Five lost Belgian beer styles that you still can drink regardless

Luckily, once in a while a Belgian ‘lost beer’ is brought back to life. Which is nice, because historic beer is at its best when you can drink it.

Fig beer from the Borinage region

Forget saison: fig beer is what they drank in the Belgian countryside, apparently. Or at least, that’s what they did when they didn’t brew actual beer…

Beer riots in 19th century Brussels

Climate protests, angry farmers, yellow vests… So far, I haven’t seen beer lovers on the barricades, but even this used to happen once in a while. In 19th century Brussels for instance.

The memoirs of Jef Lambic

In his ‘Mémoires de Jef Lambic’, a mysterious writer from Brussels described the beer and the pubs of his youth, in a late 19th century setting of gaslight and horsecars. But who actually wrote it, and what of it is true?

Lyon: a brewing island in a sea of wine

I love writing about the beer history of France. This time: Lyon. Europe’s southernmost traditional brewing city had a beer style of its own.

Dutch lager on the Belgian border, in the 1950s

When I learned that the archive of the Bavarian-style Van Waes-Boodts brewery in the province of Zeeland had been digitised, I gave in to the temptation to have a look…

When Hoegaarden was still spontaneously fermented

Spontaneous fermentation: it’s mainly known for lambic, but what if I tell you that once there was another spontaneously fermented Belgian beer type, one that was considerably different?

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