Comme Dieu Competitors

Brewery Ommegang is a Belgian brewery located near Cooperstown, New York that specializes in Belgian-style ales. Based on traditional Belgian farmhouse architecture and set on a former hop farm in upstate New York, Brewery Ommegang was born with the philosophy that truly unique ales must be built from the ground up. Now brewing six award-winning Belgian-style ales and offering daily tours and tastings, plus a full calendar of special events, Brewery Ommegang is the place where brewing is an art and partaking is a passion.

Haarlem was once a city with many breweries. Place names such as Brouwersvaart (Brewers' Canal) Brouwerskade (Brewers' Quay) and Brouwershofje (Brewers' Yard) remind us of this rich history. Beer brewing was by 1400 the most important commercial activity of the city. By the late Middle Ages, beer from Haarlem was exported all over the world, indeed even used as a form of currency in the southern province of Oost Zeeland. It was shipped by the Dutch East India Company to the Orient, and was well known in Flanders (Belgium) and Northern France. In 1995, inspired by all this history and the loss of all the historic breweries, a group of enthusiastic Haarlemmers took up the challenge of putting Haarlem back on the world beer map. That year, after centuries of absence, Haarlems Jopenbier was brought back onto the market. This happily coincided with that year's celebrations of the city's 750th anniversary, bringing a taste of the past with Hoppenbier's recipe, which dates from the year 1501.The success of Jopen (Named after an ancient brewing vessel of 112 litres), was followed by the launch of Jopen KOYT, a beer in which the mediaeval recipe demanded the use of herbs for flavouring rather than hops. In 1999, Jopen ADRIAAN was introduced, a light varient of another herbal beer from 1407. Encouraged by the success of these beers, the Haarlem brewers brought a unique Bokbier (Traditional Dutch Autumn beer) onto the market.This is brewed from four different grains (Malted barley, wheat, oats, rye), smooth tasting rather than sweet. Jopen Bokbier is the best selling beer from an independent brewery in The Netherlands. Since 2003, there is also a Jopen LENTEBIER (Spring beer) available, which is distinguished by the liberal amount of coriander seeds with which it is brewed.

Alarmed by a trend of making formerly bitter beers sweeter to please a bigger audience, Guido Devos and Nino Bacelle decided to start their own brewery. Brewery De Ranke was born and immediately took its own course, without compromise. Following their own taste, they start producing bitter and well-balanced beers. De Ranke makes the conscious choice of using only whole hops in the brewing process, so no hop extracts or pellets. These whole hops are the reason behind the distinctive hoppy, often bitter and well-balanced flavours of the De Ranke-beers.“Because we use whole hops brewing is more labor-intensive and it takes longer”, the brewers explain. “But when you take taste, quality and brewing tradition into account, using whole hops is the only logical choice we can make.” The De Ranke-team gets international praise for re-introducing hop flowers to Belgian brewing and we are known for our authentic beers with pronounced flavours. The brewery is still viewed by many in the international brewing world as one of the pioneers for hoppy, bitter beers. But the brewery has a strong reputation for making sour beers as well. We use our own beer and let it age in wood barrels, later we make a blend with Lambic.