Like Going to Belgium Without Leaving Montana

What is a Belgian farmhouse brewery doing in the cooler in Belgrade, Montana?

The short answer is that it is not in Belgium either. Brewery Ommegang is in Cooperstown, New York, and the story of how it got there is better than most of what ends up on a beer label.

They built it on a hop farm in a place called Nova Belgium

Ommegang was established in 1996, and not by Americans borrowing a style. Three Belgian breweries, Duvel Moortgat, Affligem and Scaldis, went in with two American importers, Don Feinberg and Wendy Littlefield, and put an authentic Belgian-style farmstead brewery on a 140 acre former hop farm in the Susquehanna River valley.

That part of upstate New York was once known as Nova Belgium. They did not pick the spot by accident.

The name comes from further back. The Ommegang was a procession through medieval Brussels in 1549, staged when Holy Roman Emperor Charles V arrived with his royal court. The word carries two meanings, coming together and walking about, which is a fair description of what a brewery taproom is for.

The first beer out the door that winter was Ommegang Abbey Dubbel, an 8.5% Trappist-style dark ale packaged in 750ml bottles. By 2005 they had put out five million bottles. Duvel Moortgat took full ownership in 2003, and the brewery has been expanding since, a visitor center in 2010 and a rebuilt tap house in 2018.

So is it imported or not?

Not imported. Brewed in New York, and we are not going to dress it up as something it is not.

What it is is Belgian in the ways that reach the glass. The ownership is Belgian. The styles are Belgian. Some of the yeast is literally Belgian, carried over from farmstead breweries in the Ardennes, and in Belgian brewing the yeast is not a background ingredient. It is most of the personality. The fruit and the spice you taste are not flavorings added at the end, they are what those yeasts do while they work.

Which is why a beer brewed in upstate New York can taste like it came off a farm in Wallonia.

A note from Brent Peterson

Brent writes Buffalo Bulletins with us. He is also a customer, which is how this came up.

I found these at Chalet Market on my way through to Helena. I stopped in, someone walked me back to the cooler, and I left with a sample pack of Belgian beers.

Gnommegang was the standout. It is American, brewed in New York, and it is Belgian in every way that lands once it is in the glass. It's like going to Belgium but in Montana.

That is the part we would not have thought to write down. Somebody stopping on the way to Helena, getting walked back to the cooler, and leaving with a pack they had not planned on. The cooler does not sell itself. Ask whoever is behind the counter and you will get the same tour.

What to eat with a Belgian ale

These beers run strong and carbonated, and they want food with salt and fat to push against. Why? The bubbles cut through the fat and reset your mouth between bites, and the yeast character sits well beside black pepper and garlic.

Cured meat is the obvious partner, and it happens to be what we do.

Add something sharp and something plain to carry it:

That is a board for two, built out of one aisle and one cooler, for less than a restaurant appetizer.

Why a deli keeps a beer cooler

Belgrade is not where anyone expects to find Belgian-style ales fermented with Ardennes yeast, and that is exactly why they are here.

We are a deli and a Montana foods market before we are anything else, so why keep the cooler at all? Because the things we already sell, the sausage and the salami and the mustard and the cheese, are better with the right glass beside them. We are not trying to be a bottle shop. We are trying to make sure that when you come in for lunch, you can walk out with the rest of the evening handled.

What is in the cooler moves, so the answer is the one that has always worked. Come in and ask.