I've been looking up info on maybe doing a brewery tour on our way out of Bruges. I know its a little out of the way, but its something i'd really like to do. We'd leave Bruges in the morning, head to Brussels and catch the local train to Hoegaarden, then back to Brussels and its off to Amsterdam.
I've read some that say its closed, where the website doesn't mention anything of the sort. Has anyone been? I looooove Hoegaarden and would love to be able to see where its made.
When will you be in Belgium? By that time InBev, the Belgian beer company that now owns almost all of Germany's beer by then might also own Anheuser-Busch... Anyway, according to Belgian co-workers the brewery is open to the public Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 8pm. Admission fee is €6 per person incl. beer sampling and a little present.
One caveat... the entire town of Hoegaarden experienced severe flooding last week, so if you're there soon, things may not yet be back to normal... although knowing the Flemish, they're probably working furiously to fix everything. Maybe we should hire some Dutch or Flemish to take care of the mess on our Gulf coast?
Damn, thats horrible - I wasn't aware of any serious weather conditions.
However, we won't be traveling until August 12th and won't be getting to Bruges until the 18th. We'd head to Hoegaarden on the 20th.
Is traveling there easy? It seems as though we have to take a train to Brussels, then another to a smaller town and take a bus or taxi to Hoegaarden.
Thoughts?
I've never been to Hoegaarden, but the town probably has a local rail connection.
BTW, the brewery was scheduled to relocate elsewhere in Belgium, but they couldn't replicate the products to the brewmaster's satisfaction, so the original facility remains open.
If you visit, try Hoegaarden Grand Crue, which is not available in the US. It tastes like a combination of regular Hoegaarden and Leffe, and packs a wallop at 8.5% alcohol.
