We are beer lovers going to Bruges. I found (at least) two brewery tours in Bruges:
In case we only have time for one of these, does anyone have any personal experience with either that they can share to help us choose?
The Bruges Beer Museum isn't really a brewery tour. Its more of a small interactive history museum with a tasting room at the end (you can skip the museum and go straight to the tap room if you want).
De Halve Maan is a great tour (We did the XL Tour) in the heart of the city. I recommend this one for sure. it's not like a tour of a micro brewery here in the states, but it provides history and context of brewing in the region and how the company has grown with the city.
I also recommend going to De Garre to taste a lot of different beers. it is a really cool bar.
I guess I would second the Halve Maan tour...though my last time was maybe 20 years ago. It looks like they have changed it since, plus they now brew again at that location, but the building itself was sort of a time capsule, having quite a bit of old equipment, a malting floor, mills, a complete brewery from a hundred years ago. It still ranks as one of the better tours I have been on, typically they are heavy on beer memorabilia, with a little bit on brewing, but very little actually seeing the equipment in place, and if brewing, usually on small scale modern equipment.
We toured De Halve Maan because it started raining, not out of real interest. Turned out to be fascinating, learned a lot, and the guy who took our group was absolutely hilarious and had everyone in stitches pretty much the entire time. It was a few years ago, and as I recall different language tours were scheduled for different times of day, so you might check if interested. Safe travels.
I agree the De Halve Maan brewery tour is well run and interesting. Some of their guides are better than others though. I prefer Brewery Bourgogne des Flandres. Smaller brewery tucked alongside a lovely canal in an historical building. I assume there are some crowds there in the Summer, but on both of my visits in the off season, there were a couple dozen people tops. Good beer (better than De Halve Mann IMO) and decent brewery tours. A little less entertaining but just as informative. A warning: If you are able to snag a small table on their patio alongside the canal, it will be difficult to peel yourself away.
Thanks for that tip Jay; that place looks right up our alley!
