In all the excitement over the upcoming weekend activities, we almost forgot to share all that beery information with you, our thirsty readers. So if you haven’t done so already, quickly clear your schedule for Wanderlust, Brussels Beer Project‘s second anniversary festival, and #Collabfest2017, BrewDog‘s fifth edition of their bars & breweries collaboration festival. Both are starting today — Friday the 20th of October — but Wanderlust will already end with a big party on Saturday evening, while you can still try those brand spanking new #Collabfest2017 beers — since they’re brewed especially for this festival — in BrewDog Brussels on Sunday afternoon!
Wanderlust
Brussels Beer Project celebrated the first anniversary of their brewery in the summer of 2016 with Good Beer Feast, on the Vismet in the centre of Brussels. This year, their second anniversary, they’ve changed the name — to Wanderlust — they’ve change the date — to about a month later — and they’ve changed the location — to Quay 01, right next to the canal. The concept remains unchanged, however: fourteen breweries from all over Europe, and one from the United States, each pouring a selection of their beers. Each will bring at least four beers, but most will be bringing a lot more! Check this Facebook post for the complete list of beers.
€ 19 will buy you a 1-day pass, one Wanderlust glass, and 6 beer tokens (for a 12.5 cl tasting each), for € 25 you get the 2-day pass, a glass, and 9 tokens. If you still manage to buy a pass online, you’ll even get an extra token.
The attending breweries are: Beavertown, Weird Beard and Wild Beer from England, De Molen and Kaapse Brouwers from The Netherlands, La Débauche from France, BRLO from Germany, La Pirata from Catalunya, Laugar from the Basque Country, Beerbliotek from Sweden, Borg Brugghus from Iceland, Left Hand Brewing from the United States, L’Ermitage, Totem and ‘t Verzet from Belgium, and of course the organiser Brussels Beer Project will be serving some of their beers as well.
Food will be provided by Ancho — tacos! — and Urban Cook Food Truck — burgers.
[venue id= 59a63547d8fe7a5e3a631c6f]
#Collabfest2017
What makes #Collabfest unique, is that not the professional brewers from the BrewDog brewery in Ellon went to all those other breweries to create new beers, but the passionate crews of many different BrewDog bars did. This year, 34 BrewDog bars partnered up with a brewery more or less local to them, to then brew the beer they’ve dreamt up together.
So if this is already the fifth edition of #Collabfest, why haven’t we heard about it before in Brussels? Well, the previous editions were UK only, so this is actually the first time there are non-UK BrewDog bars participating in #Collabfest — BrewDog Berlin, BrewDog Malmö, BrewDog Gothenburg, BrewDog Kungsholmen, and BrewDog Södermalm — and it is the first time as well that the beers are available outside of the UK.
Even though BrewDog Brussels — more about this rapidly improving venue in one of our next blog articles — isn’t yet on the list of collaborating bars this year — I’m sure they will be next year — they’re serving 26 of the 34 #Collabfest2017 beers, more than even some of the UK bars! The first thirteen beers will be served on Friday, the other thirteen will be served on Saturday. And to give the Wanderlust visitors who bought the 2-day pass already an extra opportunity to join in the #Collabfest2017 fun, the bar will be open and serving a selection of #Collabfest2017 beers on Sunday afternoon as well!
No tickets or tokens are needed for #Collabfest2017, as it’s basically some kind of a huge tap takeover, but you will be able to get smaller servings — in a ‘flight’ of four beers, if you like — so you can safely taste all of them. Although that shouldn’t be a problem anyway, since most of this year’s beers are quite light in ABV. All the more tasting fun!
[venue id= 521757cd93cd641c6504c96b]