Or: a happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all of you!
The celebrations accompanying this Irish holiday spread all over the world, and have been adopted — or should I say appropriated? — by many not in any way linked to the Emerald Isle. In Brussels it’s no different, and you’ll see Manneken Pis in an Aran jumper, city hall illuminated in green, and loads of — intoxicated — people wearing either a leprechaun hat, or one shaped like pint of Guinness. Of course Guinness is heavily promoting theses celebrations, as if the doubling of consumption of their beers isn’t enough already…
But you can celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day in a more classy way, avoiding the aforementioned stout completely, and visit a couple of bars actually serving Irish craft beer, for the occasion. Eight Degrees Brewing in particular seems to be well represented.
A bit hidden behind the Trinity church, at the border of Ixelles and Saint-Gilles, you can find a quaint, cosy bar, named L’auBIÈREgiste. The name of this bar is a play-on-words, putting bière in the middle of the word l’aubergiste – innkeeper – thereby shortening the popular phrase “A beer, innkeeper!” to just one word. However, in a bar with an offer like they have here, asking for just “a beer” will not suffice!
When writing about beer in Brussels, it’s impossible not to mention Moeder Lambic in Saint-Gilles, or as it is affectionately known since a second Moeder-bar opened in the centre of Brussels: Moeder Lambic Original. When we started this blog however, the famous bar was actually closed for about a month, for improvement works. It just opened its doors — and taps — again, and we went there to see the result and to enjoy the Swedish Beer Weekend.
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.”