We’re quite used to finding beers from one or more of the Brussels breweries on the menu of a bar, and as we’ve said before: it’s a good indication someone put some effort in the beer selection. Even if the rest of the (online available) beer menu is not that exciting at all, it always makes us curious to see if there are any interesting guest beers. When we spotted Stone IPA on the Facebook page of La Biche, a visit was unavoidable. However, what we then spotted on the guest beer menu above the bar, was above all our expectations for this little neighbourhood bar!
Beers
Places where you can go for a beer, without the need — or option — of ordering a meal.
Wiel’s Renard Noir
The Marolles… A wonderful part of Brussels, mixing old and new, craft and commercial, and this goes both for the beers and the furniture and other objects sold in this part of town. Wiel’s Renard Noir — in the middle of d’Huugstroet (High Street) — is very much in touch with its past, with its old photos, paintings, and relief tiles with religious scenes, while serving twenty-first century ales to young hipsters and old geezers alike.
Brasserie 28
UPDATE: Seems to be closed. A note said for renovations, but they hadn’t been open on the advertised hours for months before…
The former post office in the Central Station is finally in use again! Not for any postal needs of course — who still sends letters these days? — but for a bite and and a beer. Brasserie 28 will — eventually — not only serve 30 different draught beers and even more on bottle to consume in the bar, but everything is — or very soon will be — available to take away. Having a “train beer” when travelling from Central Station suddenly became interesting!
Brussels Beer Project
It’s quite nice to have a brewery with a little shop only a few minutes’ walk from home, to provide us with a steady supply of freshly bottled beers. Add a real taproom open in the evening — actually quite a rarity in Brussels — and growler filling station, and visits become more frequent and lengthy. The one thing saving us from spending too much time and money at Brussels Beer Project, is that they’re not open every day: only on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 2 to 10pm. When you happen to be in the neighbourhood within those hours, don’t hesitate to have a seat on one of the beer crate stools with the hissing malt bag cushions, and taste their newest experimental brew, or one of the guest beers.
Merlo
Now the last Winter Wonder chalets have finally been taken down, it’s once again possible to see café Merlo from our doorstep, and in a time when long journeys by tram and metro are undesirable — some bloggers have to spend a bit more time studying for exams now — a quick visit to our near-neighbours was almost unavoidable. ‘t Verzet‘s Super NoAH turned out to be the Beer of the Month on bottle, so we crossed the Vismet for a hoppy nightcap.
Peck 47
The Kiekenmarkt or Rue du Marché aux Poulets received a makeover in 2012, making it car-free and therefore much more attractive for everyone, but businesses in the food and drink industry in particular. Sure, Corica en Celtica fared quite well already, when there was only a three tile wide pavement in front of their doors, but the street’s renaissance attracted some new entrepreneurs as well. We already told the success story of Bia Mara, but a couple of doors up the street, Peck 47 has become a food and drink hot spot as well!
Café Bizon
Café Bizon was one of the very first bars in the centre of Brussels I frequented, even before I lived there. The reasons were simple: great — often live — blues music, cool and quirky interior, multilingual staff, and Guinness on draught. Even then I didn’t like lager, so the stout was a welcome alternative, and so the Guinness was my drink of choice. It’s still there — always served with the Irish shamrock drawn in the foam — but the beer list is actually a lot more interesting than that!
Le Murmure
It had been a while since we last visited the Flagey area for a drink, but Le Murmure still looked pretty much the same as last time we were there. And that’s quite quirky, with its copper pipes curling through the space over our heads, and colourful wall paintings. More importantly however, the De la Senne beers were still pouring from its taps, and quite a few gems from Belgium and abroad adorned the bottle list.
Brasserie de la Senne
UPDATE: Moved to Tour & Taxis, and added their Zennebar taproom!
On this blog, we’ve mentioned Brasserie de la Senne several times. For us, it’s always a reassurance to see their beers on draught in a bar, and a good indication somebody made at least some effort to put together an interesting beer list, including a selection of local products. It was high time we headed to Molenbeek and paid the brewery itself a visit!
Beer Mania
There are many beer stores in Brussels, but only a few make an effort to differentiate themselves from the rest. Beer Mania does so in two different ways: firstly, you can have a cold beer and a meal there, and even quite late. Secondly, they have their own beer, available nowhere else. We had visited Beer Mania already a couple of years ago, but our beer buying interests have since then moved from the mostly Belgian beers on offer there. When they announced a Finnish beer festival however, we saw it as an excellent reason to return.