Nice article overall in regards to economics. I think they missed an easy point as to the high gravities popular now in that they were in a deadly trade contest over the lagers over the border in Germany. Belgian beers had to ferment out fully giving a good alcohol content while preserving the qualities of an ale yeast over the more subtle lager yeasts. I think it has still left them alone for the most part in their market share.
The bigger problem in this article comes from the statement that the author believes the Roman Empire brought brewing to Belgium. I"m not sure what crack pipe this guy was smoking but there are plenty of primary sources out there to dispute this claim. Ale brewing has been around for thousands of years before christ yet the claim is that a society of mostly wine and mead drinkers that hated the germanic beer drinking cultures to the North introduced brewing? It's rediculous. If you go further into the Roman culture it's easy to see that you were either described as a brute or feminine if you were an ale consumer. What they brought to these cultures was wine making, if you were rich enough that is.
