Bert van Hecke of B.O.M. Brewery

In the tiny city of Bree, in the upper right-hand corner of Belgium, Bert van Hecke is meticulously crafting B.O.M., or Belgian Original Maltbakery packages with a glint in his eye.

Before you dial Interpol, these aren’t your standard incendiary devices. These packages are chock-full of personally-roasted malt, along with meticulously-blended hops and sugars designed as ready-to-brew kits for professional brewers. Only the creator knows exactly what’s inside.

Bert van Hecke is the founder of B.O.M. Brewery, which is not a brewery in the traditional sense, but a gypsy brewing and malt roasting company.

Bert van Hecke is the founder of B.O.M. Brewery, which is not a brewery in the traditional sense, but a gypsy brewing and malt roasting company.

His origins were humble, learning brewing basics from a friend of the family who would distill gin, a practice van Hecke described as “totally illegal.” As his interests turned to beer, he went from homebrewing in the kitchen and “making everything sticky” to brewing for some of the most highly touted brewers in the world, beginning at Orval and Rodenbach before being named cellarmaster of Brouwerij Boon, brewmaster of Saint Bernardus and even spending two years as head brewer of a brewery outside of Shanghai. And somehow, he also found time to work at New Belgium, which gave him an appreciation for aromatic American hops.

“I always say, ‘I have no style,’” says van Hecke. “Sometimes a painter just wants to paint, and that is how I think of beer. I draw from Belgium, the States, China, but I don’t brew by style.” In some ways, he is more a sculptor, starting with “roasting, toasting and tasting” until he has perfected his recipe.

Van Hecke seems to find great joy in transcending the typical. He speaks excitedly of the malting process, which he does himself on a modified coffee roaster. In order to afford the roaster, which was the price of a “small brewery,” he needed a loan.

Van Hecke is more like a sculptor, “roasting, toasting and tasting” until he has perfected his recipe.

“I went to the bank and said ‘I want to buy a roaster to start a malt bakery.’” van Hecke said. “They asked for references. I had no references for a malt bakery, because there were no malt bakeries.”

As one of the few, or perhaps the only, maltster/brewers in the world, van Hecke’s beers benefit from the freshness of their ingredients.

“There’s nothing better than freshly roasted malts,” he said. “If [certain Belgian brewers] were still roasting their own malt, their beers would taste better.”

Van Hecke contracts with two separate breweries, and they have no idea exactly what’s inside his recipes. They are simply presented with B.O.M. packages containing his pre-blended malts, hops and sugars, and simple instructions to follow in order to create his beers.

In van Hecke’s words, there are “too many” different B.O.M. beers available, but in the U.S. there are four, currently, from his Triporteur series, a reference to the tripartite blends of sours, aged and fresh beers. Triporteur also translates literally to “delivery tricycle,” as seen on the beers’ eye-catching label artwork, which was partly inspired as a reaction to the standard austere Trappist beer label style.

The first is Heaven, a thoroughly hopped and dry hopped ale, loosely categorized as a Blonde. B.O.M.’s first brew, this alluringly cloudy ale beckons with a fruity aroma and smooth, snappy flavor from traditional English hops and B.O.M. wheat malt, amongst others.

Next, of course, is Hell, ringing in at a devilishly exact 6.66%. Hell ages well, with a flavor reminiscent of fresh-brewed coffee and just-baked bread. The name comes from the malts used, which van Hecke describes as “roasty, toasty and burned!”

Heaven beckons with a fruity aroma and smooth, snappy flavor from traditional English hops, and Hell rings in at a devilishly exact 6.66% ABV with a flavor reminiscent of fresh-brewed coffee and just-baked bread.

Then there’s Full Moon 12, a self-described parody of another classic Belgian beer that may or may not have “12” in its title (the monks threatened legal action if the word “parody” was used on the label). Clocking in at a perfectly cellar-able 10.2%, Full Moon 12 is brewed with a secret blend of freshly-roasted B.O.M. malts and aged on home-toasted, Belgian-grown oak that he sourced himself.

And for now, Kinky Berry; a truly complex fruit beer, made with real cherry, blueberry, B.O.M. roasted blueberry, blackberry, elderberry, apple, pear and banana. Juniper berries, orange and citrus peels add additional complexity on top of a six-malt blend and dry hopping, pouring a lustrous ruby red.

Kinky Berry is a truly complex fruit beer.

As for what’s in the pipeline, van Hecke is working on a recipe for a beer with notes of “Belgian oak and fruitiness, with medium toast in the malt,” with a “philosophy of chardonnay.”

Like his recipes, Bert van Hecke’s philosophy is a mix of the best parts of the world’s beer culture blended with refreshing levity. His Belgian roots taught him to keep things “simple and consistent,” and his time in China taught him the importance of flavor and aromatics.

And of course, he always keeps things fresh.

Photo Credits: B.O.M. Brewery