I live in the Seattle area. My wife and I would like to attend Zwanze Day at Cantillon, or at least in Brussels. In the US, the Zwanze events we have attended have all been ticketed or limited in some way, and you have to buy tickets in advance to go. Based on this post, Cantillon itself isn't actually listed as a location for Zwanze Day 2022. Anyone have any advice or experience? Do we need to find a way to get tickets, is it something you can just walk up to? Does Cantillon itself actually host a public event, or just other places like Moeder Lambic? It's also difficult planning, since Cantillon doesn't announce the dates much in advance.
I haven't been to Zwanze in Brussels myself, but a friend went in 2019 to the event at Moeder Fontainas. He said that at Cantillon itself, there was a better-than-normal bottle list that weekend, but that was it. This year's Zwanze will almost certainly be either September 23 or 30; in 2017 (the last time the calendar lined up), it was on the 23rd. You may be able to get the date confirmed from them over email...it never hurts to ask. Last year's Zwanze was a ticketed event at Moeder Fontainas...and was unticketed at Moeder Original. I assume that they'll do the same thing this year as they did last year around communication and post more details about the event on Facebook a month or so beforehand.
Just to be clear about "that was it", that confirms what you heard — the brewery itself doesn't pour the Zwanze release. At least that was the deal in recent editions, they can always change their minds. I have a feeling everyone who goes to any of the Brussels participants probably ends up at the brewery at some point all the same.
