We began our day with a two hour bus ride through the Belgium countryside.  We passed through the city of Brussels on our way where we saw the EU Commision.  Upon arriving in the countryside, we made our first stop at Lindemans Brewery. Stepping off the bus, the aroma of the brewery reminded us our favorite Champaign establishment, Kams. This brewery is family owned and has been around since 1822.  Lindeman's specializes in brewing Lambic beer, which has three unique features.  It is a wheat-based beer which is seasonal and known for spontaneously fermenting (so no yeast is needed).  

Our next stop was at Waterhof Dairy, which is a family owned dairy farm that features a robotic milking machine as well as an ice cream shop that uses up 25% of the farm's milk.  The farm has roughly fifty-five lactating cows. The dairy farm is roughly 210 acres in size and receives most of its income from their also family-owned ice cream shop. A unique fact about this dairy farm is that the cows have freedom in when they want to be milked. The owner joked that some some cows abuse this privelge, earning a bad reputation in return.

After visiting the dairy we were treated to a delicious lunch of chicken and french frites at Molensteen Restaurant in Gaasbek, Belgium.  Here we learned much about the cultures of Belgium and the Netherlands through conversation with our bus driver, Henk. He is the man!

Our final stop of the day was at AB InBEV brewery located in Leuven.  Here we sat through a very educational presentation which covered much information regarding the supply chain and marketing strategy of the brewery.  After this presentation we went on a tour of the brewery and we were amazed at the size of the production facilities.  Finally we were provided with free samples of Stella Artois, which we thoroughly enjoyed.  This concluded the day's events.  We were all happy to arrive back at the Irish College at the end of our long, but exciting day.