After a gueuze and lambic filled weekend, we decided to visit a venue best know for its sweet lambic in earthenware jugs: À la Bécasse. The bar is visited by both tourists – a lot of them – and locals, looking for something ‘authentic’ and probably easy to drink. The upper bar room even is quite popular with students, ordering 10 and 20 liter jugs to keep them hydrated during a cantus, a tradition filled evening of singing and – of course – drinking.
As tart as the beers on Zwanze Day were, so sweet were the lambics at À la Bécasse. The lambic and fruit beers in this classic estaminet are provided by Timmermans – nowadays part of macro brewery John Martin – so it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that the Lambic Doux is indeed very, very sweet.
As is the case with most HORAL members, you’ll have to look for the word Oude on the label to get the real thing: a lambic, fruit beer or gueuze made with only spontaneously fermented beers, and no top- or bottom-fermented beers. Luckily, next to the heavily marketed sweet lemonades fruit and ‘lambic’ beers, Timmermans actually does (again) make a couple of those more traditional lambic beers: Oude Lambiek, Oude Kriek and Oude Gueuze. That last one is on the menu at À la Bécasse, and if you prefer something local and 100% traditional, there’s even some Gueuze Cantillon available!
There are a couple of typical ‘Belgian’ bar dishes available, like croque monsieurs and spag bol, but if you prefer something more authentic, skip the warm dishes and have one of the snacks or something of the buffet froid: cervelas, kip-kap (brawn), boudins, tête pressée (another variety of brawn), jambon d’Ardenne…
À la Bécasse is a nice first bar to take your family that doesn’t really like beer, or visitors from abroad you’d like to taste the difference between commercial and traditional lambic beers. The use of earthenware jugs is a nice touch – although not quite that unique, as we’ve seen in Les Brasseurs – especially if your group is a bit larger so you can get on of the really big jugs!
tl;dr
Beers
- Timmermans Lambic Doux, Blanche Lambicus & Bourgogne des Flandres Brune on draught
- Timmermans Oude Gueuze & Cantillon Gueuze
Bites
- Cervelas, kip-kap, boudins, tête pressée, jambon d’Ardenne…
À la Bécasse
Rue de Taborastraat 11
1000 Brussel
+32 2 511 00 06
http://www.alabecasse.com
What have people been drinking here recently?
- Pia Karlsson is drinking a Classic Gueuze (2024) at À la Bécasse
- Glen MacNeil is drinking a Timmermans Lambic Doux / Zoete Lambic at À la Bécasse
- Benjamin Barber is drinking a Grimbergen Blonde at À la Bécasse
- Kevin Gibson is drinking a Timmermans Lambic Doux / Zoete Lambic at À la Bécasse
- Agostino Delannoy is drinking a Timmermans Lambicus Blanche at À la Bécasse
- Cory C is drinking a Timmermans Gueuze Lambic at À la Bécasse
- Jim Sawitzke is drinking a Timmermans Lambic Doux / Zoete Lambic at À la Bécasse
- Rachael Starcher is drinking a La Trappe Quadrupel at À la Bécasse
- Rachael Starcher is drinking a Timmermans Lambic Doux / Zoete Lambic at À la Bécasse
- Rachael Starcher is drinking a Timmermans Lambicus Blanche at À la Bécasse