2023-12-01 10:03:32
Before you visit the newly opened Belgian Beer World in the center of Brussels, it is worth visiting the legendary Cantillon brewery very close to Brussels-Midi South Station, which is also known as the Musée Bruxellois de la Gueuze. While a visit to Cantillon allows you to experience a brewery founded in 1900 that still produces its sour beer, which is valued by connoisseurs all over the world, in the same way as in the last century, almost every original historical brewing item is missing in the Belgian Beer World.
Instead, the exhibitors in the old stock exchange, which was renovated for more than 80 million euros and very close to the Great Market, have opted for a completely stylish world of experience that relies on the power of moving, mostly comic-like alienated images on displays. The Beer World also has a brewery from the 19th century, but it is virtual and consists of a wall-high display installation that acts as if beer were produced here.
The strength of Cantillon, on the other hand, lies in the haptic, in the authentically sensual. Shortly after entering the inconspicuous building complex on Rue Gheude, the visitor breathes in the refreshing scent of Belgian sour beer, reminiscent of cider. On the ground floor of the brewery, which is spread over several floors, you have to be careful not to hit your head on the self-made cover plate for the mash tun. And on the third floor, under the uninsulated roof, where the beer wort is exposed to the wild yeasts of the environment for 15 hours in a large open copper refrigerated vessel from November to March at temperatures constantly below 10 degrees Celsius, it smells of cheesy hops , who only found his way into beer at the age of two. Together with the scattered yeasts from the Pajottenland south of Brussels and a high proportion of raw wheat in the beer brew, this later creates the typical Geuze aroma between fruitiness and “farmhouse”.
The brewery as an ecosystem
“You have to be crazy to brew like that,” says the very entertaining guide at Cantillon, and you can feel the dedication that is required of the brewers in these cramped rooms, where even the cobwebs serve a purpose: the wild ones sit on them Yeasts particularly like it. The original Belgian brewing style of improvisation and letting things happen leaves a lasting impression in this beer museum. And it’s the same in the tasting room with the surprisingly dry taste of the Cantillon-Geuze, which contains only 5.5 percent alcohol and is blended from the lambics, i.e. the sour beers of different vintages. But the most complex flavors are the Kriek, for which large amounts of sour cherries are added to the lambic.
Beer as an event: The Belgian Beer World relies on multimedia. : Image: Picture Alliance
The brewery as an ecosystem – that is again a very contemporary idea. Cantillon makes visitors feel as if the brewery essentially belongs to the public. The hospitality is so genuine that you leave Rue Gheude as a kind of comrade-in-arms. No one leaves without taking one of the coveted three-quarter liter bottles as a souvenir, which cost as much as a good wine.
The aim of Beer World is also to convey “belgitude”, Belgian identity. But so many large breweries were involved in the concept, especially Anheuser-Busch Inbev, and so many hundreds of beer styles wanted to be represented that they had to agree on a lowest common denominator that was beyond recognition.
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