Beer Mania

8/19/2008 2:02:00 PM, tuesday, august 19, 2008
The store with the best selection in Brussels. Lots of great beers from all over Belgium. Helpful staff. A bit pricey for the rarer stuff but most of the beers are reasonably priced.

6/6/2008 2:43:49 PM, friday, june 06, 2008 [ Updated friday, june 06, 2008 ]
What a great place. Huge selection with some great lambics. Best of all is that you can buy beer of the shelves for beer store prices and proceed to drink them in the back with bar-like service and a bar kind of atmosphere. Drank a bunch of beers like this while here. Very fun. Oh, and I got my Fantome glass here, which was the only one I saw in all of 2 weeks beer touring in Europe.

5/25/2008 9:26:50 AM, sunday, may 25, 2008 [ Updated sunday, may 25, 2008 ]
This was my first stop on my Belgium trip, so I may be a bit biased. First this was one of the bigger stores I came across and not in tourist central as well, which I liked. Its well layed out, lots of room. Lots of the sour stuff, almost everything you could want. This was the ONLY place I could find the 50th Ann. 3F and Crianza. Also, a lot of the lambic came in sizes ranging from 25cl to 75cl, nice touch to have so many choices. Lots of different aged Chimay, no other store had such a choice. Also there is a bar in the back, clean, with wodden tables, and well placed beer paraphanalia, even an outside section. Small cheese and meat platter available and most of the beer that is for sale. The owner also chatted us up, asked for help about openign a store in NY and gave free bottles of his Mea Culpa. If I had to visit on store in Brussels this would be it.

5/18/2008 5:35:05 PM, sunday, may 18, 2008
I liked this much better than circus although in Brussels I was told circus was the better place... only downside here might be the pricing.

5/17/2008 5:30:54 AM, saturday, may 17, 2008
Well-laid out and spacey with a big selection of beers, with the stand-outs for me being those from Walloonian micro-breweries. The owner helped me search for beers on my list and I got to try out a couple of them sat in the cafe area at the back of the shop, which had a comfortable feel to it. Prices looked ok to me. Well worth a visit to its slightly off the beaten track location.

4/9/2008 6:40:27 AM, wednesday, april 09, 2008
Huge selection on beer and glassware. Has the Westy if you are willing to pay 12eur for a bottle. Prices are rather high but at a place like this you go for all the rarities, not for the Trappists that you can get for a third of the price in a supermarket. The owner was extremely helpful and forthcoming. He brews his own beer called Mea Culpa which is OK but nothing special. What is really groundbreaking though is the glass he has designed for it, it is truly an amazing piece of art. The place is well-lit, clean and very well-organized. Will visit again whenever I’m in Brussels.

3/17/2008 3:23:14 PM, monday, march 17, 2008 [ Updated monday, march 17, 2008 ]
Walking from subway around 700 I got a little nervous after passing a possible drug deal (guy in a car accepted a small white something from two guys on the street), an angry young men fight further down the street & some interesting folks out for the evening. I was probably being silly, I’ve ’braved’ far worse at home & not worried. The street seems to morph into upscale restaurants closer to the store restoring my faith. It’s better than I pictured - Less cramped than Tempel & less steamy temperatures also. Does not seem quite as extensive as Bier Mania, but there is lots to choose from, including vintage Chimay & 3 Fonteinen. The latter is a bit pricey for me, though I am not 100% sure I made the right choice leaving it behind. The prices overall feel quite cheap compared to elsewhere. I have a couple at the tasting bar, a well appointed, chic, wooden affair & not the tiny seating area I had pictured in my head. Owner is friendly without smothering. Bottles from Dieu du Ciel on the bar indicate that I have been preceded by some fellow Canadians! Resident dog is awesome - more bars in North America need to have an animal! Owner is having an interesting chat in French with some regulars (?) but I only catch enough to hear ’Ratebeer’ and ’biers Canadien’. Had a good time, in future I would start my beer shopping here I think, and maybe check others after.

1/9/2008 2:14:58 PM, wednesday, january 09, 2008
This was my first stop in Brussels, and I ended up doing 90% of my take-home business here. The store has a nice open layout, with beers well-organized and the proper (see: cellarable) beers a little dusty. They have plenty of brewery and beer-specific glassware, which covered most of the stock. The owner was very helpful, and was all about promoting his Mea Culpa beer. Prices were reasonable for smaller, more common stuff, and on the high-end for rare, aged stuff. All-in-all a good exerience, but I dropped some mad cash there.

12/15/2007 10:45:29 PM, saturday, december 15, 2007 [ Updated saturday, december 15, 2007 ]
A very friendly place to sample then buy a wide variety of bottle products. Matching glassware, also for sale. Reasonable prices: 25cl 3 Euro, 33cl 3.50 Euro for most national beers. Staff will even chill special selections from their hugh shelf inventory. Customers focused on tasting and not on smoking. Open since 1983, they’ll even ship to the U.S., albiet at 106 Euro for shipping. A beer oasis even for Brussels.

11/4/2007 7:11:07 AM, sunday, november 04, 2007
Good beer store out in the Congolese part of town. Well organized and the attached tasting room is pretty cool as well. Reasonably well-priced for the most part, although the common stuff can likely be found cheaper if you shop around a bit. The rarer beers are very expensive (13 Euros for a Westy 48 Euros for a 50th Anniversary Drie Fonteinen). Owner is quite eager to help you find whatever you are looking for.