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Paris Beer Festival: The FestivalA hand holding up a glass of stout, people in the background

Paris Beer Festival: The Festival

Published on 24 May 2025

While the Paris Beer Festival actually is a whole week of activities, it culminates in a more classic beer festival—brewery stands in a big hall, where you get your tasting glass filled—in the weekend at the end of that week.

But first… Coffee! I found a tiny roaster in the Marché Beauvau, not far from the festival venue. When I got to Early Bird, I was unexpectedly welcomed by a barista / coffee roaster with a thick Irish accent, and some really nice coffee and cake.

The Marché Beauvau covered market. And a normal market in front of it…
A cortado, an espresso, and a piece of cake on a bar. Early Bird branded insulated behind them, and the espresso machine covered with stickers

The Paris Beer Festival closing event was at Ground Control, a venue that is both an event space and a food market, set in a giant warehouse once used by the French National Railway Service (SNCF). That means it was also open for people not interested in the festival, leading to a very mixed public. Since no beer list was published in advance, I spent the first hour checking out all the brewery stands, adding beers to try later to my list… That list quite quickly grew out of control, since a lot of the—mostly French—breweries, I hadn’t seen at any other festivals or in beer bars before!

Keeping well fed is essential when drinking that many beers, so after finishing my list, I had a butter chicken naan wrap from Burning Naan.

Beer stands and lots of people
A glass of beer in front of stacked beer cans
Hand holding up a small, filled Craftmaster beer glass

It was actually a Paris/Brussels hasher who brought this festival to my attention, and he was there as well, of course. He introduced me to some other Paris hashers, whom I’ll see more of tomorrow.

Before diving into the imperial stouts, I definitely needed another meal, it was time for some more sustenance, so I got myself a nice truffle carbonara pasta from Solina.

Some weird, hand cranked, wall mounted telephone
Glass of beer on a railing, some greenery behind it, and a woman sticking out her tongue
An industrial building, crowds of people in front of it
A hand holding up a glass of stout, people in the background

When there was only fifty cents left on my cashless card, I decided it was time to call it a day, and headed back to the hotel. More beers tomorrow!

A cartoon of a fencer attached to a cable, attacking two surprised people in trainers
Paris Beer Festival: The BarsFive small stemmed glasses filled with beer on a bar, tap handles in the background.

Paris Beer Festival: The Bars

Published on 23 May 2025

I’m back in Paris! This time the reason for my visit is a beer festival—my first French one—and a run—also my first French one!

I didn’t try any of the newer—cheaper—train options available, but took the comfortably quick Eurostar again. After arrival, I whipped out my Navigo card—which surprisingly still had a lot of rides on it—to take the métropolitain to my hotel for the weekend, the ibis Paris la Villette, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. After check-in, some coffee and banana bread at Kaffeebar 19, I was ready for an afternoon and evening of beer bars and breweries!

The slanted nose of a red Eurostar high speed train, waiting at the platform in Brussels Midi. The red lights give away this actually is the back of the train.
A busy platform in the station, red Eurostar trains on either side.
Paris Nord station in the background, an art nouveau style metro entrance in the foreground.
Double bed in a hotel room

With some places only opening at four or five, it was a bit of a puzzle. However, in the end I had a schedule that enabled me to visit all the bars and breweries I picked out for this trip! First up was Paname Brewing Company, near my hotel.

View on the terrace and facade.
The bar at Paname Brewing Company.
A beer on the bar at Paname Brewing Company.
A brewer between his kettles and tanks at Paname Brewing Company.

After that I had to take the metro again to get to Le BaB OPERA. While they didn’t actually have a Paris Beer Festival event on Friday, they still had most beers from a Nuka Brewing tap takeover the day before.

Five small stemmed glasses filled with beer on a bar, tap handles in the background.
Facade of the bar.
a drawbridge, with a very high and steep pedestrian bridge right next to it.

There were no events at I.B.U Petites Écuries and BEER Paris either, but they had some nice beers on nevertheless.

Facade
Facade
A glass of beer on the bar, a cutting board with a dry sausage and bread next to it, the tap handles and the menu in the background
Blackboard with beers listed in the background
Fridges full of beer, customers queueing
Racks full of beer

At brewpub Les Cuves de Fauve they did have a Paris Beer Week event: a Sudden Death tap takeover and collab brew.

Last stop of the night was L’Atalante—back near my hotel again—where they had a Kauri Brewery and Wabi Brewing tap takeover.

I could easily have spent hours in each of those bars—which were all new to me—but it was nice to at least have visited them briefly!

A lovely glass of beer on the bar.
A bowl of Chicken strips with a tub of sauce.
A glass of beer on the bar

Cycling in de Bollenstreek

Published on 13 April 2025

While hashing usually involves running, sometimes hashers get on a bicycle as well. Every year in spring, the Dutch full moon hash FILTH H3 organises such a bicycle hash—or bash for short—in the Bollenstreek, the tulip region of the Netherlands. As the weather promised to be nice, I folded up my SUGG bike to shove it on the luggage rack of a train heading north!

At first it looked like I wasn’t even going to make it: just before the scheduled departure the train I booked was shown on the boards as delayed for 30 minutes, then postponed indefinitely, and then, all of a sudden, announced as arriving on another platform! For a while, things were looking fine, but then, because of the 40 minute delay we already had by then, we were chucked out of the train in Breda, instead of Rotterdam!

In the end, after a few more train changes than planned, I made it to the start of the bash in Hillegom in time, only half an hour later than planned. After waiting for some latecomers—because of similar train troubles—there were about two dozen hashers on bikes, ready for a ride through the Bollenstreek!

As mentioned, the weather promised to be nice, and it delivered! Cloudless skies and over 20ºC all the way, and tulips in bloom everywhere. And conveniently, the Bollenstreek is very flat, making cycling there very enjoyable. An unexpected bonus was the craft beer they had in the chip shop on trail!

After almost 40km, we ended up at the hares’ home, where the beers were cold, and the barbecue was fired up. Down-downs were given and drunk in a very long, two-part circle, which I even didn’t see the end of, since I had a train to catch, if I still wanted to make it home that night.

While everything went swimmingly at first—I even had time for a quick beer in Rotterdam Biergarten in between trains—in Breda it all went sideways again. The train—which was already hot when the airco was still kinda working—didn’t budge for half hour, and heated up even more. Eventually the train started moving again, and just a couple of minutes before one o’clock, it arrived in Brussels Central. One last, short ride on my bicycle, and I was finally home again!

Day 5 – Last Day, Last Hash…

Day 5 – Last Day, Last Hash…

Published on 21 September 2024 
Reached this post by just scrolling through my blog? 
If you want to read about this trip from start to finish, instead of in reverse order, click here!

On the last day of my trip I had one more hash to go, with London H3 this time, and at noon already. Once again, in the west of London, meaning another day spending quite a bit of time on trains again…

No hash with at least some food in my stomach, so my first stop of the day was at BrewDog Waterloo , for a Croissant Brunch Burger and some pancakes. Being at an Outpost, I had to try some of their beers brewed on site… Good morning!

After that, and had no time to lose, and took the South Western Railway to Barnes Bridge, from where the P trail lead me to The Coach and Horses pub, where the London H3 trail would start. It was a great hash to do as the last one during my London visit, but even though I only walked this one—I didn’t want to too sweaty on the Eurostar—if was definitely one of the longer ones!

After trail, it was time to get closer to my final departure station, and to my favourite London BrewDog bar: BrewDog Camden. I originally had other dinner plans, but since I was running a bit late, I just had some Korean loaded fries in the bar. 

Getting to the Eurostar station, through security, and onto the train: it all went pretty smoothly, so that marks the end of this trip.…

Day 4 – Tunnels & Taprooms

Day 4 – Tunnels & Taprooms

Published on 20 September 2024

No hashing on the fourth day, nor any BrewDog bars… Lots of taprooms on the schedule though, but first the Vagina Museum and the Brunel Museum!

Well, before that breakfast actually, and today exactly as planned: kejriwal—fried eggs on chilli cheese toast—at Dishoom! 

Then off to Bethnal Green, to the Vagina Museum. The tiny museum was quite interesting and educational—as are their toots—so I happily donated a bit to help them keep up the good work. 

Just a couple of railway arches down the track was coffee roastery La Tostadora. Here I learned that in Australia, my usual order of a double shot cortado with oat milk, is apparently called the “Magic”!

Another couple of railway arches further is Mother Kelly’s, where I bumped into Tasha, who I know from her Weird Beard Brew Co. days! The beer list was cracking, impossible to get through if I wanted to make it to another museum in time…

That next museum was the Brunel Museum. Being a big fan of shows like “The Architecture the Railways Built”, I simply had to go there! As it turned out, it was a different Brunel who built the Thames Tunnel! While the famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel was involved for a while, it’s was actually the project of his father, Marc Brunel. Fun fact: my train to get there went through the tunnel the museum was about. 

And just like that, I ended up on the Bermondsey Beer Mile again, passing a couple of places I knew and liked, but I was here for one the newer additions: Mash Paddle Brewery. Did I mention that every single place I went to today so far—apart from the Brunel Museum—was in a railway arch?

Just a couple of minutes’ walk took me to the new The Kernel Brewery Taproom. Yes, another new one, it’s their third location I visited… As usual, a lovely cheese board from Neal’s Yard helped tie me over until dinner. 

From there it was an underground and overground ride to Distortion Brewing Company, another brewery I had never tried before. Well, I certainly missed out! And guess what? Another railway arch!

I actually had some beers by Mondo Brewing Company before at BBP Dansaert, but didn’t visit their brewery and taproom yet. It was also the perfect opportunity to have dinner, served by the resident pan-asian joint Kato Kitchen. You can’t go wrong with fried chicken and spicy noodles, can you?

From there it was back to the north, to Red Hand. Not a brewery this time, ‘just’ a beer bar. It definitely had a Friday night out vibe, so not your typical craft beer bar. Great music though, and some nice beers!

The last stop of the night was the House of Hammerton, a bar operated by Hammerton Brewery. I made it to their taproom once, but only just before last call… So tonight was a great opportunity to try some more beers of them.