Beer Tour in Brussels

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On my second day and also last day in Brussels we decided to sign up for a beer tour that the Meininger Hostel was offering. It seemed like a good idea since Belgium is definitely known for its rich beer culture. The price was 22 euros and all it said in the description was that we would learn a bit about Belgium beer culture and get one beer and three samples included.

Didn’t sound like a lot and I also wasn’t expecting much but it did turn out to be a really nice evening. At around 5:30pm we met at this bar called Scott’s Bar, located in the city centre. We waited outside in the cold for a while because on our ticket it said to meet outside which was a little confusing because everyone was already inside. The bar itself looked really fancy from the inside and we got to meet the other participants.

After our tickets were collected we walked up the stairs and met our tour guide. I have never met anyone that was so enthusiastic about beer and all its ingredients. The tour started by getting some information about Belgium beer, its production and general information about beer. It was surprisingly kind of interesting but I have to say that I probably forget most of it a couple of hour later. This might have also been due to the fact that that’s when the first beers came into the picture.

We got to choose between two beers, which were both considered fancy beers still produced by monks in the old-fashioned way. According to the tour guide, a fancy beer needs to be drank out of a fancy glass because you need to taste beer not only with your mouth and stomach but also with your nose.

What I also learned is the fact that in Belgium beer is allowed to have more than four ingredients leading to a lot of different flavours and types of beers, such as sour, bitter, or sweat ones. The alcohol percentage is also a lot higher than what I am used to, a Belgium beer can easily have 10% of alcohol in it.

After the first beer we went on to a place called Delirium Cafe only around a two-minute foot walk away. This place was a lot busier and made a Guinness World Record in 2004 by having the most varieties of beers. The were offering over 2000 different types of beer and the beer cart is absolutely massive.

Wow. Here we got to try the three different samples of beers. These samples were about 0,25cl, I had imagined it to be about the size of a shot glass so that was pretty good. Before going on the beer tour I had no idea beer could take on such different tastes and flavours. But here in Belgium it can. After the samples we all somehow started to feel the beer already and our tour guide said her goodbyes.

We stayed at the Delirium Cafe for a while, went downstairs and, as you do, enjoyed a few more beers. We also left and got a Kebab but eventually came back to the Delirium where they had live music by that time. It was pretty nice and overall a really lovely evening. I didn’t stay too long as I was getting quite tired. But I have met some nice people and would recommend going on this beer tour. I heard there is also an option just to book it online. The only conditions should probably be that you like beer of course.

Would you like to go on a beer tour in Brussels?