Thanks indeed to the Two Hairy Bikers for their suggestion to try this fantastic restaurant. The food was gorgeous and the staff were obviously selected for their efficiency as much as their looks. We dined like kings and yet the meal came to about 100 euros, a bargain. I'd love to go back and try the steak & chips and some more wonderful Belgian beer. Try it, you will not be disappointed.

Belga Queen Brussels
Rue Fossé aux Loups 32
1000 BRUSSELS


Phone:+32 2.217.21.87
Fax:+32 2.229.31.79
Email:info.brussels@belgaqueen.be

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A unique museum, ten minutes walk from Brussels Midi, is the Cantillon Brewery, which is a museum dedicated to Brussels' unique beer style of gueze. There are self-guided tours and the chance to try the products. But the highlight is the public brewings in November and March - a must for all beer lovers and fans of the Belgian way of life.

www.cantillon.be/

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Go to the bar called Delirium, just off the Grand Place - it has a menu of 2000 beers. A must for anyone who likes a beer!

www.deliriumcafe.be/

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Visit the Cantillon Brewery, near the Midi train station. This fine brewery produces gueuze, a sour and even sulphurous beer which is allowed to ferment spontaneously by contact with wild yeasts in the air. It's a love-it-or-hate-it thing - and you won't find out which it is for you unless you visit the brewery!

www.cantillon.be/

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When drinking the beer Quack, watch out - due to its strangely-shaped glass, the last part of the drink almost flies out at you, and can leave you drenched.

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The Cantillon Brewery doesn't just do self-guided tours (in English) - you can also buy the produce and sample it in the small tasting room. Try the excellent, very rare lambic beer that tastes even better once you know how it's made!

www.cantillon.be/

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Don't miss the beer. Every bar seems to serve it in the branded glass. Absolutely delicious!

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For all lovers of ale and beer, a visit to Le Musée de la Bière à Schaerbeek (33-35 Avenue Louis Bertrand: 1000) is a must. Here you can see beer being treated with true reverence and sample some of the specialities of the area.

www.fredjobars.be/fjbdossiers/fjbbeerbxl/fjbbeerbxl6.html

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Directly opposite the Mannekin Pis, you'd naturally expect this to be a bar that's just aimed at selling as much Old Wife Beater as possible to the tourists. But don't let this and the fact that the decor is themed on the piddling boy fool you, in fact this is a must-visit bar for beer-lovers visiting Brussels.

There are roughly 80 regular beers on the menu as well as monthly specials, some of them unusual (for example, Het Anker's Gouden Carolus Triple on tap - what a night that was!).

Service is efficient and friendly.

Poechenellkelder means "mannekin cellar" in the local Brussels dialect and you'll find that your bill is also in that dialect, which is similar to Dutch.

5 Rue du Chêne. Tel 02 511 92 62

Opening hours: Tue-Thu: 1000-2400, Fri-Sun: 1000-0200, closed Mon.

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It's right on the Grand Place and serves up the ultimate beer experience with a three-course menu cooked in three different beers and served with a glass of the same with each dish! It's pretty reasonably priced and has lots of other delicious dishes and is well-positioned to get a great view of any events that are held in the square. I had the pleasure of a son et lumiere show.

Grand Place

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This is a traditional bar with a 19th-century interior. Wood panelling, leather being very much in abundance. They do simple food such as croque monsieur and croque bruxellois.

They also have a good varied range of beers that are (of course) served in their correct glasses. It is the sort of place where you can sit down and have a nice drink in a nice old fashioned kind of place.

Le Cirio, Rou de la Bourse, 18-20
1000 Brussels; Tel (02) 512 13 95; nearest Station: Bourse

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Gueuze is the beer style unique to Brussels and the area around it in the valley of the River Zenne. There are now only about a dozen producers of this beer, which is brewed without the addition of yeast, but using the natural micro-organisms that are native to the area.

Every two years, HORAL, the trade organisation for the producers of this beer, organises the Toer de Gueuze. On one sunday in April, virtually every producer opens its doors to visitors so they can see how this wonderful beer is made. You can make your own way around the producers or you can take a seat on one of a number of coaches that tour around (each coach visiting a different selection of brewers and blenders).

You can sample the beer at every producer and many of them also put on food and entertainment. The day isn't well-publicised outside Belgium, but judging from the number of people I saw when I went on it this year (2005) it's pretty well-known in Belgium. Guided tours round the various producers are only in Dutch, since there isn't really time for multi-lingual commentaries. However, even if you don't understand the language, you'll find the whole experience fascinating (and you'll love the beer.)

Coaches start out from various places around Brussels, depending on the itinerary. Have a look at HORAL's website:
www.horal.be/
to see when the tour's happening; the next one should be in April 2007.

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The last remaining Lambic brewery in Brussels, Cantillon produces some of the most distinctive examples of this beer style. The brewery is open to visitors every day except Sunday. There are no fixed times for tours, you just turn up and they give you a leaflet describing what you'll see then leave you to it. The EUR 3.50 price includes a couple of beers at the end. No matter how many breweries you've visited, you'll never have seen anything like Cantillon. The beer is produced using malted barley, a large amount of malted wheat and prodigious quantities of hops which have been stored for several years so they have lost nearly all of their bitterness. After boiling up the ingredients in water, the wort is pumped into a large flat vessel (known as a koelschip) directly under the roof of the brewery. The roof has many gaps in it to allow micro-organisms (wild yeasts, bacteria, etc.) to land in the wort. It is these micro-organisms which actually ferment the beer, in the way that beer was brewed for thousands of years before Louis Pasteur, working in Lille, discovered yeast. The mix of micro-organisms is unique to the valley of the River Zenne, which is why Lambic is only brewed in and around Brussels. After the wort has been innoculated, it's pumped into huge oak barrels, where it initially ferments vigorously. Then, when the fermentation has slowed down, the barrels are sealed. The beer is left in the barrels for anything up to five years to mature, then it's expertly blended with some younger brews and either sent to a few select bars to sell on draught (as Lambic) or bottled (as Gueuze.) The beer is intensely sour and can come as a shock to first time tasters, but once you get the taste, like I have, you just want more.

56 rue Gheude, Brussels (10 minutes from the Eurostar terminal) Tel: 02 521.49.28 Web: www.cantillon.be/

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An average Belgian bar might have a couple of dozen beers available. A good Belgian bar might have a couple of hundred. The Delirium Cafe has over TWO THOUSAND beers available at any one time. Not only a terrific range of Belgian beers but also beers from over 60 other countries. The menu actually lists about 2500 beers, but they restrict their claimed selection to "over 2000" as not all are available 100% of the time, though I've never ordered anything they couldn't find. One thing to be aware of, the beer price goes up during live music gigs, which happen twice a week. It's in the maze of alleyways that make up the Ilot Sacre, so can be hard to find at first.

Impasse de la Fidélité, 4A, Brussels. About 100m from the Grand Place and not far from Brussels Central Station. Website: www.deliriumcafe.be/ Tel: 32/2.514.44.34

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Beer Mania offers over 400 Belgian beers to sample on site, buy and drink at home, or order online. Open 11am to 9pm, Monday to Saturday. The owner, Nasser Eftekhairi, is usually there and is fount of knowledge on all things to do with Belgian beers.

174-176 Chaussée de Wavre, 1050 Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. www.beermania.be Tel: 00 32 2 512 17 88 Nearest metro, Trone or Porte de Namur

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Frank-designed brasserie in the city centre. Very popular. Very hospitable. A lovely place in which to indulge in the local brewing traditions, eat perfect steak, or both.

Rue Marché au Charbon 41; Tel: 02 512 82 03; Fax: 02 512 45 02

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Brussels annual beer weekend - held in the first weekend of September. Enjoy sampling a huge range of beers in a great atmosphere surrounded by the wonderful Grand'Place. Beers are cheap and served chilled in the appropriate glass (of course).

Grand'Place

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