General Information

Cafes:

L'Eblouissant.
27, rue Armee Grouchy, Namur. 081/73.71.39.

A small cafe run by a very particular publican. Extensive beer selection, well cared for. Good meals during lunch, with food also available during dinner. Frequent concerts of Irish music. Previously called one of Belgium's best cafes by CAMRA, now relocated due to high rents but still very comfortable. Closed Sundays.

Musee de la Biere (The Beer Museum)
19, rue de la Gare B/2, Lustin, on Route #947. 081/41.11.02

A funky place in a small town. Until last year nobody I know in the area had ever been there, though everybody knew about it. The reason is that is looks a bit weird from the outside. The exterior has hand-painted signs advertising over 1,000 Belgian beer glasses on exhibit, and God knows how many bottles, some of them dating from the 19th century. Looks a little like those roadside attractions advertising plaster-of-Paris dinosaurs and two-headed cows. Admission is 35 francs, which can be applied to a purchase in the, er, gift shop. The gift shop features 11 beers on tap (including the formidable Liefmans' framboise), as well as a good 100-200 in bottles. The interior is crammed with shelves of bottles and glasses, and many of these will actually be of substantial interest to beer geeks. Overall, a very pleasant atmosphere.

If you speak French, the woman who runs the place is famous for being talkative and very well informed with regard to beer issues and developments in Belgium. The cafe is also home to a tasting club, the Guilde des Tates-Biere, whose final exam is rumored to include identification of certain beers by year of production.

Lustin is south of Namur, on the Meuse river. The museum is open weekends and student holidays only, but special openings can be arranged for larger groups.

De Stillegentier.
Mechelen.

We did not visit this cafe, but it was recommended to us as stocking nearly all the lambic and gueuze products currently on the market. Hey, we had to save something for next time!

Beer stores:

La Cave de Wallonie.
6, rue de la Halle, Namur

Near the Place au marche de legumes. A specialty beer store run by one of the brewers of the Brasserie Caracole. The proprietor speaks some English, and if time permits is quite willing to discuss brewing issues and beers.

Drinks Wets.
209 Steenweg op Halle, St. Genesius-Rode. 02/380.32.27

This one's a whopper. We ran into it when we got lost on the way to Beersel, and Jim accurately described it as the Belgian liquor barn. They sell a mind-boggling variety of Belgian beers and beer glasses, as well as selected imported beers. (Good: We found Anchor Liberty. Bad: They stock Rolling Rock.) The proprietors do speak some English, and they take Visa but no other credit cards. You'll need a car to get there, but a truck might be better. The gueuze/kriek selection alone ran along an entire 35-foot wall. Perhaps the most unusual of these was the Gueuze and Kriek Girardin in polypins. Just the thing for Mike Sharp's next party!

Some notes: check expiration dates. Some of the old bottles you'll find are aged; others are just old and out of date, and taste that way. Keep an eye out for the Hanssens gueuze products; we considered these a major discovery, and their mention met with respect from our more knowledgeable Belgian beer sources. The Wets gueuze products are also available (presumably the owners of the store are the Wets of lambic blending fame, though we were told by others that the beer is now made by the still-formidable Brasserie Girardin).

Other stores