A bit later than we were used to, but it’s almost time for the fifth edition of the biggest and best craft beer festival of Brussels: BXLBeerFest! On the 30th of September and the 1st of October in Tour & Taxis, you get once again the opportunity to try more than 400 beers—and some meads and ciders—from 60 smaller, artisanal breweries from Belgium, Europe and beyond. From a clean glass, of course!
Clean glassware is primordial for the enjoyment of a beer, so ever since the first edition of BXLBeerFest, every beer is served in a new, freshly cleaned glass. You can then leave it behind at any bar after you’re done with it, or, of course, take it home as a souvenir after your very last beer.
Food has always been an important aspect of the festival, but this year even more so: BXLBeerFest collaborates with EAT, a culinary festival organised by Visit.Brussels. Both festivals take place simultaneously on the Tour & Taxis grounds: EAT at the Gare Maritime, and BXLBeerFest in Shed 1, with the outdoor terrace as a link between the two festivals. As part of this collaboration, BXLBeerFest visitors get a discount on the ticket price for EAT.
If you don’t want to stray too far from your beers however: as usual there will also be a carefully picked selection of food trucks on the terrace!
App
Since last year, the festival has its own app—both on iOS and Android—with all information you need about the festival, and—most importantly—the complete beer list. Since not all 400 beers will be available at the same time, the app will tell you which beers are actually available at any given time. You can even set alerts for the beers you really don’t want to miss, and within minutes after tapping a new keg, you’ll know about it! Of course you can easily click through to each beer on Untappd, to check it in.*
If apps are not your thing, there’s always the booklet with all the beers…
BXLBeerFest is all about craft, about the fine fleur from the artisanal brewing world, but it goes further than that. So there will also be an area with some non beer related Brussels artisans, like a baker, a coffee roaster, a cheese refiner…
If you don’t want the festival to end, there’s a bottle shop on site as well, so you can take home some of your newest discoveries.
*Disclaimer: The author of this article is the app wrangler for BXLBeerFest
tl;dr
Beers
- Over 400 beers from 60 different breweries from all over the world!
- 4 taps per brewery, so pouring 240 different beers at any given time
- Live updated menu in the festival app
- Private beer tastings, led by the brewers
- Bottle shop
Bites
- Food from high-quality food trucks
- Access to the EAT festival at a reduced price
Buy
- Access for 2 days, a festival glass, and 6 tokens for € 22 (On site: € 25)
- Extra tokens for € 1,50 each
- Exclusive beer tastings (book ahead!)
Be at the BXL BeerFest
- On Saturday 30 September and Sunday 1 October 2023
- From 12:00 until 22:00 on Saturday, and from 12:00 until 21:00 on Sunday (last pour is at 21:30 on Saturday, 20:30 on Sunday)
- Tour & Taxis – Shed 1