Toer de Geuze 2019

It wasnt as crazy as during quintessence but they also had a limited menu if I remember correctly. So not all vintage and limited bottles were available. But I think they had extended hours, but I think they have also been staying open later for the last year so maybe not much of a difference

 

Grote Dorst will be busy for sure, not necessarily mobbed, but certainly quite busy. Alex is right about the menu to, unless you show up early, they may very well be out of a bunch of vintages. But if you do go early for 10am, there's no reason you can't spend a couple hours there and also swing by some more Lambic brewers/blenders in the afternoon.

 

FYI — 3F, and probably Girardin, won't be participating. Apparently both are on the verge of leaving HORAL, the organization that runs it. Was at 3F today for a quick beer and was told the report is true.

 

Girardin was never a part of toer de geuze, they always claimed they were too busy to have that many people visit the brewery, but losing 3F will be a big loss. That was my favorite stop in 2017. I’ll just have to go a few days before the toer (like everyone else probably will).

 

Even without 3F in I would so love to do this, but my wife would never allow it! I'd have to carry some sweet Lindemans with me for her and I'm sure that wouldn't be allowed.

 

De Verzekering Tegen de Grote Dorst normally has extended opening hours, it gets crowded but nothing unbearable especially if you get there early in the day. The usually also host a BBQ that might require buying a ticket in advance but earlier that day should be fine.

 

I'm planning a trip to Belgium next Spring, and I'm aiming to be there for the Toer De Gueze. I've never been to Belgium, let alone the Toer. Can anyone spare a minute to explain how it works? (I've done some searching, but there isn't much detailed info)

Do you need a car to do this? Or are there shuttles? About how far apart are most of the participating breweries?

If anyone point me to some resources that might explain the situation to a complete newbie, that would be fine too.

 

Thanks a lot for the info, and the map is very helpful. Even if it's not 100% accurate, it gives me an idea of the locations and distances.

 

The HORAL shuttle busses are a great way to go. They pick up at the Halle train station parking lot in the morning and drop back off in the late afternoon/early evening. Halle is only a couple train stops outside Brussels with frequent service.

You have to prepurchase tickets to the specific shuttle you want to take (each one has a tour guide and goes to a different combination of four locations). The tickets go on sale on the HORAL website a couple months before the toer, I’m sure this thread will be updated when the routes are announced.

 

As to how feasible this is by car, I have been chauffeured twice now and we did all or almost all breweries fairly easily, we didn’t do all brewery tours obviously. In two days you could definetly do everything.

As to what to expect, guided tours for most, beers to drink and to go, some breweries do new releases to coincide with the event but this is no guarantee maybe some snacks nothing insane but always fun if you like lambiek and small quaint breweries.

 

I was driven around by friends so I cannot help you there unfortunately.

 

Ticket sales now live! Found the posts on this site really helpful trying to piece together organising a surprise trip for my partner's birthday! Thought I would post my two cents on getting it sorted for future attendees:

Travel plans

1. Booked Eurostar at bargain prices of £65 return for each of us (London to Brussels) just after Xmas
2. Organised an Airbnb close to Bruxelles-midi station - Halle station (one of the pick up points of HORAL coach shuttles) is just 10-20 minute train away and preferred to stay in city as we are going to have few extra days after look around
3. https://www.horal.be/en/toer-de-geuze - had link to book tickets for the coaches. Went live on 4 January, they'd posted info about coach routes about a week earlier. Each coach is scheduled to visit 4 breweries each day. There were a couple of combinations which means you got to 8 different breweries if leaving from Halle on Saturday and Sunday.

Other coach pick up points in 2019

• Bezoekerscentrum 'De Lambiek', Gemeenveldstraat 1, 1652 Alsemberg
• Station Denderleeuw, Stationsplein

Buying tickets
Wasn't sure how popular tickets for shuttles would be so dutifully went to website at launch of ticket sales time. The tickets didn't go live on time, when I checked back after an hour it said they were all sold out save for one or two tickets but seems that was just teething problems as two hours on there was happily full availability on all the routes. *Phew*. I'd been looking at how feasible it would have been to cycle as a contingency....glad it didn't come to that.

See you on Route 9 on both days in 2019!

 

Of course route 9 on Sunday sold out immediately, considering it was the only one that had De Cam and Hanssens (since those are the two Sunday-only locations that are exciting).

I snagged bus 6 on Saturday and bus 4 on Sunday.

 

me and my group of friends got lucky, bus 1 on saturday and bus 9 on sunday funday