PROTECTING NATURE BY BREWING BEER? THAT’S POSSIBLE IN FLANDERS.

An article about beer in a book about nature? in Flanders, that is a logical match. Beer here is a truly natural product, brewed with locally grown ingredients: malt, hops, yeast and herbs or fruit.

Of those ingredients, the hop stand outs the most. This spicy climbing plant gives the beer its typical bitter taste, as well as helping with the storage and the aroma. Most of the hops are grown around Poperinge in West Flanders. Hops can only be grown between latitudes 35 and 55, which is why some connoisseurs even speak of a ‘terroir’. Hop shoots are a delicacy and are picked during a short period in spring and served in local restaurants.

Some brewers in Flanders go one step further than just using natural products: they also give something back to nature. For example, microbrewery Beer4nature uses its profits to purchase areas of nature, manages them optimally and opens them to the general public. In this way, it contributes to biodiversity in Flanders.

Also something which makes it so interesting to organise your conference in Flanders: you can introduce your delegates to the Flemish beers. Admit it, that's the tastiest way to complement the "nature" theme, isn't it?