Category: beerblog

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Beer shops in Brussels: Malt Attacks

I started a new project. I will visit all the independent craft beer shops in Brussels and put them in the spotlight. Here is my first article: Malt Attacks

About Malt Attacks

Beer shop Malt Attacks was founded in 2014 by Antoine. He is very passionate about craft beer and decided to make his love for beer, his work. At that time there were not many beer specialised shops in Brussels yet, but over the past decade things have changed a lot, especially consumers interests. Hoppiness spoke with Antoine about his beautiful shop in Sint-Gilles, close to metro Porte de Hal.

What is your specialisation?

Antoine: ‘We have a very big selection of craft beers, not just from Belgium but from many different countries, mainly European (like France, Estonia and the UK) but also from America and Canada. We don’t have industrial beer, we only stock independent breweries. We have a lot of different beer styles, a huge gueze selection and a big alcohol-free craft beer section. Besides beers we also have natural wines, ciders, spirits and beer glassware. And we have our own beer advent calendar on sale at the moment’

How do you choose the breweries & beers that you will stock?

‘I am in contact with most breweries myself, through the years I discovered a lot. I often go to beer festivals to discover new beers and breweries. I also have a partnership with Dynamo Bar and Hops ‘n More in Leuven, we often order beers together to save costs. ‘

What else can be expected at Malt Attacks? Do you often have events?

‘This coming weekend we have a ‘meet the brewer’ event with the brewer of Babeleir. He will talk about the brewery and their beers will be for sale. I plan to do more of these kind of events in the near future. It’s always so nice! I am also working on a web shop for easy ordering and I can deliver in Brussels. I’m also hoping to repair our growler machine soon so that my customers can come here again for special beer from a fresh keg..’

And now a personal question: what is your favourite beer?

‘I love drinking gueze beer so there are many favourites there. If I have to name one brewery I will actually go with a brewery from the UK, Track Brewing in Manchester. They make a lot of hop forward ales and everything is so good!

Malt Attacks
Av. Jean Volders 18
1060 Saint-Gilles
Brussels

Website: https://www.maltattacks.com/

More photos on our Instagram.

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Open Brewery days at Westmalle Trappist

Last week I visited the open brewery days at Westmalle Trappist. It was a well organised event with a parcourse throughout the whole place. Lots of info on the history, but also on the brewing method and the ingredients. For instance:

Did you know their beers are brewed with the whole hopflower and not with pellets?

The Art Deco copper brewing system from the twenties was amazing to see, as well as the huge new brewing room.

I also spotted some barrels of fresh yeast, ready to be picked up by the Trappist brothers of West-Vleteren. Did you know they pick up fresh yeast at Westmalle before every brew?

It was great to look around and see how it all works for them. At the end there was an enjoyable tasting with their homemade cheeses. Yum!

More pics and video on Insta or Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/p/DPMj6m3jA_b/?img_index=1

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Heritage Days at Hoppiness

Wow! What a weekend it was at Hoppiness Brussels!🤩

Last weekend the Heritage Days were taking place and especially for this year’s theme Hoppiness hosted eight workshops about the influence of the interwar years and Art Deco on Belgian Beer Culture. I prepared this workshop together with my colleague Helene from Hoppyz. She did the same workshop in French and English at her house, while I hosted in Dutch and English.

What a pleasure it was to dive into our history and taste three beer styles from those years with so many visitors on both Saturday and Sunday.

We tasted:

– Fresh 20 month old lambic straight from the barrel from Brasserie Cantillon, Brussels oldest brewery.

– Silly Scotch brewed for the first time in 1918 from Brasserie de Silly, who celebrated their 175th anniversary the same weekend.

– Palm Speciale brewed first in 1929 by Brouwerij Palm, in the speciale belge style that was brought to live by Belgian brewers at the beginning of the 20th century to compete with foreign ales.

A big thank you to Urban Brussels for organising this beautiful weekend and to all those lovely people that joined!

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Our new T-shirt!

Price: 25 euro

Email us to order one in your size ( mens/ladies) and we will include free delivery in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Or join us end of August for our XL beer tasting!

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Interview with Beer Idiots

Beer Idiots came to visit my tasting room and asked a lot questions about me & my business Hoppiness Brussels
Thanks so much for coming Ahmed! And sorry about being a little camera shy; I can talk about beer for hours, but when there is a camera in my face it suddenly seems harder to find my words 🙂

Find the interview here on youtube:

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Women’s International Trophy Mainz

Last week I was in Mainz for the Women’s International Trophy. The Women’s International Trophy is a unique event in Germany and a top-level tasting: wines, beers, and spirits from all over the world are tasted by an international jury made up entirely of women. All the tasters, sommeliers, oenologists, etc. are experts in the field. It was great to be part of this event again and taste so many excellent beers!

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Belgian Beer World – discountcode

Did you know that the Bourse building in the centre of Brussels (the former stock exchange) is built on top of the remains of a 13th century convent? The bourse building was recently completely restored and inside you can find a beautiful walk way, a café, restaurant and Belgian Beer World, an interactive museum experience about beer.

A ticket to Belgian Beer World will also include entry to Bruxella 1238, the museum underneath the building. Inside is allegedly the tomb of Duke John 1st of Brabant, known as Gambrinus, the legendary king of beer.
We have a collaboration with the museum and you will get 10% discount on tickets bought online using this link: https://tickets.belgianbeerworld.be/tracker?tracker_code=95G2NS

It’s also possible to hire me as a guide for your visit of Belgian Beer World. (ENG/NL). You can contact me directly by email for this or contact BBW for a package deal and ask for me.

discount Belgian Beer World
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Newsletter April 25

Our newsletter was send out this week.

You can read the newsletter here in PDF.

Don’t want to miss the Hoppiness Highlights?

Subscribe now and receive our monthly newsletter!

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Concours International de Lyon

I had a great time in Lyon last week. Two days of judging beers for Concours International de Lyon and meeting so many beer friends (again) and discussing beer together. It was an interesting and well organised event and it was lovely to discover the beautiful city of Lyon as well.
Definitely an experience to remember!