Need beer tips and recommendations on how to maximize my time and some personal advice in trying out as much beer possible. a. Best bar/s? b. Shares? Do people share beers at the brewery or bars? I might bring some bottles or cans to share. c. Not very popular brewery other than Cantillon or 3 Fonteinen that I should check out. d. Restaurants! e. Day trips other than Bruges. f. Other personal advice in general.
Bars: Moeder Lambic, (both locations) Restaurants: Nuetnigenough Day trips: Antwerp, Watou Other advice: rent a bike in Watou & ride to Brasserie Thiriez in Esquelbecq France Enjoy your trip, Belgium is great!!
Also, right around the corner from Moeder Originale is the excellent Dynamo. Also, I recommend you go to a Pistolet location and try their exclusive Cantillon, Chouke (my review is up) , as well as their Filet American, an excellent steak tartare sandwich. They also have an exclusive version of Taras Boulba available for to go purchase. Speaking of which, make sure to drink some fresh TB in Brussels. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I found 3F to be head and shoulders above Cantillon, specifically because the brewery only offerings were so fantastic, and the atmosphere was so much more relaxed. I spent 2 days drinking at 3F, and 1 at Cantillon, and while I'm bummed I didn't get around to drinking beers I REALLY wanted to try our revisit, like Lambic d'Aunis or Fou'foune, I can't complain too much. Do NOT pass on the Twist of Fate beers at 3F. Armand is releasing a bunch in July, and you might be there in time to try most of the new druivenlambiks being released, as well as the exceptional Schaerbeekse on a Toast from the previous release. Again, if you're interested, look at my list 30 or so reviews.
While I tend to agree, I think that they are just two wildly different experiences and would highly recommend it to everyone to seek them both out.
They are also open Saturday ( official websites still are frequently better than Google!) Also, for Open Beer Days, they are open Sunday 8th September.
Does the 3F Restaurant have a decent 3F taplist / bottles to go selection? I fly in at 4pm Saturday and not sure I'll make it to the 3F LoD in time before last call.
I tend to agree. For one, I don't want to bother with packing beer when I'm travelling to the greatest beer destination on earth. For another, when I contacted a small brewer in northern Belgium for a visit and offered to bring a few US-oriented beers (NEIPA, BA stouts, etc) for trading/sharing, he was completely unimpressed. This is just my gut feeling, but I didn't get the impression that American styles will get that much interest, and there's no point in bringing an American lambic/wild.
The last time I went to the restaurant was before the lambik-o-droom opened, but back then they had straight lambic and Kriek on handpump, plus a couple of vintage geuze bottles in addition to the standard lineup. I don’t think they did bottles to go as the old shop was around the corner, but I don’t know if that’s still the case.
Thanks AndrewK! I ended up getting a taxi from the airport to L-O-D and made it just in time to order 2 bottles before closing. Didn't end up going to the restaurant so I'm unable to confirm their current setup. Loved the brewery though - such a great atmosphere.
