Beer motivated trip to Belgium... anyone been there?

[philistine]

Hey Dudes,
I'll be in Germany at the end of November for a mates wedding and was thinking of taking a train to Brussels and spending a day or two there doing a bit of beer tourism before heading back home.

Anyone been there before? Anyone got friends there who also like beer and like showing fellow beer enthusiasts what Belgium has to offer?
Where to go to get the best "beer" experience(s)? Brew pubs?Brewery tours?etc?

Any tips would be awesome - cheers!

 

[EalingDrop]

Lindemans

http://www.lindemans.be

Otherwise within the city

Moeder has a great range, particularly lambics such as Cantallion

https://www.moederlambic.com/?lang=en

And this
http://www.beerproject.be

Pop into the local supermarket Carrefour (like Woolies to them), where you can get St Bernardus 12 , Blanche De Namur. Pretty cool to see what normal beer to them is like gold dust here to us.

 

[hairydog]

Spent a memorable time in Germany last year for Oktoberfest,visited the lovely town of Bamberg for two days and spent a lot of time

at the Schlenkellar brewery pub drinking Rauchbier I think it was a Marzen at the time,it was a taste sensation straight out of the wooden

keg and a great feel to the place and a great feed to.Also spent time in Belgium and went to Bruges and did the De Halv Maan brewery tour,

which was great with a cool look back in time of the way brewing was done.Brussells had plenty of bars to visit too hard to visit them all and

see the sights in the short time we had,for me the Sclenkellar was the pick a quick train ride north of Munich.

 

[Simon N]

Cantillon is definitely worth a visit: https://www.cantillon.be/visites?lang=en. Belgian Brewers Museum in Grand Place moderately interesting.

Most of the breweries, especially the well known ones, are outside of Brussels.

 

[koshari]

the belgian beer scene when i was there in 2000 was pretty much a beer cafe scene, lots of table served strong and tasty beers generally served in a fancy glass and some with a timber holder, each beer seemed to have their own styled glass that were as different as the styles served.

of course being continental europe you could also get a bog standard megaswill lager like steller pretty much anywhere.

 

[mongey]

I spent a few days in brussels and 12 years ago .I knew allot less alot beer back then . would love to go back now

that said I did drink a bunch of chimmay and duvel on tap

Antwerp is pretty awesome too if you can manage it

If your into music instruments at all the musical instrument museum in Brussels is a cool visit after a few chimays

 

[philistine]

I AM ******* EXITED

 

[peteru]

Delirium cafe ( http://www.deliriumcafe.be/ ) is worth a visit. Make sure you give yourself a few hours, the beer selection is extensive.

 

[Lobby Lobster]

I AM ******* EXITED

Good for you. I went to Bruges for 3 days back in 2011 and it blew my mind.
Would definitely liked to have spent more time in Belgium.
Advice to us was that Brussels was a bit more like the Canberra of Belgium but we didn’t go there so it may have been an unfair description - 2 million people live there.
You really will be in beer heaven and there will no doubt be great things to see. Food is also great and be sure to try the mussels!
Enjoy! [emoji482]

 

[Wobbly74]

I just did the last weekend of Oktoberfest in Munich which was fun. Currently in Prague at a brewery hotel - accommodation isn't bad, the beer on tap in the bath is nice So another option might be a quick trip to czech. Prague is an amazing city as well.

 

[Wobbly74]

 

[The Ferment Horizon]

I just did the last weekend of Oktoberfest in Munich which was fun. Currently in Prague at a brewery hotel - accommodation isn't bad, the beer on tap in the bath is nice So another option might be a quick trip to czech. Prague is an amazing city as well.

Hi Wobbly74,
I saw the bathtub photos on Facebook. I'm planning a beer holiday middle of next year, visiting Amsterdam (for Carnival Brettanomyces) then visiting Germany, Belgium, Norway, Czech Republic, Finland etc.
Anyway, can you give some more details about the brewery hotel in Prague. By the looks of things, I might have to stay there for a bit, too. haha.

 

[petesbrew]

Definitely get to Brugges if you have time.
As well as the beer and generally getting lost wandering around the old town, a tour of the flanders fields and all the WWI stuff is worth it.

 

[koshari]

I just did the last weekend of Oktoberfest in Munich which was fun. Currently in Prague at a brewery hotel - accommodation isn't bad, the beer on tap in the bath is nice So another option might be a quick trip to czech. Prague is an amazing city as well.

Nip down to krumlov as well.

 

[Sinfathisar]

Loved Belgium, I was there Nov last year.

Delirium was amazing.

 

[Wobbly74]

Hi Wobbly74,
I saw the bathtub photos on Facebook. I'm planning a beer holiday middle of next year, visiting Amsterdam (for Carnival Brettanomyces) then visiting Germany, Belgium, Norway, Czech Republic, Finland etc.
Anyway, can you give some more details about the brewery hotel in Prague. By the looks of things, I might have to stay there for a bit, too. haha.

No probs - pics here too for reference. It's the U Medvidku Brewery Hotel. You have to book the special beer room to get the bath and beer tap. You get 5L/day of budvar included in your room rate.

http://umedvidkubreweryhotel.eurorentals.info/en/

 

[The Ferment Horizon]

Cheers!

 

[laxation]

After you go to Delirium, check out Beer Planet. Great range of beers and not too expensive. Eg. Westvleteren 12 for 12.50 euro instead of 18 like most other shops. This shop is for take away, so you can keep them in your hotel and drink when you're back there relaxing.

I just got back from Belgium and got some tips of places to go here

Strongly recommend Cantillon Brewery - but if you and your group aren't accustomed to wild sours, don't have too much of it. They're pretty funky and if you have a lot you might get sick.

You should also go to Poechenellekelder. It's a great bar right near the piss statue. Good courtyard to sit in as well.

My favourite beers from the trip that I'd recommend:
- Westy 12 (in hindsight, I'd just get 4 of these instead of trying each Westy but up to you)
- Rochefort 10 (almost as good as the 12)
- Westmalle Tripel (best tripel imo)
- Orval
- St Feuillien Tripel (pronounced san foo-ee-yonne so you don't look like a dumass like I did when trying to order it... "One Saint Foil-lie-eene ploise moite")
- Karmeliet Tripel

but that said, they're all amazing.

 

[kuibrew]

My experiences of Belgium beer have mostly came out of the bottle.3 yrs ago In Kaosching(?) Taiwan I drank some delightful fruit flavoured Leffe (?) or Liedermans beers,whilst at the bar at Frites > Hong Kong 2 years ago I got smashed (when the manageress found out I was from Melbourne & the owners from Oz gave me carte blanche to drink anything free of charge) in Wan Chai with my daughter .The pub served exclusively Belgium beer .......There's a court near Waka Waka in central Bujumburra ,Burundi that sells Kriek & Leffe beers & more at premium tourist rate .But in Belgium its best to invest in a monks robe and go for it ...raspberry Bacchus or any flavour they are all great ...Rochefort any number ...excellent drop,,,,Augustin Gran Cru ,Kapittel Tripel from Watou(?) , Piraat ( from memory),St Paul ,Tripel Val-Dieu......the rest is a blurrrrrr
Lastly if ever in Windheok, Namibia plse check out the beers at Joe's Bar its an institution within a beer culture of itself......alas not Belgium but very unique
But Belgium beer either guzzled in Ostende,Ghent,Brugges or in the Ardeinnes (schpelling?) its 1000miles better then drinking sorghum beer in Trebora in Tanzania !!!!

 

[Helles2]

Delirium cafe ( http://www.deliriumcafe.be/ ) is worth a visit. Make sure you give yourself a few hours, the beer selection is extensive.

2000 beers on tap across the bars they own in Delirium lane is fairly extensive

My favourite I can’t remember which bar it was but it had The Hoppy Loft upstairs
All Malt beers bottom floor and everything else on the middle floor