Yes, there is beer in Belgium. It is one of the three beer centers of the world. The other two are Germany and America, and I'm starting to think we should add the United Kingdom to that. Allow me to explain.
Germany deserves to be a beer center not because it is the origin of beer (that would be Mesopotamia) but because that's where lager fermentation was perfected. Since then, they have four distinct styles: Pilsners, Hefeweizens, Bocks and Wiessbier's. Alt's fall somewhere in that spectrum, and there are other minor variations, but in general there isn't a lot of variety amongst German brews. Yes, they are good, but they seek to minimize complexity that would be derived from yeasts and hops and thus become somewhat uni-dimensional.
The United Kingdom is the leader of ales. Stouts, porters, brown ales, bitters, milds, barleywines and old ales. Lots of good stuff there, with lots of complexities. Session beers, strong ales, and everything in between. Various ale yeasts at different temperatures, hopping strategies, barrel-aging etc. all lead to a large variety of flavors. Ok .. I've convinced myself to add the U.K. as a beer center.
What about Belgium? It has often been called the "Disneyland of beer", which it rightly deserves. There are unique flavors here that have no other origin. The wild yeasts are the celebrities here, imparting sour and tart notes and myriad fruit flavors. Combined with dark malts we have dubbels - big chewey flavorful brews with tastes of dark fruit. Pilsner malts create lighter and refreshing blondes - add the right yeasts at warmer temps and we get Saision's. Pilsner malts, clean yeast profiles and candi sugars yield golden strong's and Tripel's. Age them in oak, add oxidized hops, have a secondary fermentation on cherries or peaches or whatever ... these brews are generally strong and designed to be savored. Yet ... there is not much experimentation outside of these styles. Blond's, Saison's, Dubbel's Tripel's and fruity ones. Every bar has Duvel. Every restaurant has a Blond, Kriek or Framboise on the menu. Trappist and Abbey ales add some mystique but they are largely similar (with Orval as the exception). Most have Saison's and Tripel's too. But the only stouts are Guiness, no IPA's or pale ales. No lagers. No Porters or Barleywines.
That's what we have in the US. We have variety. We have belgian's, bocks, old ales and IPA's, sometimes in the same breweries. Not all american brews are light lagers, not all american coffees comes from Folgers or Starbucks. Our land is not a small country with a high concentration of a couple brews. It is a large country with a nearly infinite variety of brews, albeit spread out. There's a lot of crap here too, but due to our size, there are also excellent ones. Want world-class belgians? Try Ommegang, Allegaesh, Russian River, Jolly Pumpkin, New Belgium. Lagers? Gordon Biersch has some very good examples, and in the heartland the traditions continue in little towns like New Ulm (honestly, I don't pay much attention to the lagers, they are too prevalent). Brown ales have taken on a life of their own, stouts and porters are common in most breweries. We've redefined how hops are used. But ok .. let's say you want the "real thing". Yeah, you can get Cantillon and Maredsous and Orval and Rodenbach and Paulaner and Guiness and Heineken in the US.
I think you get the point. Belgium is a wonderful place and I am enjoying it immensly, but if you want it all, the US is Beer Heaven.
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