Flemish beers given Welsh rebrand to fund dragon memorial

Luke James, Westvleteren

Having a beer dedicated to you is about the highest honour that can be bestowed in Flanders, and Wales now has three from a brewery in a village world famous for the quality of its ales.

The Deca Brewery in Westvleteren has allowed a trio of its best-selling beers to be given a Welsh rebrand to help fund the maintenance of the Welsh National Memorial Park in nearby Langemark.

Its popular 5% blonde has been renamed Hedd Wyn, the nom-de-plume of pacifist poet Ellis Evans, who won the bardic chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod six weeks after he was killed in World War One.

Another 5% triple is called T’Hagebos, the name of the crossroads in Langemark near the first aid point at which Evans died after being injured on the first day of the battle of Passchendaele.

de Drake

The third and strongest beer is an 8% dark called “de Drake”, which is the Dutch for dragon. Its label includes an image of the red dragon statue that sits at the centre of the memorial park in Langemark.

“This is a wonderfully innovative and personal example of the local community pulling together to help preserve the legacy of one of our nation’s icons,” said Gareth Lawrence, chair of the Brussels Welsh Society.

“The people of Langemark feel a deep sense of connection to, and responsibility for, the place where Hedd Wyn fell along with so many other Welsh soldiers.

“The magnificent dragon memorial was inaugurated a decade ago through their vision and drive, and it’s maintained mainly thanks to their continuing energy.”

An eight foot long dragon sculpture, which was made of bronze by a foundry in Powys and raised on a cromlech of stone from Pontypridd, was unveiled in 2014 in Langemark to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One.

The Welsh Government recently paid for the renovation of the statue.

But, the tight budget of the local town council and initial reticence of the Flemish government to designate a relatively new sculpture a sight of cultural heritage, means the day-to-day maintenance of the site depends on a group of local volunteers.

“What happened after the unveiling ceremony is that officially the memorial has been handed over to the town council but this is quite a poor town,” explained Erwin Ureel, the local history enthusiast who first had the idea for the memorial and began raising funds for it.

Liquid assets

Patrick and Sophie Deniere, who live in the farm house at T’Hagebos with their two children, had the idea to create some liquid assets for the campaign at the end of last year.

After the closure of the village’s Sportsman café, which had a huge red ‘Croeso’ on its frontage and counted Gareth Bale among its many Welsh visitors, the couple began operating a makeshift Welsh-themed bar in a barn attached to their house.

Filled with information about Hedd Wyn, as well as Welsh sports shirts and flags, they also wanted to serve some Welsh-themed beers.

“We were thinking about how to do some fundraising and so Patrick went to the brewery and asked what they could do for us,” added Ureel.

“It was too expensive to have our own beers made for us but the brewery gave us permission to choose three of their existing beers to rebrand.”

“My daughter and son then created the new Welsh labels,” added Sophie, “which we were initially sticking on using milk.”

“It’s good beer and we usually sell around 50 bottles every month, which helps with the upkeep of the memorial.”

The beers, which are provided at wholesale price from the Deca Brewery, are then sold for between €2.50 and €3.50 a bottle.

The special editions are even more exclusive than the Westvleteren Trappist ale, which is regularly voted the world’s best beer and is usually only available from the Saint Sixtus Abbey where it has been brewed by monks since 1839.

The Hedd Wyn, De Drake and T’Hagebos branded beers are currently only available in the Deniere’s barn after the remembrance ceremony for Welsh soldiers held at the memorial park on the first Monday of every month.

They were served once outside the village when former First Minister Mark Drakeford visited Brussels for a St David’s Day event earlier this year.

But the chair of the Brussels Welsh Society hopes the new beers might soon be made available in the home of Wales’ oldest lager.

“Ellis Evans arrived in this part of Flanders in 1917 with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, who were garrisoned in Wrexham at the time,” he said.

“With the Eisteddfod returning to Wrexham next summer, wouldn’t it be fitting if these beers could somehow find their way onto the Maes so that Eisteddfotwyr can enjoy a bit of Flanders?”