There is something magical about remaining suspended in front of the wooden door of a small-town bar, right on the church square, on a Sunday morning. Watching the fields still breathing mist, waiting for that door to open so that you can finally rest your back on simple wooden and straw chairs around a table. Performing the ancient ritual of sharing, sipping on age-old beers that pass down the history and culture of an entire people, a historical pride handed down from generation to generation with wisdom and simplicity. These are the moments and places where everything resets, where frivolities are abandoned and one reconnects with slow, ancestral rhythms, with innate needs for simplicity and kindness. It is not alcohol that causes the transformation; the drink is merely a means to access undervalued, forgotten rituals, in an appreciation of slowness.
"There is something magical about being suspended in front of the wooden door of a small-town bar on a Sunday morning early."
Wisdom and simplicity, the same qualities that Kurt, the owner since 1999, has infused into the restoration of the building that is said to have been constructed with bricks leftover from the building of the church of Sant'Orsola around the mid-nineteenth century. The restoration, which lasted 5 years, was characterized by a magical balance between Flemish tradition and a fresher contemporary style; a concept well expressed by the presence of eclectic pieces in the decor such as the Decò counter that proudly stands in the center of the small locale.
So let’s meet at ten in the morning in Eizeringen, with the village and the countryside still sleeping, anxiously waiting to cross that threshold to access the worldwide temple of Lambic. “In the insurance against great thirst”, this is its name, the best place to sip beer, an ancient drink created by man with the essential help of nature that spontaneously performs the magic of fermentation. Considered a “sanctuary” by lovers of spontaneously fermented beer, this place perhaps carries in its name the memory of tragic events, when during the plague, water was believed to be rich in pathogens and the best solution seemed not only to boil it but to transform it directly into beer. From community drink to guarantee of health, here is the concept expressed by the name “The insurance against great thirst.”
"It was believed that the water was rich in pathogens, the best solution seemed to be to turn it into beer."
Nestled in the Pajottenland region and firmly established for over ten years on the list of the world's best beer bars, those indispensable places to find the best options for lovers of typical Pajottenland beers, both in terms of the quality of the labels and the vintages available. Its fame has made it a meeting place, a pilgrimage destination for many enthusiasts of Gueze and Kriek who travel halfway across Europe to be here at least once, side by side with the regular patrons, the locals of the village. Perhaps pairing the drink with a taste of some pieces of cheese (usually soft) produced with the fresh and creamy milk from these fields, sometimes enriched during production by the beer itself.
In this context, it’s not difficult to have unexpected encounters with other beer lovers, like when a large-displacement motorcycle from the ’90s slowly emerges from the last bend, the engine revving moderately, almost timidly, to stop right in the central square in front of the church. It becomes natural to exchange a few words and make a toast with the biker who tells us he is on his way back home to Great Britain after spending a few days on vacation in Italy, between Tuscany and Lake Maggiore, but he had planned this stop from the beginning, extending the route just for the pleasure of a stop in Eizeringen, a journey made with the sole company of a small figure attached to the rearview mirror of the yellow Honda.
Every two years in Eizeringen, the "Night of the Great Thirst" is celebrated.
And if all this is not enough to make you leave, know that every two years (the last edition was in 2023, alternating with ToerdeGeuze.be) in Eizeringen, "De nacht van de grote dorst" or "The night of the great thirst" is celebrated. This event, born in 2004 to protest against the Belgian food agency that raised serious doubts about the practice of spontaneous fermentation, has generated significant participation from enthusiasts defending the producers, who braved the pouring rain during that first meeting. The large turnout prompted the agency to reconsider its positions, albeit without fully abandoning vigilance, to protect consumers and the producers themselves.