Suds up at Delirium
Belgium is famous for chips, chocolate and beer. One Brussels pub owner has made it into the Guinness Book of Records thanks to his passion for beer. He has so many of them on the menu that he's not even sure of the exact number himself.
“Whew, maybe 2,700? I must admit I’ve fallen behind,” says Joel Pecheur, owner of the Delirium pub.
In any case, his bar has more than anywhere else. In 2004, the establishment made it into the Guinness Book of Records with 2,004 beers on offer. But even that was understating it. “The computer didn’t print two pages. Actually, it was 2,065,” the host says.
The exotic brews on offer in Delirium range from as black as night to almost as clear as water and with almost every possible colour in between. Some taste sweet like lemonade and others are bitter like old-style medicine.
Many of the brewers experiment with fruit flavours.
Anyone who reads the 260-page menu or drinks from it effectively goes on a world trip.
Cusquena light from Peru, Hinano from Tahiti, Harar Sofi from Ethiopia or Gorkha from Nepal. Pecheur decides what makes the menu.
He set up the pub in 2003 with a brewer friend. They named the place after his speciality beer, Delirium Tremens.
“We try to bring all small breweries forward. These beers are really made by hand as people try new methods,” says the Belgian.
Take the Scottish brewery Brew Dog, whose beer Sink the Bismarck is the strongest and most expensive on the menu. It has 41 per cent alcohol, more than some spirits, and costs 99.90 euros (Bt3,700) for a third of a litre. Who pays so much for a beer?
“For some people the price doesn’t matter,” the bar owner says. They are simply curious or else genuine beer geeks.
Pecheur, an avowed fan of French beer, has only three major German beers on the menu. Germany bans preservatives in beer.
“At the beginning we had 500 German beers. But we always had to keep throwing them out because they expired so fast. Now we have just a few that sell very well.” He believes in having mainstream beers available in the pub too, for financial reasons if no other.
Not all beers are always in stock and obtaining rare brands is often difficult. Pecheur buys direct from numerous breweries.
His 70 employees include beer testers and beer buyers who do the exploring for him.
Benjamin Keller is from Germany and has worked for Delirium for five years.
“My job is the envy of my friends,” says the 32-year-old. Originally he was a barman, now he goes into Belgian villages in search of beer. “Here I’ve learned more than in three years of hotel school.”
The last word in beer selection is left to Joel Pecheur – even though he has to leave the taste test to others. For health reasons he can’t drink anymore but it doesn’t matter.
"I wasn’t a beer drinker anyway. I preferred whiskey,” he laughs. What drives him is the enthusiasm of brewers and beer drinkers.
And also probably that his business is booming: around 4,000 people come through the pub's doors every weekend, he estimates. Many are tourists but there are also young Belgians lured back into the old part of Brussels by the bar.
Around the Delirium Cafe, a Delirium Village of several bars has grown. Whoever has had enough of beer can try absinthe, rum, whiskey or vodka - with a choice of several hundred varieties on offer of course.
