When I just had my Brussels breweries tattoo in 2022, featuring my seven favourite local breweries, I celebrated the occasion by visiting them all in one epic taproom crawl… It became an annual event, and since I was turning 50 years old this year—and apparently that is significant—I did the fifth edition of my Brussels Breweries Tattoo Tour a bit earlier than usual, actually on my birthday, on the 9th of May!
The visited breweries were—as always—Cantillon, L’Ermitage, Mazette, La Mule, La Senne, La Source, and Surréaliste. Seven breweries, seventy minutes in each taproom, and at least one birthday beer in each…
14:00-15:10 Cantillon
The first stop of the day was Cantillon. If you have never been there before, don’t hesitate to sign up for a guided tour on a Saturday (€13, includes a tasting), or a self-guided on other days, and learn how they’ve been brewing lambic for over a 100 years, and how it is turned into gueuze and kriek.
The classic gueuze often is the only beer available by the glass, but there were plenty of other beautiful Cantillon creations in 75cl bottles.
By the time we had to move on, there were already nine of us.
15:15-16:25 L’Ermitage
From Cantillon it was just a very short walk to the next brewery: L’Ermitage. Here you can get flights—a set of small glasses of beer—if you want to try a couple of different beers. Their first and best known beer is the pale ale Lanterne, a symbol of the hermit, that features prominently in their logo—and thus in my tattoo—as well.
16:40-17.50 Mazette
A fifteen minute walk brought us to Mazette, which actually is a brewpub. This means you won’t be able to find their beers anywhere but there, since they’re not canned or bottled, and most of the time not even kegged, but instead served straight from one of the big tanks in the cellar. Their house beer—a pilsner—is called Skieven Architek, after the famous bar that used to be at that location, but plenty of other styles—most of them quite light in alcohol for optimal drinkability—are available as well.
All the bread on the menu—which is quite extensive—is made in the big wood fired oven against the back wall, and the rest is made in-house or sourced as locally as possible as well.
Everyone joined me for some pottekeis des Marolles on the terrace at the back!
18.35-19.45 Brasserie de la Mule
Then it was on to Schaerbeek—nicknamed “the city of donkeys”—with tram 92 for Brasserie de la Mule, in the former stables for the horses of the horse drawn trams back in the day. Do you now see how La Mule got its name? The brewery is specialised in German style beers: Weizenbier, Helles, Kölsch, Schwarzbier, Pilsner… And just look at how beautiful that tall Weizenglas is!
In this taproom we really had to stick to our schedule, because at 20h00 a ticketed event for the week long Drag Inna Mule festival started, and we needed to be on our way again before that.
20.15-21.25 Brasserie de la Senne
Bus 58 took us to the next brewery, on the Tour & Taxis site: Brasserie de la Senne. You’ll surely know their pale ale Zinnebir, and the tripel Jambe-de-Bois is a classic as well. Zennebar started serving Stouterik on nitro quite recently, so if you’re a fan that famous Irish dry stouts out of Dublin, definitely give the Brussels version it a try!
This was also the perfect stop for the hungry ones to order some food: frikandel speciaal, fried chicken, falafel, burgers… The full chip shop menu is available here!
21.35-22.45 La Source Beer Co.
On to La Source Beer Co., and we even got to enter through the VIP entrance! Well, it basically is just the back terrace door, but that’s not alway open during a concert… Grunge group Let It Kil You was about to take to the stage when we arrived! Earplug time!
Usually live music there means we have to drink from plastic cups, but not this time! So we enjoyed La Source’s IPAs, DIPAs, sours, imperial stouts, mixed fermentation and gruit experiments at their best…
23.15-…:… Brasserie Surréaliste
A bus ride back to the centre, and it was already time for the last brewery of the tour: Brasserie Surréaliste. If you haven’t been there yet, be prepared to be amazed by the Art Deco venue and what they did with it! The beers—brewed beneath your feet—certainly match the decor. Especially the Hands of Desire series is impressive.
The kitchen was already closed by the time we got there, but I made sure there were some tasty pig and cheese set aside for us to snack on. And they threw in a flaming little birthday cake!
This edition of the tour there were four participants who made an successful effort to earn the coveted Brussels Breweries Tattoo Tour patch. They got their stamp card—and a first stamp—at Cantillon, then had a beer—and stamp or staff signature—in each of the other breweries before the end of the day. Want to give it a try next year?