Since many centuries the Southern part of West-Flanders has been known as an Agricultural region, with a solid reputation for its grains and also for the hops.

During World War I the entire region around Ieper was completely bombarded to the ground. Life as we knew it, and all economical and agricultural activities came to an end. This black page in our history was maybe best described, by the Canadian poet Lt Colonel John McCrae (1872 –1918) in his World famous “on Flanders fields”

Shortly after the great war, with a lot of hard work, people rebuild the area and after a while the hops have replanted in the Poperinge region. Very soon we were able to harvest the hops (hops is called hommel in our dialect)and the production and export started again. This interesting history is well illustrated in the Poperings hop museum: www.hopmuseum.be

Every 3 years the city of Poperinge has a Hops procession, and by the end of the 70’s they decided that they were looking for a worthy ambassador to represent the hops culture. Combining al his knowledge and craftsmanship Karel Leroy introduced in 1981 poperings hommelbier, that immediately shook the Beer world.

This top fermented Ale with refermentation on the bottle can’t be compared with any other type of ale and is therefore known as a Special Ale.

This refreshing gold colored ale has a honeysuckle sweetness that is nicely balanced by a full solid hops bill. It also has a late, spicy, cumin-seed, dryness, that amazingly enough never gives you a dry after mouth feeling.