It only opened a couple of weeks ago, but GIST seems to be well on its way to be a prime spot in the Brussels beer landscape. Not only are there sixteen normal draught taps to pour just as many different beer styles at any given time, but two beautiful beer engines for cask ales as well. We’ve seen similar beer engines in Brussels to dispense lambic beers, but as far as we know, this would be the only place where they will actually be used to pour British (style) ales! And that in a city that actually has a couple of British pubs…
Cantillon
Vintage Hotel
We didn’t expect to ever write about a hotel on our blog, since the beer offer in hotel bars usually is quite limited and overall disappointing. However, Vintage Hotel is a welcome exception!
From the four beer pumps behind the bar pour beers by Brasserie de la Senne, Brasserie Dupont,
Brasserie de Bastogne and Cantillon. You read that correctly: Cantillon beer — their Kriek this time — on draught in a hotel bar!
Fermenthings
UPDATE: The shop in Jette has closed, but Fermenthings moved in with La Source, now mainly focussing on workshops and fermented food.
Beer is the — sometimes very beautiful — result of fermentation, but so are coffee, cheese, cider, kombucha, miso, and many other delicacies. At Fermenthings, you’ll not only find many of these products, but also the necessary tools and ingredients to make your own at home. Beer — from Belgium and far abroad — features heavily in the store, and we’re not sorry about that at all! Quite a few of those beers are even chilling in a fridge, so you can have a taste, before stocking up on beer and other fermented products.
À la Bécasse
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.
Restobières
UPDATE: Closed permanently…
When it comes to beer and food, you can’t look past Restobières. Their Belgian dishes, often using beer as an ingredient, combined with beers from mostly smaller breweries — no InBev here — makes the restaurant a must-visit on the list of many beer tourists coming to Brussels. But even though many of the customers here are tourists — I think we were the only locals during our visit — the quality of the food and beers here is much higher than in the Rue des Bouchers!
Don’t miss BXLBeerFest!
There’s only a few days to go until BXLBeerFest will start, probably the biggest craft beer festival that will take place in Belgium this year. Almost 50 breweries from all over the world, are bringing over 300 different beers, bottled, canned and kegged. Add clean glasses for each and every beer, a permanently updated Untappd beer list, half a dozen of food trucks and a pop-up restaurant, and it is bound to be a great success. The only thing there isn’t enough of, is time: two days are just too short to try everything!
Les Brasseurs
Les Brasseurs is a bar that could easily go under the radar of beer lovers. At least it went under ours, until we discovered their lambic beers, and in particular, the 2-Year Unblended Oude Lambiek by Boon they have available on draught, served in earthenware jugs in different sizes. A note for Untappd geeks like us: some of the bartenders are even quite happy to check which foeder the currently served lambic is from!
Add three beers of the month — one gueuze, one draught, and one bottle — to the mix, and you end up with enough options to keep you tasting — or just enjoying — beers for a while!
Malting Pot
The Malting Pot has been around for quite a while, and as far as we know, it was the first beer shop in Brussels specialised in foreign beers. After the opening of other shops more conveniently located for us, we neglected Malting Pot a bit, quite unrightfully so! Today still, the small corner shop offers a great selection of foreign beers, without forgetting Belgian breweries like De Ranke and De Dochter van de Korenaar.
Swafff! Brussels Craft Beer Fffestival 2017
It looks like it will be a great beer festival summer in Brussels this year, and it already kicks off this weekend with Swafff! Brussels Craft Beer Fffestival. On both Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th of June, more than 30 Belgian and foreign breweries will serve us their best beers in Les Ecuries van de Tram.
Théâtre Royal de Toone
A puppet theatre wouldn’t be the first place you’d look for a nice beer, would it? But hidden away at the end of a narrow alley, the estaminet attached to Théâtre Royal de Toone is serving beers from Oud Beersel and Boon on draught, and a few more interesting beers on bottle! Even though we’ve been at Toone a couple of times already, so far, we have never seen a show. But if you’re interested, there are plenty of puppets hanging around — literally — to get an idea of what you can expect ‘on stage’, three nights a week.