The Belgian beers contain the most diverse national collection of quality beers in the world. About 150 big and smaller breweries produce more than 600 different standard beers which represent about 100 different flavours. In the beer world, Belgium is known as the beer paradise. Especially, fondly remembered Michael Jackson, the renowned English beer guru, contributed to the spreading of the Belgian beer reputation throughout the world. He was unanimously supported by all beer experts and authors of beer publications.

What is it that makes the Belgian beer culture so unique?

Very special events that date back from the Middle ages have played a major role in the design of the beer landscape here in Belgium. Gruut, a secret mixture of herbs that was used to brew strong medieval beers was gradually being replaced by hop as hop is a natural preservative and hence could extend the storage life of beer.

However, growing hop needs quite some technical knowledge and expertise apart from the needed surface. We should not be astonished that the monks pushed the hop beer world forward by creating huge hop gardens which were very much needed because of the high beer consumption in the Middle Ages. Nowadays there still exist a number of monk breweries that produce sublime trappist beers.

At the beginning, the worldly breweries were in the hands of powerful beer guilds. Later on, several house breweries emerged along rivers and watercourses. Those beers had a dark colour and had not been filtered. The fermentation also happened in an uncontrolled manner

In the late Middle Ages, the not so fascinating beer world was gradually being overshadowed by the introduction of new drinks such as coffee and tea from the colonized territories. Only in and around Brussels, namely in Pajottenland, a new élan was added to the beer world thanks to new beers being brewed on the basis of wild yeasts that are typical for the Zenne valley. This is how the regional gueuze beer evolved, next to the fruit varieties such as cherry beer.

The global beer world started only flourishing from midst 19th century with the introduction of low fermented, pale pilsner beers. This renaissance happened at a time when in our regions the production of beer was closely interlinked with politics. The second half of the 1800s was namely marked by a heavy clash between Catholics and anti-Catholics in the villages and municipalities fighting mayor's office. In many places brewing was one of the most important economic activities and hence the brewer was the logical mayor. Because of this fight for political power most villages had 2 brewers: a catholic one and an anti-catholic one. This means that 100 inhabitants of a location had maybe 10 beers at their choice. Exporting beer to a nearby location was not done as also in that village there were abundant breweries. Such a unique combination of politics and brewing existed nowhere else in the world. And these circumstances explain the flourishing of family breweries and the handicraft of the Belgian brewers.

At the turn of the century, from the 19th to the 20th century, 3223 breweries and more than 200.000 pubs existed in Belgium. This means one pub for every 5 houses. Of course since then a couple of generations disappeared, but the transfer of traditions from father to son has led to an exclusive Belgian beer culture that is nowhere to be found in the whole world.

Brussels Beer capital of the world website is an ode to this beer culture and a guide for its worshippers to the unique Beer paradise Belgium.