Taste The Belgian Beer Culture In The Bruges Beer Museum

A new digital way to learn the history of beer

Located on the Chocolaterie de Burg - the ultimate street for chocolate lovers, the Bruges Beer Museum has three floors in total. This museum is open daily from 10 AM to 5 PM, with an entrance fee of 8 EUR (roughly 10 USD). Tickets can be purchased online or at the museum’s entrance. Each visitor will be taken on a self-guided tour with an iPad.

On the first floor next to the ticket sales desk, there is an exhibition of different stories about the history of beer. All texts, audio clips, and flims featured in the museum have been translated into 10 different languages. Take the beer challenge quiz to find out how much you know about Belgian beer.

How Belgian beers are brewed

On the second floor, you will observe spectacular ways that beer are brewed in massive wooden containers to add rich, deep and complex flavours to them. Belgian breweries mature their beers in barrels previously used for wine. Barrel ageing, which is not a recent addition to Belgian beer culture, is a long, demanding practice in the production of strong beer. Especially in the Flemish area, beer matures in vertical foeders made of oak, or in giant barrels or vats. During this brewing process, the beer takes on a reddish brown colour from the roasted barley malts.

Not only see, but also try!

Lastly, getting down to the ground floor, you will get a chance to try up to 16 different types of beer on tap, some of which are exclusively from the museum’s breweries. You can taste 3 glasses of beer (15 cL) for a fee of only 4 EUR extra (roughly 5 USD), which is optional for visitors.

The most popular brands

One of the best and cheapest ways to try all sorts of Belgian beer besides ordering them in a bar is to buy directly from a local supermarket. A few of the oldest and best brands of Belgian beer are Duvel, Gueuzestekers, Chimay, Rodenbach, Grimbergen, and Trappistes Rochefort.