Belgium is the only country whose beer culture is featured on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list — with spicy farmhouse ales, beers produced in monasteries and sour blends aged in wood. Its capital, Brussels, showcases all the reasons Belgian beer is worth a trip. Brussels’ temperatures are normally warm and pleasant between May and September, but if you don’t mind the cold, winter can also be an interesting time to visit, as the city lights up for its winter markets.
Brussels street food
Brasserie de l’Ermitage
The first thing I notice when I enter Brasserie de l’Ermitage is the colorful artwork. Artistic interpretations of tarot cards are hung all over the walls of the brewery — symbols and narratives that l’Ermitage brewer and co-founder Nacim Menu explains are intended to inspire ideas and reveal new perspectives. Nacim and the other co-founders based l’Ermitage’s aesthetic on tarot, but in particular on the card of “The Hermit,” which features an old man standing on a mountain peak carrying a lit lantern containing a six-pointed star.
I’m currently in a converted cigarette packing depot on Rue Lambert Crickx, near Brussels Midi station in the south of the city center. Brasserie de l’Ermitage is one of Brussels’ 20-odd breweries. The city’s beer scene has exploded in recent years, driven by a trinity of producers responsible for leading the dramatic change. First is the historic family-run lambic beer brewery Brasserie Cantillon, located a few hundred yards from l’Ermitage on Anderlecht’s Rue Gheude. Then, Brasserie de la Senne, a producer of wonderful Belgian ales and perhaps the most influential brewery in Belgium in the past two decades. Lastly, the bold, collaboration-focused Brussels Beer Project, which began as a crowd-funded affair and still runs a taproom in the Dansaert neighborhood.
Beer production line
Belgium’s Cultural Heritage
Belgium has a number of internationally known beer brands such as Stella Artois, Hoegaarden and Leffe, all distributed by the world’s largest brewing company: Anheuser-Busch InBev. There are the Trappist ales, produced within the walls of Cistercian monasteries under the supervision of monks: think Orval, Westmalle and Chimay. Then there are the beers produced by multi-generational family breweries that have inspired enthusiasm internationally: the iconic Duvel brand from the Moortgat dynasty; the Delirium Tremens range from Brouwerij Huyghe; or the powerful Bush beers of Brasserie Dubuisson. And there are Belgium’s spontaneously fermented lambics and blended geuzes, produced by breweries like Cantillon in Brussels, which have, in recent decades, acquired new international audiences.
In fact, Belgium is the only country in the world whose beer culture is recognized by UNESCO as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and the country’s capital city is leading the way right now in showcasing the scene’s diversity and quality.
The city has welcomed a new wave of younger brewers: brewpub La Source Beer Co, perhaps the leading light in Belgium for hop-forward ales; Brasserie La Jungle, which experiments with low-alcohol, mixed fermentation fruit beers in a former textile warehouse in Anderlecht; the German-influenced brewery and taproom Brasserie La Mule in Schaerbeek; Tipsy Tribe, Brussels’ first “brewstillery”; and Brasserie Le Surréaliste, a flamboyant producer located in an iconic art deco building in Dansaert that was formerly used as a banana warehouse.
Belgium's Cultural Heritage
La Fleur en Papier Doré
It’s only a mile from L’Ermitage to La Fleur en Papier Doré — a Brussels bar of note, on Rue des Alexiens in the city center, whose name translates to “the gold paper flower.” It was once popular with artists and writers of the surrealist movement and Flemish art magazines. Contemporary Belgian author Hugo Claus celebrated his first marriage here. I’m here to sample Brussels bruine kroeg (“brown bar”) culture. These traditional wooden bars are so-called because their walls are often the color of old ivory.
The cafe has legacy: a monochromatic portrait of Tintin’s creator, Georges Rémi (Hergé), beer in hand, hangs above the bar, just opposite where the photograph was taken. A frame fastened to the main entrance door contains what are believed to be early sketches of Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte, who visited regularly, although the artist, poet and trickster, Geert van Bruaene, who ran the café from 1944 until his death in 1964, was known to have playfully placed a counterfeit or two. Van Bruaene’s collection of artwork, photos and other objects, whether created by himself or gifted by the numerous artists who frequented La Fleur en Papier Doré, remain untouched on the walls since the cafe’s classification as a listed building in 1997.
I order Brasserie de la Senne’s iconic Brussels beer — Zinnebir, a Belgian pale ale of 5.8% ABV — which arrives fresh and perfectly conditioned. Its brewer, Yvan De Baets, is known to regularly stop in for quality control and deep conversation. The mismatched wooden tables and chairs with differing heights and varying levels of intricacy appear as chess pieces scattered across the black-and-white tiled floors. After a formal renovation in 2007, the ‘patina’ of the nicotine-stained walls was preserved by mixing lambic beer into the paint. La Fleur en Papier Doré is one of those time capsules that balance thoughtful beer offerings with a nonchalant, conversation-focused ambience.
The city is teeming with these institutions. À La Becasse, on Rue de Tabora, known for serving sweetened lambic from a jug, is named for the woodcock bird and is identified by the red neon arrow above its tiled entrance walkway. À La Mort Subite, a bar on Rue Montagne aux Herbes Potageres, was named after the sudden death (‘mort subite’) dice game, Pitjesbak, that bankers would play here. At A L’Imaige Notre-Dame, on Rue du Marché aux Herbes, patrons sit around an iron-hinged trapdoor that leads to a basement used at one time to hold prisoners awaiting execution on the Grand Place. Across the ceiling of Brasserie Verschueren, in Saint-Gilles, a line of black and yellow tape cuts the bar in half, a demarcation leftover from the days when inside smoking areas were still all the rage. And Poechenellekelder is an iconic institution on Rue du Chêne as baffling as it is unpronounceable; its eclectic wall art, peculiar hanging puppets and strange antique photographs are all dedicated to the wholly unimpressive statue nearby of Mannekin Pis, a small peeing boy.
Blonde, red and black beer
Belgian Beer World
From La Fleur en Papier Doré, it’s a 12-minute walk to Belgian Beer World, the national beer experience center housed in the city’s iconic former stock exchange building. Built between 1868 and 1873 by architect Léon-Pierre Suys and showcasing Rodin sculptures, the Bourse’s three acres are spread over five floors. At the end of the main hall is the entrance to Belgian Beer World’s exhibition. I navigate its impressive architectural elements from various angles, making my way through mezzanines and along passerelles with varying perspectives and views.
The interactive beer experience at Belgian Beer World is divided into six zones. Zone 1 is Taste the Culture, where I’m treated to an introduction to “Belgitude” (the essence of being Belgian, in a loose sense) and a history of beer. In Zone 2, Discover Untold Stories, I walk through hops fields and discover the Gruit library. In Zone 3’s Witness the Passion, I test my knowledge against a 13-foot-high, non-gendered, projected brewer’s head, who aims to demonstrate the creative thinking behind the Belgian Beer process.
In Zone 4, Reveal the Processes, mashing and fermentation is explained in an immersive fermentation theater; I take part in a six-minute interactive story in a locked room, as if in a fermentation tank, where a projected yeast cell explains how she and her bacteria family work together to give beer its unique taste. In Zone 5, Explore Your Tastes, I learn about secondary processes and, under the guidance of virtual bartenders, am offered recommendations about which beers to try. Zone 6 is Inspire the World, where I’m invited to become a Belgian beer ambassador, before I finish with a beer in the Sky Bar, overlooking the city.
Beyond the initial challenges Belgian Beer World faced in uniting the country’s diverse beer factions — producers from different regions, speaking different languages, brewing a wide array of styles, each with their own commercial interests — the beer museum project now grapples with even more complex issues. These include the post-Covid recovery of the hospitality sector, global energy and supply chain crises affecting beer production, and a declining demand for beer in Belgium, mirroring trends seen worldwide.
But Belgian beer has demonstrated, both in the brewhouse and the boardroom, that its people are pragmatic problem-solvers, skilled at finding compromise when they need to, and shrewd in political maneuvering. I’ve seen this pragmatism in action at l’Ermitage and La Fleur en Papier Doré. And in many ways, Belgian Beer World is a perfect symbol of the state of Belgian beer in 2024. Amid uncertainty, Belgian beer is ready to build a whole new world to experience, whatever happens.
By Breandan Kearney
