Potential visit to Rochefort & Fantome?

Fantome isn't close in Belgium terms, but doable. Saturdays only, i think.
Rochforte's pointless. Orval is better (green Orval's worth it)

 

Don't go to Rochefort. You can't visit the abbey and the town itself is definitely not worth the trip.

 

And with public transport getting to that region takes time, as all three mentioned locations are a bit away from a train-station (if I'm not wrong).
In Rochefort you can, like at Westvleteren, join the monks for their prayer a few times a day in the Abby-church, but no beer there
For Fantôme just send them a mail - they normally answer very quick, but in French
But I would recommend to rent a car - then you can do some nice sight-seeing in that area as well and you reach the destinations way quicker than with busses...

 

the south of belgium is pretty nice. Soy isn't overly remarkable, though. to be honest? i wouldn't go to south belgium for it's looks. belgium's not the most beautiful of countries geography-wise. you get some nice rolling hills in the south, but they're not spectacular. the stalagmite caves are neat to visit, but i wouldn't plan a trip around that either.

beer pit stops: there aren't any that i can think of. everything would be past Fantome.

fantome's the kind of brewery that i'd visit if i had a car and an extra saturday. and i like Dany's beer and I like Dany. it's just a bit of an out-of-the-way travel destination.

 

I would agree with atomeyes post. Wallonia is generally prettier than Flanders (at least to me), but Soy is nothing special. And there is no guarantee what will be available if you visit Fantome, sometimes there is very little beer to be had. It's probably a better option to use your extra day to go somewhere easily accessed by train. If you want to head south, consider Mons or Namur since they are easy to get to from Brussels.

 

Personally, I love southern Belgium...as long as you have a car. If you stay off the highway, there are tons of sights that you just can't get in the US. Castles, medieval churches, quaint riverside towns, etc. If you spend some time to plan ahead, you can make a wonderful day trip, and never spend more than about 45 minutes in the car for any single leg of the trip. I try to include some of an area's history and sights when I travel, so here's my two cents: I was contemplating taking a drive over to Soy, but it was a little further east than I was prepared to go during my last trip. Instead, I went to Orval (worth it for the tour/ruins, and petit Orval), Mardedsous (impressive abbey with a big cafeteria and good food/beer, but definitely more of a commercial feel), and Caracole brewery (great old-timey building made of fieldstone, fun beer selection). Orval is a further drive west that I'd do separately with the towns of Bouillion (wonderful fortress) and Sedan France (biggest fortress in all of Europe) , but you could absolutely hit up both Maredsous and Caracole in the same day, and also visit the town of Dinant (wonderful views of the river, 30 minutes for the ruins of Crevecouer castle, and a couple hours at the Citadel and 13th century town church). Feel free to message me if you'd like a bit more info on stuff like that.

 

Just send Dany a mail (address on their website)- he will let you know when he is there at what is available then: I did this 2 times and it worked out well

 

I'll second Caracole, cool place, great people .

And the beer didn't suck either.

 

A l'Ange Gardien, Orval's cafe, is closed on Wednesday. Unless you are already in the area, it is a day trip down there. I love the place. To me, THIS is Belgium! One thing I will add about hours of operation and closed days. In Belgium, things are subject to change without much notice. An owner wants the day off, he closes. Not too busy in the evening, he closes. Bus/train union wants to go on strike, they do it and they do it frequently (although they usually give notice by a day or two). Keep this in mind. I have called someplace ahead of time and confirm a date and time and they still decide to close. C'est la vie. That is Belgium.

 

As others have said, I was very disappointed with Rochefort. I was hoping for more going on. Truthfully, I think you should head West to Bierhalle Deconinick http://www.bierhalledeconinck.be/en/over_ons.

Kasteel was building a new brewery a couple years ago. Maybe they are open and ready for visitors. There are others in Ghent as I recall.