Demonic thoughts at the hop harvest

Belgium is well known for its beer. Hops are required to brew beer and these are grown near Poperinge, situated in the coastal area and close to the French border. The harvest festival here is huge and is notorious for its party atmosphere.

There is nothing like a real Belgian pint. Beer simply tastes at its best in this country, especially when it's a sunny day on the terrace  of a bar in the countryside. Today, the silence of the countryside has disappeared.  I am on a terrace in Poperinge in the western part of Belgium, not far from the coast and the French border. A massive event is taking place here this weekend.  The top attraction 'Hoppestoet' is a parade to celebrate the hop harvest. The hop is a climbing perennial plant and produces the crop essential to brew beer. Belgian monasteries have known this for years and have cultivated hops in every monastery garden to produce their own beer since the 16th century. Hops not only determine the taste but also help keep the beer drinkable for a longer period of time.  Priests say that the hop is perfect for restraining physical desires. However, as a professional beer drinker I have my doubts about that...

Beer and hops
Beer and hops are inseparable, as are hops and Poperinge.  In the hills surrounding this quaint city you can see the characteristic high green rows wherever you look.  In Poperinge there's a museum located where harvest used to be weighed and checked. Hop parties are held in this town all the time and, between February and April, many hop farms are open to the public.  The main growing season is from May until the end of August and these farms organise lovely cycle and walking tours through the hop fields. After the harvest in September there's a huge harvest party, which has  been a tradition for years. These days the harvest is done by machines, but at one time many people used to work in the hop fields. They came from all over Belgium to look for work as labourers because three quarters of all Belgium hops are grown in Poperinge. The harvest festival has become quite notorious so many people think that most hop pickers really go to Poperinge for the beer and parties where the young men could meet friendly girls from the local villages.  Some bad-minded people also comment that there always seems to be a baby boom in the region just nine months after the harvest.

Beer tasters
My terrace is full of 'connoisseurs', members of Belgian beer clubs who have given their organisations the most odd names you can imagine. For example, in the region of Antwerp there's a drinking club called OBER.  OBER means waiter when translated but it actually stands for Objective Beer tasters from the Essen Region.  Then there's the OPA club, which means grandfather.  OPA stands for Objectieve senior Proevers in Ajuinen).  Others are HOP (Heerlijk Objectief Proeven), the beer tasters club HIC (Heerlijk Intens Consumeren) and of course the BOB  group (Baardegemse Objectieve Bierproevers).  I wonder which of these guys will be the real BOB by the end of the night as in Belgium and Holland the designated driver at a party is always known as Bob.  So, you can see that there are various organisations in this country that have turned beer tasting into a social event. The 'Leuvense Biertherapeuten' group probably has nothing to do with therapists but is more like a student's union association who certainly know how to have a good time.

Demonic stories
According to old chronicles, the hop was craftily created by the devil when God was not watching. In Celtic literature the hop has a mystic sense to it in old pictures it grows out of the mouth of Smertrios, the Celtic God of fertility.  When I see a priest on my terrace enjoying his pint, I struggle to believe all these demonic stories. It's the alcohol in the beer that is responsible for silly thoughts, confidence and poor driving, not the hop. When I see the priest looking at the girls passing by, I guess the story about physical desire is untrue too.

by Guus van der Kruk