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.
Buying
Places where you can buy beer to take away, either in bottles, cans, or growlers, sometimes even cooled and ready for consumption.
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.
Malt Attacks
As much as we love to spend an evening in a restaurant or bar, cracking open a bottle at home or somewhere else with friends can be at least just as nice. Supermarket beers — even though the offer has improved over the last couple of years — just won’t do for those occasions, of course, but luckily there are shops like Malt Attacks. You won’t be able to have a drink there unfortunately — barring special events — but you’ll surely find the ideal beer to enjoy at home!
Beerstorming
Beerstorming is most definitely a brewery: al the necessary equipment and ingredients are there. However, their main goal is not to sell beer — although they do serve and sell beer, rest assured — but they’re all “about creativity in brewing, about being a part of an experience, about tastes, memories and stories you can share over a beer.”
It might sound like a lot of marketing speak, but I guess that is inevitable if one isn’t trying to sell just a product, but an experience.
Currently, the following experiences are on the menu:
- The Tasting Experience
- The Brewing Experience
- The Private Brewery Experience
Le Barboteur – Bièrothèque
We weren’t quite sure which venue to start our blog with, until we noticed a tweet from a friend, picturing a beer menu with a long list of American beers. As it turned out, she was at Le Barboteur where they were having an American themed week, called “Craft Bless America”. So of course, the next day we went there ourselves.
Le Barboteur essentially is a beer store, where you have the opportunity to taste a couple of beers as well. Against one wall you’ll find the unrefrigerated beers on sale to take home. The rest of the little corner shop is filled with tables for the customers who prefer to have a drink right there, a couple of fridges with bottled beers, and a small bar with five beer pumps. Next to the bar, there is a doorway leading to a cosy backroom, where you’ll also find a tiny but interesting beer book selection for sale.