The tourist season is here again, and for a beer tourist, there’s no better place than Belgium. Therefore I recently visited three ‘beer experiences’ in and around Brussels. What do they offer, and is it worth spending your hard-earned money on a ticket? Let’s look inside the Abbey beer museum at Grimbergen, the Beer museum on the Grand-Place, and the Belgian Beer World at La Bourse.

Abbey beer

First, I found myself in Grimbergen. Many times before I had noticed the name of this village on the exit signs on the motorway, now it was time to actually see it. Right in the heart, the basilica of Saint Servatius towers above the old town. This immaculately preserved church once belonged to the Norbertine monastery founded in 1128, whose name we know so well because of the beer with the same name. The adjacent abbey buildings are still inhabited by monks and are therefore closed to the public, but luckily there is an ‘experience centre’ next door.

My first impression: what a slick place. There is a fancy restaurant called Fenikshof, which has five beers on draught made by the in-house microbrewery. 12 euros will get you into the Abbey museum on the second floor, and another 4 euros will buy you a tasting of two sample beers in the restaurant. Upstairs, it becomes clear that the people that brew the internationally available version of the beer have spared no expense: a lavish interior, fancy videos showing you a sunny impression of the grounds and a purring tale by the responsible monk, father Stautemas.

And yet… the museum actually does tell you the real story. How the abbey was destroyed several times throughout the centuries, which is why it carries the phoenix as its emblem. How the abbey used to brew three types of beer: good beer for the abbot and his guests, convent beer for the friars, and small beer for women, children and pilgrims. In the late 18th century the French Revolution broke out, and the rich abbey of Grimbergen was dissolved, split into parts, sold and partly demolished by the French. In 1835 the monks returned, but it wasn’t until 1958 that Grimbergen abbey had its own beer again, though brewed under licence by a commercial brewery. At first this was done by Maes, since 2008 Carlsberg owns the brand.

Granted, of course this ‘museum’ is just a big commercial for the product that is sold worldwide by Carlsberg, but the exhibit is clearly based on decent research. On display there are original brewing documents from 1795, just before the abbey was dissolved. There are a few archaeological finds, and after some commercial trinkets and some info on Belgian beer in general, the exhibit shows you the past and present of the abbey itself.

Even better, in 2021 they have produced a comprehensive book, The fourth phoenix, beer and Grimbergen abbey through the ages. It offers in-depth background information based on quite a lot of research. Not bad! All in all, it is an interesting place to visit, though the main attraction is actually the magnificent abbey church with its 17th and 18th-century interiors, richly decorated with impressive sculptures and paintings. It is certainly worth the detour.

Tourist trap

Onwards to Brussels. Here, on the famous Grand-Place we find what is actually Belgium’s oldest beer experience: the Beer Museum located in the cellars of the historical Brewer’s house with its gilded facade. It opened its doors in 1954, complete with a reconstruction of an authentic brewery with wooden vessels, as well as historical tools, publicity signs and drinking gear. However, after decades of being a bona fide cultural attraction, this little museum has lately deteriorated into a veritable tourist trap. Outside an A-board with tacky taped-on sheets of paper is supposed to attract tourists, inside the objects on display look somewhat neglected. The place is run by a rather boorish bartender, who in primitive English will collect your money and provide you with two beers to sample.

Still, because of a discount admission will currently cost you only five euros. Five euros for two full glasses of beer, a Stella and a Malheur Brune (12% ABV) is undoubtedly the best deal for miles around. And if you stick around, the bartender may be inclined to tell you some funny anecdotes from his past as a caterer in Brussels. And ask you if you’d like another Malheur, on the house. Which was very kind, but I hadn’t finished my tour of beery places…

A 90 million project

Just around the corner, there is Belgian Beer World. This project, which cost 90 million euros, opened in 2023 in the impressive Bourse palace, the former stock exchange, which had stood empty for a few years. Very generous support from the government has allowed the brewers of Belgium to create their own answer to attractions such as the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam and the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. When it opened, its team hoped to welcome 400,000 visitors a year, but such figures are still far from becoming a reality.[1]

Anyway, the entry fee is 21.50 euros, including a sample glass of beer inside the exhibit and a beer in the bar upstairs. What else does it buy you? Spread out over two floors there is an exhibit that claims to tell you something about the past and present of Belgian beer, inside a grand building that has been meticulously restored.

It quickly becomes clear what audience the creators were aiming for: tourists looking for cheerful, or even shallow entertainment, allowing them to make a few snapshots for the people at home and for social media, so they can pretend to have engaged in mildly cultural activity, after which they can head for the rooftop bar.

Which is fine by itself, and likewise the ‘experience centre’ in Grimbergen is not much more than that. But contrary to the good people of Grimbergen, the creators of the exhibit at Belgian Beer World have done… no actual research at all. Duke John of Brabant was actually called Gambrinus? Witches were actually alewives? Emperor Charles IV in 1364 forced people to brew with hops? I thought my fellow beer historians and myself had exterminated these outdated preschool fairy tales by now. Here they are being dredged up from the sewer again.

Probably, most tourists couldn’t care less, they’ll just make a few pics for their Instagram account and admire the attractive view from the rooftop terrace, where the bar has an excellent selection of Belgian beers. But that a prestigious project with international pretentions like Belgian Beer World offers such historical ‘fake news’, is questionable, to say the least. Therefore, another article is coming up in which I will examine all this in detail: your bullshit-debunking guide to Belgian Beer World!

[1] https://www.knack.be/nieuws/cultuur/hoe-sven-gatz-met-belastinggeld-zijn-brusselse-biertempel-bouwde/