The Belgian Brand

If Belgium breaks apart, who gets the “Belgium” brand – Belgium beer, Belgian chocolate, Belgian waffles, you name it. The World’s Clark Boyd has the story. (Photo: Beer Planet)

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MARCO WERMAN: Belgium has been without a government for nearly four months now. Politicians from the Dutch speaking north and the French speaking south are still trying to hammer out an agreement. This week, talks stalled again. Phrases like “a car without a motor” and “clinically dead” have been used to describe the country. Some on both sides believe that the country may, in fact, split apart. But many hope it doesn’t come to that, especially those who sell one of Belgium’s most beloved creations. From Brussels, The World’s Clark Boyd reports.

CLARK BOYD:  The late Michael Jackson, the beer critic, not the pop superstar, once wrote, “In Belgium, the ritual of serving a beer is more like a seduction.” And if that’s true, there are few places more alluring than a small store in downtown Brussels called Beer Planet. That’s the sound of a fountain, a giant bottle pouring real beer into a giant glass. Beer Planet co-owner Aram Ettibaryan is more than happy to give tours of the many styles of Belgian beer.

ARAM ETTIBARYAN:  These are red beers, and we have a huge section of Abby beers, probably from Abby beer we can switch to Trappist beer. These are the beers that are still made by monks.

BOYD: Ettibaryan is originally from Armenia. He moved to Brussels a few years ago, fell in love with the beer and opened Beer Planet soon afterwards. The hundreds of different kinds of beers here come from every corner of Belgium. From the Flemish, Dutch-speaking north, and the French-speaking south, also called Wallonia. But they are sold and marketed, Ettibaryan says, as Belgian beers.

ETTIBARYAN: The Belgian brand element. This is the goodwill that is in every single product here, huh?

BOYD: And that’s why the current political climate here, with an undercurrent that suggests a unified Belgium may not exist for much longer, worries him. If Belgium splits up, what happens to Belgian beer?

ETTIBARYAN: We are concerned. Seriously concerned. Because at the end, we sell Belgian beer. And most of the breweries, the only way they can present their beers to the world is labeling it as Belgian beer. And it is really selling point for all of these breweries and if you just simply drop that word, you drop the whole marketing, all this strategy behind this beer.

BOYD: The timing couldn’t be worse. Belgian beers have gained a real cache around the world in just the past five years. And that’s propping up the industry. Belgium itself is a small market of only 10 million people. Some brewers in Belgium export more than 90% of the beer they produce, says beer writer and consultant Frederic Simonis.

FREDERIC SIMONIS: Belgian beer has definitely a very strong image, and it’s very important for the Belgian industry. And so many importers around the world have based all their work for years and years on this image of Belgian beers.

BOYD: And not just importers.

ROB TOD:  I love Belgium, and I love Belgium beer.

BOYD: Rob Tod is the founder of the Allagash brewery in Portland, Maine. Since 1996, Allagash has been brewing nothing but Belgian-style beers. For ten years, he says, he could hardly give his beer away. And then, they suddenly couldn’t make enough of it.

TOD: The Belgian brewers have been continually pushing their beers and educating people. The importers of Belgian beers have been pushing the category. Brewers of Belgian beers in this country have been out educating, doing beer dinners. And I think people were kind of seeking out new flavors and tastes and experiences in beer, and they’ve stumbled on these Belgian beers.

BOYD: So, what might happen to the “Belgian” part of Belgian beer if Belgium no longer exists? Well, some worry that brewers will split along nationalistic lines, creating Flemish beers and Walloon beers. That would mean whole new marketing campaigns. Beer writer and consultant Frederic Simonis says brewers here have been making their beers for centuries, long before Belgium was even a country. And if the country split, they’d adapt.

SIMONIS: The biggest strengths of the Belgian beer is the diversity. In taste, in color, in kind of ingredients brewers are using. So a certain region in Belgium brews this type of beer or this type of beer. This diversity will remain also. And maybe will be even more important in the future.

BOYD: Back at Beer Planet in downtown Brussels, co-owner Aram Ettibaryan doesn’t really expect a split. Even so, he’s hedging his bets. Ettibaryan’s already purchased the right to use the web domains, FlemishBeers.com and WalloonBeers.com. He also bought BrusselsBeers.com just in case any new political arrangement keeps Brussels separate. For the World, this is Clark Boyd in Brussels.

WERMAN: By the way, you can go on a video tour of Beer Planet in Brussels at TheWorld.org.

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