Most of the places we’ve discussed so far, are found in the same areas: Brussels centre, Saint-Gilles, Ixelles, Schaerbeek. A little while ago we were involved in a little Twitter conversation about the lack of decent beer places west of the canal. We had to admit, apart from some breweries, we only knew of one: Excelsior, in Jette. But this bar could easily fool you with its huge Jupiler and Maes branding on the outside, and even inside, the only visible pump clip is once again on of those commercial pilsners. But once you peek into the fridges, things get a whole lot more interesting…
En Stoemelings
Contrebande
Usually we know or discover a venue first, and then visit it to find out which beers — and possibly food — they’re serving in that venue. In the case of Contrebande however, it was a Facebook post by brewery L’Ermitage about one of their beers being used in a dish, that put us on the trail of this new bar in Ixelles. It’s a lovely new place, and as we expected, the beer list was rather interesting. So interesting in fact, we initially overlooked one little but important detail: Contrebande is a bar without beer taps…
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!
Barboteur Beersdays #1
We started this blog with an article about Le Barboteur – Bièrothèque a couple of weeks ago, and already this weekend — Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 May — they will be celebrating their first birthday. They’re doing this in style, organising a beer festival with an impressive list of attending breweries. It looks like the first edition of these Barboteur Beersdays is set to become an event not to be missed!