒吧。基于这里的每家酒吧都设置了室外的露天区，因此置身其中你就能感受到一个完整的露天平台区都长达（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 brewery.And 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.
当然可别被这个牛气冲天的称号给迷惑了，实际上这个广场并不是世界上最长的酒吧街，甚至在欧洲也不算最长的。其实关于该广场的命名尚有好几个，而其中大多数名字都是当地土生土长的人们一代一代口口相传的，并且他们希望这些名字永远不会被家乡人忘记。不过，老市场依然是个独特的旅游好去处，尤其是其中一家叫做Domus的酒吧，该酒吧甚至通过一条管道来获取它旁边一家啤酒厂的直接供应。那广场的另一边是什么呢？好吧，是一所大学。在比利时很多地方，尤其是勒芬市，大学生们能够以1欧元的超值价购买啤酒，这都是出于当地的啤酒厂商们对他们最忠实的顾客的感谢之情。
6.The Bruges Beer Pipeline
6.布鲁日啤酒管道
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.
当半月啤酒厂要在布鲁日的市郊新开一家装瓶厂时，他们遇到了意外的麻烦。作为布鲁日市中心的最后一家啤酒厂，半月啤酒厂的酿酒设施已经成为一种文化符号。布鲁日市曾引以为豪的是当地所拥有的众多大大小小的酿酒厂，但这些酒厂却在最后一个接一个关门倒闭。唯有半月酒厂从16世纪至今依旧屹立不倒，每年来布鲁日造访他们唯一的酒厂以及啤酒博物馆的游客超过了10万人。
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 beer.That'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.
因此要将这家酿酒厂搬到装瓶厂附近肯定不是明智之举，但如今最大的问题是，需要一支500卡车的车队来转运桶装啤酒去装瓶，而这支车队占了如今布鲁日市商业交通运输总量的百分之八十五。如果是这样的话，街道都会被啤酒桶塞满的。知道地下输送管道的出现才使得事情有了转机。这种运输方式在世界上也并非绝无仅有——比如德国就有穿过维尔廷足球场地下的啤酒运输管道，以及美国五大湖区的克利夫兰市也有小型的地下运输系统。但五大湖区最多也只能在街区之间进行地下啤酒运输，半月酒厂却在建造长达3公里（1.8英里）的巨型城市地下管道。如果建造成功，那么将能够每分钟泵送100升（26加仑）新鲜啤酒。
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