Any beer tips for Belgium (Leuven especially)...?

I'm probably going to be in Leuven, Belgium 1-2 weeks for work towards the end of this month or early Feb. Does anyone have any beer related tips for the area (old/traditional breweries, good bars, local beers not to miss, etc.)?

The trip details aren't totally ironed out yet, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have outside of work, but I might possibly get 1 or 2 weekends where I could venture a little outside of Leuven (Brussels is really close by and looks very easy to get to). Other than that most of my time will probably be spent around Leuven.

Any general tourist tips for the area would also be great if anyone has a recommendation.

I spent a day in Lueven, there city hall is a wonder to look at! I dont have any tips besides skip brussels if you can get out, head over to Brugge or Ghent. My advice to anyone going to Belgian is do all within your worldly powers to get to Brugge, this time of year it's going to be cold but MUCH more clear of the throngs of tourists it attracts in the summer.

There is a bar which sells you black market westy as well, at least they did 4 years ago. PM me if interested I can look up the place again.

Cheers and either way enjoy Belgium, I miss it terribly!

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I've heard lots of good things about Bruges. Probably wouldn't be too hard to make it up there on a weekend...

Subscribed! I'll be going to Belgium in mid March. Hitting up most of the big cities.

I really enjoyed these places to the North,

Mechelen - Het Anker is about 40 min from Lueven .Really nice area around the brewery ,courtyard walking the city streets around the brewery.I didn't do the tour but I hear it's a nice one to do.Also from what I'm told the rest of the city is an overlooked gem

Brugge -
1) Find Staminee De Garre ! It's hidden in a tiny alley just off the main square,great House Tripel that is served w/ cheese and sausage.
2) t' Brugs Beertje - personally the best beer bar I've ever been to,small,quiet w/ a outstanding beer selection.

If you can get over to Ypres to Menin Gate and the WWI museum that's well worth a weekend trip,then you're not far from St.Bernardus and Westveleren.
A couple hrs away but a lot closer than the U.S.

St. Bernardus also has the best Bed and Breakfast you'll ever stay at complete with a self serve fridge stocked w/ their beer.
An Abt. 12 next to their fireplace in an easy chair may be the most relaxing night I've had in the last decade.

Also if you aren't aware of this page (link Below) it is a map that shows you all the breweries,bars,homebrew shops and beer stores around although any super market you go into will sell Rodenbach for .75 a bottle and Rochefort 8 for around $2

http://beermapping.com/maps/maps.php?m=belgium#lat=undefined&lng=undefined&z=9

I second that Mechelen is really great too, there is a Moroccan place there we went to several times when passing through, so good! We always visited there on a Sunday when sadly the brewery was closed, but it's a nice town to spend a few hours in.

Also second Staminee De Garre, there house triple is great and spending an evening there was always something we did when staying in Brugge. Also it might not matter the time of year you're going since the tourist volume will be low but this place is really small, I found the best time to get a table is around dinnertime and camp out for the night. We would just eat early then head there for a night around 6-7, have our pick of tables and by 8 the place was packed.

Belgium is a small country and it is easy to get around by car or train. It is about the size of Maryland.

I visited Belgium this summer and we drove from Namur to Mons and had lunch, then drove to Popperinge to tour the hop museum, then drove to In de Verde to drink Westy 12's, then drove to Ostend to dip our toes in the North Atlantic (I would not do that this time of year!) and then drove to Brugge where we spent the night. We had dinner and still had time to find Staminee De Garre.

If you are really into lambics or Geuze, Cantillon is in South Brussels an easy walk from the South (Midi in French) (Zuid in Flemish) Train Station which I would think would be easy to do from Leuven.

Most touristy towns are going to have 2 or 3 beer shops that will have all kinds of beers. I would recommend checking the prices as they can vary from store to store. In August all of the beer shops in Brussels and in Brugge had all of the Westy's available. Which was a good thing as when we visited In de Verde they were only allowing the purchase of 2 Westy 12's with a 4 pack of glasses to carry out.

If you are planning to take some beer home check out my thread on how I brought beer back. Also, research what you can't buy at home so you are not bringing something back that you could easily buy here. The only exception would be if you wanted to get something fresher. I would definitely drink Orval over there to give you an idea of what it tastes like fresh. Here in Texas most of the time Orval is already 1 year old by the time it is on the shelves.

Looking in my Good Beer Guide Belgium for Leuven they list the following bars/pubs

Blauwe Kater
Fiere Margriet
Groenveld
M-Cafe
Metafoor
Pakenhof
Wiering

They also list Belgian Beer Shop as a bottle shop with 400+ beers sold.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=542388

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=540799

The advice above about beer stores is great but don't rule out supermarkets! DelHaize is a big chain in Belgium and you can usually find a huge selection there at 1/3 to 1/2 less than beer store prices with their markups. Actually even the smallest grocery stores I went into in Belgium had 10-20 beers to choose from in the 1.20-2 euro/bottle range.

TWAL said:

St. Bernardus also has the best Bed and Breakfast you'll ever stay at complete with a self serve fridge stocked w/ their beer.
An Abt. 12 next to their fireplace in an easy chair may be the most relaxing night I've had in the last decade.

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I just booked the bed and breakfast for part of my honeymoon in March. It looks amazing and the hostess is very friendly over the phone. Thanks for the tip!

zmanzorro said:

I just booked the bed and breakfast for part of my honeymoon in March. It looks amazing and the hostess is very friendly over the phone. Thanks for the tip!

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Our group (two couples) stayed there in October. Absolutely worth the trip! Breakfast was amazing but the surroundings and the beer make it extra special. Your hostess is awesome too (blanking on her name right now).

griffi said:

Our group (two couples) stayed there in October. Absolutely worth the trip! Breakfast was amazing but the surroundings and the beer make it extra special. Your hostess is awesome too (blanking on her name right now).

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Jackie!

zmanzorro said:

I just booked the bed and breakfast for part of my honeymoon in March. It looks amazing and the hostess is very friendly over the phone. Thanks for the tip!

Click to expand...

Nice , You're going to have a great time !! When we were there in May ('14) we had the entire place to ourselves,literally. Second night we met a couple from Pennsylvania but other than that it was completely quiet and relaxing..
You're a stones throw away from the French Border,Mont de Chat,and St. Sylvestre which is a fantastic Biere de Garde brewery although you may need to hop the border to France to find their beer but it's less than 10 miles away to the nearest french grocery store.
If you aren't familiar w/ the brewery I suggest making the run across the border to grab some,really great brewery.
You're also a stones throw away from Westvleteren and Ypres which I would recommend the WWI museum and Menin Gate Memorial ,both are pretty powerful even if your not a history buff (which I'm not fully but appreciate).The history of the city alone is pretty mind blowing after you see it.


It really is a beautiful place and then there's the beer !
I'm not sure if you've been to Belgium before or not but if you haven't the one thing I would prepare for is you have any intentions of visiting any breweries ( I realize it's the honeymoon and it's most likely not not on everyone's to do list) it's nothing like the states where you can just pop in, we found out quickly that there are very few brewies that are open to the public on a daily basis although most had something to offer..
Just might want to research who offers what before driving there.

CHEERS !!!

I just about crapped my pants when I saw Orval in a bottle shop for 1 pound. It was really cool to try it super fresh. It has a big Styrian Golding aroma from the dry hop that you just won't find once it makes the trip across the ocean.

We actually bought so much beer at the store, we had to leave a bunch of it for our friends in Germany. I was just astounded that I could get a basket full of amazing Belgian beers for like $30.

TWAL said:

Nice , You're going to have a great time !! When we were there in May ('14) we had the entire place to ourselves,literally. Second night we met a couple from Pennsylvania but other than that it was completely quiet and relaxing..
You're a stones throw away from the French Border,Mont de Chat,and St. Sylvestre which is a fantastic Biere de Garde brewery although you may need to hop the border to France to find their beer but it's less than 10 miles away to the nearest french grocery store.
If you aren't familiar w/ the brewery I suggest making the run across the border to grab some,really great brewery.
You're also a stones throw away from Westvleteren and Ypres which I would recommend the WWI museum and Menin Gate Memorial ,both are pretty powerful even if your not a history buff (which I'm not fully but appreciate).The history of the city alone is pretty mind blowing after you see it.


It really is a beautiful place and then there's the beer !
I'm not sure if you've been to Belgium before or not but if you haven't the one thing I would prepare for is you have any intentions of visiting any breweries ( I realize it's the honeymoon and it's most likely not not on everyone's to do list) it's nothing like the states where you can just pop in, we found out quickly that there are very few brewies that are open to the public on a daily basis although most had something to offer..
Just might want to research who offers what before driving there.

CHEERS !!!

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Thanks for the tips. We're trying to plan on visiting Cantillon, Rodenbach, Westvleteren, and St. Bernardus, but we've noticed a lot require groups of at least 15. We're going to call ahead and see if there are any groups we can jump in on.

We'll be visiting most of the major cities in Belgium (Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent, and Ostend), in addition to a bus tour of Ypres and the night at brewery bed and breakfast.

zmanzorro said:

Thanks for the tips. We're trying to plan on visiting Cantillon, Rodenbach, Westvleteren, and St. Bernardus, but we've noticed a lot require groups of at least 15. We're going to call ahead and see if there are any groups we can jump in on.

We'll be visiting most of the major cities in Belgium (Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent, and Ostend), in addition to a bus tour of Ypres and the night at brewery bed and breakfast.

Click to expand...

There is a canadian guy in Ypres who runs a book store and does tours. He took us on a 2 hour tour of the WWI sights just around Ypres, it was an amazing experience, check it out if you have time.

So after a looooooong ordeal of trying to get back stateside, I am finally back home!

Thank you everyone for all of the suggestions! We were actually able to stay a second night at the Brauwershuis due to the incident in Brussels, but Jackie was very helpful and accommodating for letting us stay another night. The BnB plus St Bernardus tour were definitely towards the top of our list of things we did, also including the Ypres WWI bus tour, Cantillon, and numerous museums and bars! The people there were also incredibly friendly!

Definitely will go back again in the future!

zmanzorro said:

So after a looooooong ordeal of trying to get back stateside, I am finally back home!

Thank you everyone for all of the suggestions! We were actually able to stay a second night at the Brauwershuis due to the incident in Brussels, but Jackie was very helpful and accommodating for letting us stay another night. The BnB plus St Bernardus tour were definitely towards the top of our list of things we did, also including the Ypres WWI bus tour, Cantillon, and numerous museums and bars! The people there were also incredibly friendly!

Definitely will go back again in the future!

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Awesome, glad you had a fun and safe trip!