Friday 15th August 2010

Bob Thompson

Not a crawl in one sense but definitely in another, Moeder Lambic is a new concept in Belgium. It's a bar that showcases an incredibly large amount of draught beers from around the country, so without leaving your seat you can visit, in taste terms, all the small isolated breweries you never expected to ever get to.

My being there was purely coincidental, as I was passing through on my way to the south. I'd booked a hotel in the Avenue de Stalingrad. A friend, from Germany, meeting me in Brussels had a recommendation, and as it was just five minutes walk away, we visited.

Unprepossessing from the outside, see photo above, it had no sign, but significantly, there was no advertising from the national breweries.

Inside, it's one long bar. Decoration is modern café-bar minimalist There are no labels on the pumps, you order from a menu, which categorises beers by taste and style.

On our visit there were twenty-five beers on the pumps plus a further nine "beers of the month".

A speciality of western Brussels are the spontaneously-fermented beers which are brewed along the Senne valley. This almost unknown river runs underground through the city centre. They are extremely sour, an acquired taste, so some have cherries added in the fermentation to make Kriek.

Those in this bar come from two very traditional brewers, Cantillon and Drei Fonteinen, and are served without gas from British-Style handpumps, photo left. There are bar snacks. I'll be back!

Important Information:

Moeder Lambic, 8 Place Fontainas, 1000 Bruxelles. Tel: 02 503 60 68

Open: 11.00 to 01.00 (02.00 Thursday to Saturday)

Website: www.moederlambic.eu
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Anneessens metro: One minute from the easterly exit