The last weekend of September BXL Beerfest stood on the agenda. It was the 5th edition of this beer festival, held in Tour & Taxis in the north part of Brussels, close to Brasserie de la Senne. With more than 60 breweries and 300 different beers served, it promised to be a good beer-centered weekend. Also, this would be a unique opportunity to try new wild beers, and above all, meet some of their producers!
Besides amazing Belgian and international breweries, the festival hosted an artisan corner with local artisanal food like cheeses from La Fruitière, or lambic vinegar from Sainte Odile. Furthermore, on the food court outside some good food options could be found, for example, Maison Antoine with their famous fries, and Holy Smoke. Their fatty and salty brisket bun was a good pairing for a tart and refreshing lambic. During the festival, several tasting events were held too with some of the best breweries (Cantillon, Bofkont, and Tilquin). However, I didn’t have tickets for these. Last but not least, beers to go were sold in the on-site shop. Both days I couldn’t resist and had to take some gems home.
Available Beers
With more than 300 beers to choose from, this festival was an excellent opportunity to try and taste new wild beers. Some weeks before the festival the BXL Beerfest app was launched. This application included an overview of all the breweries and beers that were poured at the festival, and the option to save favorites. After scrolling through the full beer list, I selected over 70 wild beers, for which I would need 184 tokens (€1.5 per token). In other words, choices were to be made as both my liver function and budget were constrained. Therefore my strategy was to focus on the beers that I would normally not be able to taste in Belgium, focusing on international breweries and limited edition or hard-to-find Belgian beers. Some of the beers that I was most looking forward to trying were from the following breweries: Crossover Blendery, Yazoo, Dundulis, L’Aipasée, Insight Cellars, Levain, Buddelship, and Antidoot.
Favorites
The total list of wild beers I tried is simply too long to post here, so I’ll focus on some of my favorites. Starting with Crossover Blendery’s The Pershores 2022. This spontaneously fermented golden ale, as they describe their type of beer, is a fruity, tangy, and refreshing blend of 1, 2, and 3-year-old spontaneously fermented beer refermented on Yellow Pershore plums from Worcestershire. An amazing lambic type beer!
Other beers that I was eager to try were the Danish wild ales from Insight Cellars, the Baghaven spin-off from Kopenhagen. I tried several of their beers, and they were all excellent. My favorite was Maturation: Bocoy 2021, Danish wild ale that aged for 2 years on a very old chestnut wood Oloroso Sherry Bocoy cask, blended with a small amount of Danish wild ale that aged for two years on a traditional oak wood Olorose barrel.
Levain had been on my radar already too and this was my first opportunity to taste their beers. Their Maceration Reine des prés Mélisse was truly something else, an intense citrussy smell paired with a smooth and slightly sour taste made this a thirst-quenching pearl.
Belgian favorites included an amazing whisky barrel-aged kriek from Hof ten Dormaal, and Koji Gueuze from Brussels Beer Project. The first one had some added complexity and spiciness from the whisky barrel compared to a traditional kriek, and the koji gueuze was just an exceptional gueuze. Fresh, complex, and with fruity and vinous notes.
Unfortunately, Antidoot’s beers were sold out very quickly and I wasn’t able to try their beers in the end. On top of that Okidoki’s Math or Magic, a grape saison aged on milky oolong tea leaves, was sold out too when I wanted to try. However, their natural wines and cider were excellent too.
Meeting the Brewers
This festival was a great way to meet some brewers. Earlier this year I met one of the organizers of BXL Beerfest at a Lambikstoempers event, and he was so kind to put me in contact with some of the brewers before the event. With some of these, I sat down to have a talk and ask some questions for this website. Furthermore, I chatted with other brewers too and the first steps have been made in some future interviews. In the future, you can expect articles about Yazoo, Crossover Blendery, Okidoki, and Dust.
BXL Beerfest was a fantastic festival! Lots of new wild ales, lambics, and overall amazing brews. On top of that, it’s the perfect place to have a chat with the people that make the beer. I’ll definitely go again next year and suggest you do too. Together with ‘Tour de Geuze’ this should be a no-brainer for your (Belgian) beer agenda.