Ben Coli, owner and brewer of Dageraad, has spent many afternoons with Belgian friends in a particular square in eastern Antwerp. “It’s this beautiful little neighbourhood square, where there’s a basketball court, a playground, kids riding around the square on their bikes,”he says. “And everyone just sitting out on their patios greeting their neighbours and drinking beer — the most amazing beer in the world.”
Ben drank Big Rock in his hometown of Calgary during “the dark ages,”and on later European travels was impressed by various old country brews —especially English cask bitters. But Belgian beer captured his heart. “I always wished we had it here, just simple, easy access to this amazing locally brewed beer.”
After repeated trips to visit friends in Belgium — friends he first met while travelling in Laos at age 26 — Ben committed to learning the art of Belgian beer. He tried home-brewing and had good results (“beginner’s luck”), and then his interest “grew into obsession.” He went to brewing school, and in 2012-2013 took successive “beer sabbaticals” to Belgium, visiting over a dozen breweries. These were located in cities, tiny villages and one in a Trappist monastery, punctuated by afternoons in the Dageraadplaats.
