Words and photos by Ashley Joanna
Edited by Breandán Kearney
Humans of Belgian Beer is a series of photographic portraits which celebrate a people and their culture.
Benny Van Heule never thought passion fruit would easily grow atop Kilimanjaro. But there was the fruit, beside him, on the ledge of one of the tallest mountains in the world. He was on a break at the halfway point of a 600km mountain bike tour to raise money for the charity Rikolto. The fundraiser wasn’t just an adrenaline rush (Benny lived for those). It was educational: the group would stop each day at different locations on the Tanzanian mountain and learn about the local farmers and what they were harvesting. Rikolto supports these smallholder farmers in their role in rural poverty alleviation and in feeding a growing world population.
Benny travelled for pleasure, seeking extreme adventures and new cultural experiences. He would rock climb in the Alps, Slovenia, France, and Germany. And he would backpack through South America and Iceland. But he also travelled for his work in the beer industry. His former job working in international sales at industrial equipment company SPXFLOW gave him the opportunity to visit places in Asia, South Africa, Australia, and other European countries. Embracing travel, culture, and adventure eventually led him to start his own company, HVB-IMTC, which supplies Belgian brewers with key ingredients which help them to enrich beer culture in Belgium and embark on their own beer-related travel adventures.
“Traveling helps you to discover and understand the world,” says Benny. “Seeing other cultures gives you a different perspective on health, business, landscapes, people. Of course, you can learn by reading books… but to actually see, smell, and feel a place.. that is what really teaches you about life.”
When Benny was younger, his father Christiaan received a big box of specialty Belgian beers from his friends as a 50th birthday gift. Christiaan drank lager his whole life and, disinterested in trying something new, he let the specialty beers sit around collecting dust. One night, Benny and his friends seized the opportunity and tried all the beers. Benny noticed how each beer tasted different from the others. Soon, he fell down a rabbit hole that led him to completing a Brewing Engineering degree at the University of Ghent.
Benny founded his company 4 years ago. HVB-IMTC supplies malt and hops and other ingredients to small breweries in Belgium. Benny believes his open mindset, gained from years of travel, helps him with running his business. He helps brewers throughout their process and does not see the completion of his work until months later when the packaged beer is available to taste. It’s one of the most rewarding parts of his work. When he sees his customers—the brewers—talking about their beer and tasting it with others, he feels like he’s played a crucial role in their journeys, even if it’s completely behind the scenes.
“It’s fascinating to see what new hops and malts people can use,” says Benny. “When you sell them to customers that you see months later at a beer festival, you see how you actually helped the brewers. This makes me happy inside but no one needs to know I helped. The brewers are the heroes. I like working in the background.”
The brewers are the heroes. I like working in the background.
Benny Van Heule.
