A short history
Belgium has been brewing since before it was a country. Medieval abbeys brewed for monks, pilgrims and the poor, and towns across Flanders and Wallonia built reputations on local recipes long before hops were standard. Before hops took over, brewers flavoured beer with gruut, a herb mixture whose sale was a lucrative local monopoly.
The modern shape of Belgian brewing owes a surprising amount to politics. Taxes based on the size of brewing equipment pushed brewers toward rich, strong beers. After the First World War, the Vandervelde Law of 1919 restricted spirits in bars, and strong ales quietly filled the gap. Meanwhile, Trappist monasteries such as Westmalle, Chimay and Orval turned their brewhouses into symbols of quality. In 2016, UNESCO added Belgian beer culture to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The beer culture
Belgians treat beer the way other nations treat wine. Menus in a good café can run to hundreds of bottles, and each beer typically arrives in a branded glass designed for it: chalices for Trappists, tulips for strong golden ales, tall flutes for fruit lambics. Beer is also a cooking ingredient, turning up in carbonnade flamande (beef stewed in brown ale) and mussels steamed in witbier.
Yeast is the star. Belgian strains throw off spicy, fruity notes, and many beers are bottle-conditioned, so they keep developing in the cellar. In the Senne valley around Brussels, brewers still rely on wild microbes that drift in through open windows.
Signature styles
- Trappist Dubbel and Tripel: dark, raisiny dubbels and golden, peppery tripels, codified at Westmalle.
- Lambic and Gueuze: spontaneously fermented, aged in oak, and blended into tart, champagne-like gueuze or fruited kriek (cherry) and framboise (raspberry).
- Saison: once a farmhouse ale for seasonal workers in Wallonia, now dry, spicy and highly carbonated.
- Witbier: hazy wheat beer spiced with coriander and orange peel, revived in Hoegaarden by Pierre Celis in the 1960s.
- Flanders Red and Oud Bruin: sour, wine-like ales aged in huge wooden foeders.
- Belgian Strong Golden Ale: deceptively pale and dangerously drinkable, with Duvel as the classic example.
Traveler’s tip
Spend an afternoon in Brussels, then take the short trip to the Pajottenland, the lambic heartland, to visit a blender such as 3 Fonteinen, Boon or Oud Beersel. Brewing there generally happens only in the cooler months, so plan an autumn or winter visit if you want to see the coolship in action. In any café, let the staff choose the glass. It is part of the ritual, and getting it wrong is mildly scandalous.