Craft breweries and microbreweries Belgium

Inaugurated in 2017, Manufacture Urbaine is a project that aims to be sustainable, ethical and locavore around bread, beer and coffee. Because at the MU, we're brewers, bakers (sourdough and long-fermented breads) and roasters. The workshop space is vast and airy, all concrete, glass and steel, very pleasant. The brewery's four product ranges are highly varied: lager, white, black, table beer, IPA, amber and, last but not least, a triple. On the restaurant side, the menu features brasserie dishes using local, seasonal produce.

Yvan and Bernard want to make the Brussels population rediscover all the richness and complexity of the taste of a beer. The duo produces drinks with a well-developed bitterness, low alcohol content and relatively dry. They use old hop varieties. The success of this type of beer abroad is well known. The "Senne" beers can be found on the menu of some 250 establishments in the capital, the latter absorbing 60% of an annual production currently estimated at six thousand hectolitres: mission accomplished.

The dashing hundred-year-old brewery has never changed hands, the current "boss" being the great-grandson of Paul Cantillon. The beer production does not use any kind of additives, uses the famous spontaneous fermentation and is certified organic. We are talking about a mythical brewery, celebrated as far as the USA. The Cantillon brewery is considered in more than twenty countries as a reference for spontaneous fermentation and therefore for traditional lambic and gueuze. Jean-Pierre Van Roy, retired, assists his son Jean who has taken over the running of the brewery.

Rochefort 6, Rochefort 8, Rochefort 10 There are three versions of this admirable Trappist beer: the 6, the 8 and the 10. Rochefort 10 is the most celebrated; Rochefort 6 is the rarest, sold mainly in shops near the abbey; Rochefort 8 is the most widely available.Production has doubled in recent years to meet the strong growth in demand, both in Belgium and overseas. 26,000 hl were produced in 2010. The whole brewing process, including the bottling, takes place inside the abbey walls.The brewery is the abbey's main economic activity, but for all its success, its role remains one of supporting the monks' main devotional activities. The abbot himself has said that the abbey is first and foremost an abbey, one of whose activities is brewing beer.The abbey, or l'Abbaye Notre-Dame de Saint-Remy (to give its full name), is about a mile (2 km) from the Ardennes town of Rochefort, halfway between Brussels and Luxembourg. It has been on the site for centuries and there is evidence to show that monks started brewing Rochefort beers as long ago as the 16th century.The brewery is not open to visitors, but the services at the abbey church are open to all.

Roger Caulier and his three sons are the heirs to a family business, founded in 1933 and since 1980 housed in the former Tensier tannery in Peruwelz. They immediately made a name for themselves by selling their production in retro bottles with mechanical corks. Classics include Bon Secours and Paix-Dieu, billed as the first abbey beer brewed every full moon. It's served in a rather original glass, featuring the roundness of the moon but cut at an angle, "to highlight its aromas", explains the brewer.

Brasseries de Liège is a collective concept where small professionals can create their own personalized beer using professional equipment. Upstairs, an impressive 46-pump bar offers a direct view of the tanks. With so much equipment on the zinc, there's plenty of room for everyone, including custom beer sponsors! You can also order a meal from one of the six food counters set up in the adjoining gourmet hall. Connoisseurs and the curious are welcome!

Philomène Florale, a light blonde (5.5% vol. alc.) was born in 2015. One can even say that it was born in the desecrated church of Piroy in Malonne. In 2017, it was followed by Philomène Hoptim'Ale (7.2% vol. alc.) then Cointessence (8.3% vol. alc.) and finally Céleste, recently. They are surrounded by ephemeral brews. As a 100% traditional brewery, all the stages from production to bottling are managed on site. The bell, dedicated to Philomène, was cast in Tellin. The bell, dedicated to Philomène, was cast in Tellin and is now installed in the heart of the brewery.

Grimbergen, the third abbey beer in the Alken-Maes fold, has been in the news recently as Carlsberg, responsible for the brand internationally, and Alken-Maes have inaugurated a brewery in the abbey itself in 2021. This will allow the brewery to resume its activity in situ, more than 200 years after it was interrupted in the wake of the French Revolution. The Fenikshof tavern offers the opportunity to discover the beers brewed on site and a visitor center has also been opened, featuring a small hop garden and a medicinal herb garden.

The {C} brewery already has a bit of bottle age, as do its two managers, François Dethier and Renaud Pirotte. The duo presented their microbrewery project to the cast of a TV show designed to support budding entrepreneurs. Their project was rewarded, along with Curtius (7% vol.), and it was an immediate success. Today, the former Saint-Esprit beguinage houses the brewery and is not only the brewers' laboratory, but also a brewpub. A vast tasting area, enhanced by a pleasant terraced garden, has been laid out.

Loterbol 6, Loterbol 8 (Blond, Bruin), Tuverbol Having opened as a small café-brewery in 1995, Loterbol expanded into a new brewhouse in a separate building in 2002. The café is still there and is open for sales and beer tastings from 4pm on the first Saturday of every month.

Lupulus When his Achouffe brewery was bought by Duvel-Moortgat, Pierre Gobron left to concentrate on brewing at the 3 Fourquets ("3 mash rakes") brewery at Bovigny, near the border with Luxembourg. He has since been joined in this venture by his sons, Tim and Julien.Its beers include a surprising Lupulus Blonde (8.5% abv) which is conditioned in champagne bottles and kegs. According to the brewer, using large quantities of hops in the kettle and during fermentation give the beer an incomparable freshness and bouquet.Other beers include a Lupulus Brune which the brewery hopes to start selling in 2012. The brewery also makes La Madelonne and La Béole under contract. The name "lupulus" refers to the wolves that used to inhabit the Ardennes and to the Latin word for hops, "humulus lupulus", which translates literally as "humble little wolf".

Goud, Tripel Kanunnik A brand new microbrewery dating from July 2011 and working out of old industrial buildings in Sint-Truiden. It produces Wilderen Goud and Tripel Kanunnik as well as an Eau de Bière (a punning eau de vie distilled from Tripel Kanunnik) and Wilderen Graanjenever (a genever/Dutch gin).The café at the brewery is open every day from April to October and at weekends during the rest of the year.

Gaumaise, Double Blonde, Spéciale Blonde and Brune The Gigi family's small brewery is in Gérouville in southern Belgium near the French border. It dates from the 19th century and is a rare example of a brewery that started out selling its beer by going from door to door. The Gigi beers are not high in alcohol. At 5% abv, the brown and golden versions of Gaumaise are the strongest. Its other beers are around 3%. The brewery also makes soft drinks.

Guldenberg, XX Bitter, Noir de Dottignies, Père Noël,Cuvée De Ranke, Kriek De Ranke Hops are all-important to Brouwerij De Ranke and its two owners, Nino Bacelle and Guido Devos. The company logo features a branch ("rank") of hops, and real hop cones from Poperinge - not the hop extract favoured by many other breweries - are used in the beer. Using hop cones may be more difficult and more expensive, but it produces beer of the very highest quality.XX Bitter demonstrates most clearly the benefits of using hop cones. It is a golden beer (6.2%) brewed with Brewer's Gold and Hallertau hops.De Ranke has had its own brewery at Dottignies, near the Walloon town of Mouscron, since 2005. (Before then, its beers were produced on its behalf by the Deca brewery at Woeste.) Its head office is at Wevelgem, just over the border in Flanders.