The beers of Belgium, from the gueuze of Anderlecht to the Trappist of the Gaume.

Belgium doesn't have one beer, it has a whole map of them. In a country the size of Galicia live side by side the spontaneous fermentation of lambic, made only around Brussels, the Trappist beers of abbeys that are still inhabited, the family breweries of every Flemish city and a handful of young houses that fill bars with taps. UNESCO inscribed Belgian beer culture as intangible heritage in 2016, and it is no exaggeration: here every beer has its glass, its temperature and its way of being served.

This route brings together the places on Geocalia where beer can be seen being made, not just drunk: Brussels, Bruges, Mechelen, Antwerp, Leuven, the Villers-la-Ville abbey and Orval Abbey, which we visit from Bastogne.

Lambic, Trappist, city blonde: what you drink where

Lambic is the Belgian rarity. The wort is left to cool in the open air, the wild yeasts of the Senne valley ferment it on their own and it rests for years in oak barrels. Blending young and old lambics gives gueuze, dry and sour, with a champagne fizz; macerating cherries gives kriek. It is like nothing you have drunk in a Spanish bar, and it is best tried knowing what it is.

Trappist beers are made by Cistercian monks of the strict observance, inside active abbeys, and the money goes to the community and to social works. At Orval, the only Trappist abbey on this route, the monks have made cheese since the late 1920s and beer since 1935.

Then there are the city breweries, each with its emblem: the Brugse Zot and Straffe Hendrik of Bruges, the Gouden Carolus of Mechelen, the amber Bolleke of Antwerp, the Stella Artois of Leuven. And the new generation, such as Brussels Beer Project, which mixes modern hops with its own lambic.

The visits, with times and prices

In Brussels, the Cantillon brewery, in Anderlecht, is the last traditional lambic brewery within the city and works as a living museum. On weekdays you go round on your own, no booking, for €9 with three tastings; on Saturdays there is a guided tour of an hour and a half for €13. Closed Wednesdays and Sundays. For the overview there is Belgian Beer World, in the Stock Exchange building: an audioguide tour, a tasting and a beer on the rooftop for €21.50, open every day.

In Bruges, De Halve Maan shows the beer pipeline that carries the beer under the city: 45 minutes with a guide in Dutch, French or English, €16 with a beer and 220 steps up to the roof. In Mechelen, Het Anker, inside the Grand Beguinage, runs a tour of a good hour and a half with two Gouden Carolus, booking online. In Antwerp, De Koninck is interactive, self-guided, €19.90 with two beers, Tuesday to Sunday. In Leuven, the Stella Artois tour runs only on fixed dates and with booking at Visit Leuven.

The abbeys call for more planning. At Villers-la-Ville, among the Cistercian ruins, the micro-brewery opens on the second Saturday of every month, from March to November: an hour and four beers for €23, abbey entry included. Its V reconstructs the monks' recipe from 18th-century accounts. At Orval you visit the medieval ruins and the museum for €8, but not the brewery or the new abbey; the lighter Orval Vert is served on draught only in the tavern opposite, À l'Ange Gardien.

Centuries-old cafés and tap bars

In Brussels, À la Mort Subite, opposite the Galeries Saint-Hubert, is the café of mirrors where you compare a gueuze with a kriek after Cantillon. The Poechenellekelder, opposite the Manneken Pis, has a long list and a quiet room, and the Brussels Beer Project in Dansaert offers 24 taps and pizzas. In Bruges, Cambrinus is a beer restaurant with a long menu two minutes from the Markt. In Leuven, the Oude Markt is an entire square of student terraces.

To eat with the house beer, the Het Anker brasserie cooks Flemish classics with Gouden Carolus and opens every day; if you want to sleep above the brewery, the Hotel Het Anker is on the same site.

September on the Grand-Place

The breweries can be visited all year, but the moment with the most atmosphere is the Belgian Beer Weekend: from 3 to 5 September 2027, large and small breweries serve their beers on the Grand-Place in Brussels, with free entry and paying for what you taste. From April to October the boats in Bruges and Mechelen and the terraces of the Oude Markt also run. In winter, the old cafés are the best refuge, and Villers loses its brewery tour from December to February.

Everything by train, except Orval

Belgium is the perfect country for a beer route without a car. From Brussels, Mechelen is about 20 minutes by train, Leuven 25, Antwerp 40 or 50 and Bruges an hour, with several trains an hour; in each city, the brewery is a walk from the centre or, like De Koninck, next to Berchem station. Villers-la-Ville has its own station on the Ottignies to Charleroi line, 25 minutes' walk from the abbey. Orval is the exception: without a car you have to chain a train to Libramont, a connection to Florenville and a TEC 24 bus, so it is best to sleep in the area, as the Bastogne and Orval getaway proposes.

The return is also by train: check the last one to Brussels before you sit down in the last bar, and once in Brussels the centre can be covered on foot between the Stock Exchange, the Grand-Place and the Galleries.

To organise it, you have a day of two breweries by train between Mechelen and Antwerp and an evening of lambic and Trappists on foot through Brussels, with a hotel two streets from the last bar.