Belgian supermarkets are embracing craft beer in a big way and have expanded their beer sections to match the detailed classification of their wine sections. The Beer Idiots paid a visit to one.
It’s the start of mainstreaming craft, and helps support brewers in these trying times. But this mainstreaming to a wider audience also poses a danger for the speciality beer sellers, and bars trying to make a living during the shutdown.
What are your thoughts? Post your videos of beer aisles at your local supermarket here on our Facebook channel.
Hummler says the bars had a great spring then had to dump a lot of food and beer. The two bars took a loan to “pass the storm” and reopened in June.
“In October we are forced to close for the second time, until February or March, this is a crippling blow,” he writes. “Let’s be transparent: We have lost 15000€ in beers and food on day one in march, 80 plugged kegs and a ton of food and about 5000 the second time. We are losing 9000 a month for both Moeder Lambics in renting, insurances, phone, accounts, interests…From March to March it will be 8 months without a cent.”
Moeder Lambic Original and Moeder Lambic Fontainas received about €14,000 overall in state support and so asks for some cash to survive: “We, the owner and their 25 employees, want to thank you for your support, a small donation for you means a lot for us. In Lambic we trust!”
Mule tradition
Joel Galy, of Brasserie de la Senne and Brasserie Cantillon fame, and a partner are building their own brewery in Schaerbeek, with commercial operations about to being at the start of 2021.
The Brasserie de la Mule claims to be the first brewery in Schaerbeek for a very long time (OBAA and 1B2T use the facilities of others).
The brewery will be located in a prime spot, Les Écuries van de Tram, near city hall and Le Barboteur.
Schaerbeek, headquarters for the Beer Idiots, is known as the Cité des ânes, or ‘ ‘city of the donkeys’ in tribute to the time when they were once used to transport sour cherries to the market here. The cherries were also used for Kriek. We know, we know, a donkey is not a mule…but Galy wants to add a mule to the mix. We plan to interview him soon.
“The many years of experience at Brasserie de la Senne, without which I would never be where I am today, and the season I worked at Brasserie Cantillon, gave me the will and determination to open my own brewery in order to truly live my passion,” says Galy in announcing the venture.
