Belgian beers at the UNESCO: aye or nay?

Last Monday, Belgium introduced a request to have as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity at the UNESCO its brewery culture. But a request may need at least one year to be successful and nothing is certain yet.

The country is famous in the whole world for its beers (even Obama mentioned them!), which have over 1,000 different types. Personally, I'm not a connoisseur but I never say no to a good beer... I guess it is just part of being Belgian(!) For those among us who can't drink alcohol, some of those beers exist in an alcohol-free version, so you have no excuse! :) If you don't know anything about Belgian beers, let's introduce you to some of them...

You probably already know the difference between lager-type beers (also called "blond beers") and dark beers (called "brown beers" in Belgium), which can be distinguished by their colour and their taste. In general, dark beers taste more rustic and strong than blond beers...

Stella Artois ad: a metaphor for Flemish and Walloons?

A famous blond beer is Stella Artois, because it has been exported by the world's largest brewer. Some of their ads feature a smartly dressed guy speaking in a French accent, and Artois is the name of a Walloon area, but the beer is actually brewed in Leuven (Flemish Brabant). So paradoxical! Another blond beer is Duvel, brewed not far from Antwerp, and whose name is dialect for "devil". Note that our national football team is called the Red Devils! Now, if you're looking for something lighter and refreshing, you can try a white beer (or wheat beer), such as Hoegaarden (from a city next to Leuven), which also exists with a red fruit ("rosée") flavour.

Next, as an example of dark beer, we have Leffe, from Dinant (Namur province), which is also famous for being a so-called abbey beer. There are a lot of them in Belgium and their brand send a part of their benefits to monks. Maredsous is also an abbey beer, but it is probably more famous for its nice abbey cheese... A specific type of abbey beers are trappist ones. This means that their brewery is supervised by trappist monks or that they make the beer themselves, and the trappists are one of the strictest monk communities. Three examples of brands you should remember are Orval (Luxembourg province), Chimay (Hainaut province) and Westmalle (Antwerp province).

All my copyrights on this pun!

For those who are interested in new tastes, you should try a lambic. It is a type of beer that has a special sweet and sour taste, and is produced in southern and western Brussels only. This type comprises the gueuze (or geuze) (literally "beggar"), with a more genuine taste, and the kriek, a cherry-flavoured lambic. A famous lambic brewer is Mort Subite. Its name comes from a card game played by people while drinking and the bar where it was played ("À la mort subite"). Some say that it's because when players had to run to the toilet after drinking too much, they were considered to have a sudden death ("mort subite" in French).

So, making Belgian beers famous is a good idea. Yet, there are so many beers in Belgium that it should be difficult to make it to the UNESCO. I would rather imagine a list of recognised brands or specific types of beers, because all Belgian beers are not typical to Belgium, I guess. And it can be excessively used for commercial purposes by all those brands to pretend they're better than others. Anyway, contrary to other examples of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in Belgium (Binche carneval, fishing, etc.), this heritage would make the whole country proud of itself.

What is your opinion on the topic? Express it!