Beer Holiday in Belgium - Good microbreweries?

Reads 2977 • Replies 19 • Started Tuesday, July 15, 2014 4:07:12 PM CT

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Message Graby beers 145 º 16:07 Tue 7/15/2014 Hey everyone! I just joined ratebeer because I will travel to Belgium with my dad and brother. We’d like to taste a lot of different good beer. It doesn’t matter where in Belgium the breweries are located, since our destination is not predetermined. We will drive around to the different breweries and either sleep in the car or find a cheap hotel. We want to see the famous trappist breweries, but other than that, we don’t have any actual destinations set now. We will leave next Monday. Personally, my favourite types of beer are as dark as possible (stout, porter), but I also like the sweet and seasoned. My brother doesn’t know much about beer, so he does not know which types of beer, he likes the best. At least not yet ;) My father likes brown ales the most. Not sure exactly what he prefers, but he enjoys most types. He’s kind of an all-rounder. Until know, I have found 60 different Belgian stouts (all I could find on this list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Belgian_beer + a couple more) that I’d like to taste, but I don’t know which are good and which are poor. I know for sure that we will visit De Struise, since they have nearly 30 different stouts (Black Damnation), but other than that, I have no idea where to look. That’s where I need help. Is there any other types of Belgian beer, that I should try? Which are the best microbreweries in Belgium? Thanks in advance, Christoffer Jacob Graby EDIT: Fyi we come from Funen in Denmark, and this is our first "beer adventure". We will be staying in Belgium for a week or so before driving to Normandy to stay there for some time. The combined length of our holiday is about 2 weeks. We’d also like to taste some high quality Belgian chocolate, so if anyone happens to have some good information about this as well, please do share it :)
Message GT P beers 10001 º places 672 º 16:37 Tue 7/15/2014 Go to any good beer bar in Belgium and you’ll find plenty of variety. You don’t need to go to the actual breweries to find good beer. For instance, visiting the abbeys is fun but not necessary to try most of their beers. Each trappist may have zero to one special beer to try not readily available elsewhere. Struise may make 30 imperial stouts (more actually) but the bottles won’t all be for sale at de Struise. There will be just as many Struise beers on the bottle list at top beer bars. Use the ratebeer places function, Places tab above, then find Belgium and start looking through top rated places. You can load up a Google map and it will show you all the top places and you can event limit it to only show places rated 75 or 90 points and up.
Message VsXsV P beers 5000 º places 92 º 16:44 Tue 7/15/2014 Even if Struise may not have that many bottles for sale, it’s a really fun place to visit. They usually have about 30 taps of beer to try anyway. Also, visit Cantillon in Brussels.
Message Graby beers 145 º 17:31 Tue 7/15/2014 Originally posted by GT2 Go to any good beer bar in Belgium and you’ll find plenty of variety. You don’t need to go to the actual breweries to find good beer. For instance, visiting the abbeys is fun but not necessary to try most of their beers. Each trappist may have zero to one special beer to try not readily available elsewhere. Struise may make 30 imperial stouts (more actually) but the bottles won’t all be for sale at de Struise. There will be just as many Struise beers on the bottle list at top beer bars. Use the ratebeer places function, Places tab above, then find Belgium and start looking through top rated places. You can load up a Google map and it will show you all the top places and you can event limit it to only show places rated 75 or 90 points and up. Thanks a lot! We will go to De Struise and at least one trappist brewery, but it will probably be a great idea to go to a good bar :) However the idea was to experience different breweries to see how Belgian microbreweries brew beer, as well as tasting the beer itself. According to Wikipedia, a lot of the Black Damnation stouts can only be tasted at the brewery or at special events, and are not sold commercially. That said, could you perhaps recommend a great bar with a very large selection anywhere in Belgium? :)

Message beuk87 beers 3 º places 5 º 23:43 Tue 7/15/2014 Brussels : http://www.ratebeer.com/p/Chez-Moeder-Lambic-Fontainas/14558/ http://www.ratebeer.com/p/le-poechenellekelder-brussels/914/ Antwerp : http://www.ratebeer.com/p/Kulminator/533/ http://www.ratebeer.com/p/t-antwaerps-bierhuyske-antwerpen/17315/
Message Erlangernick beers 6 º places 2 º 01:43 Wed 7/16/2014 De Halve Mann or whatever they call the brewery nowadays in Brugge is fun and the location quite lovely. Of all my time spent in Belgium on beer holidays, I’ve never been to any other brewery, rather, it’s all about the bier cafés. The Good Beer Guide to Belgium by Tim Webb is a very, very useful resource.
Message Danko 01:53 Wed 7/16/2014 Visit De Struise Brouwers on a Saturday, and you MUST visit De Dolle Brouwers on a Sunday it is exactly the brewery tour you want and the beers are phenomenal. Kulminator is also a must-visit. +1 on The Good Beer Guide to Belgium by Tim Webb and Joe Stange. It’s the only travel book you will need.
Message kraddel beers 10779 º places 386 º 02:40 Wed 7/16/2014 Originally posted by beuk87 Brussels : http://www.ratebeer.com/p/Chez-Moeder-Lambic-Fontainas/14558/ http://www.ratebeer.com/p/le-poechenellekelder-brussels/914/ Antwerp : http://www.ratebeer.com/p/Kulminator/533/ http://www.ratebeer.com/p/t-antwaerps-bierhuyske-antwerpen/17315/ If you come to bierhuyske, PM me for a trade / share if your interested . Other than that , breweries I really recomend are Cantillon ( brussels ) Struise ( east-vleteren ) Westvleteren ( totally overhyped and not a good place at all , but something you might wanna see , just to know how overhyped it is . Plus its so near to struise , its very easie to combine ) 3 fonteinen ( beersel ) ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- - Bars ( outside the obvious fact i’mma recoomend bierhuyske ) Kulminator ( antwerp ) Gollem ( antwerp ) De kelk ( burges ) Le trappiste ( bruges ) cambrinus - restaurant ( bruges ) Chez moeder lambiek ( both ) ( brussels ) poechenellekelder ( brussels ) ----------- Shops ; Geers ( oostakker ) Hopduvel ( Gent ) Appearently Bierhalle dekoninck ( vichte ) yet I never had the pleasure of being able to go there ;( Cheers and enjoy your holiday !

Message 77ships P beers 14200 º places 918 º 03:21 Wed 7/16/2014 De Struise is indeed a must but bars are usually a better options than breweries in Belgium. Most breweries are remote, not that fun & offer only their standard offerings. Trappist bars are generally not that fun to visit since you are not allowed in the actual monastery, they just have a bar affiliated with them next to the monestary, very touristic & nothing special. Just go to Westvleteren when you go to Struise & see if you care for the experience. For brewery visits Alvinne (you need to reserve) & Cantillon are highly recommended. Cantillon is sour beer but interesting enough to visit for sure. The places recommended in this tread are solid, check the place ratings on this website, keep in mind some specialize in sour beers. If you go to a bar with high ratings just ask the server for a strong, sweet beer to your liking. Stouts are rare in Belgium but getting something dark & sweet should be zero issue. Most places mentioned here will help you make choices as to which beers to drink so just find someone who looks knowledgeable & ask.
Message Erlangernick beers 6 º places 2 º 03:24 Wed 7/16/2014 Of course, line up with other beer tourists outside ’t Brugse Beertje for the 16.00 opening...closed Tue & Wed! World-class place.
Message Countbeer beers 6586 º places 259 º 03:53 Wed 7/16/2014 There’s a bunch of microbreweries in the Ardennes which is fun to visit. Can recommend those, as I like to visit those small places for the armosphere, personal contact and the beers you can taste and buy to take home. Other than that, Rochefort, Orval and Chimay are beautiful places. Also recommend Cantillon, Dolle, Struise as said before... Are you also visiting Netherlands?