Brewing Beer Collaboration on the Streets of Brussels: Beer Project Brussels

by Myles Fry

I set out this past Wednesday to meet up with one of the co-founders of Beer Project Brussels - Sebastien Morvan - to talk about the company, how the set up of the brewery had been going, and some of the beers they offer.

When I arrived at Dansaert street in Downtown, Brussels I was a little early for the interview, so had a look around. 

It was funny that I did, because that's when I caught Sebastien delivering a few cases of beer to a local pub. 

So, we got introduced and I asked him if I could lend him a hand. He said, "yes," and we got under way delivering the beers. 

We walked down the street a ways to the pub, and I helped him shuffle in the cases, while he did inventory sheets with the bar. 

I was able to take the opportunity to witness their work and customer relations first hand, which was pretty awesome.

A few empty cases later, and we headed back over to the building site for the new brewery. Sebastien discussed with me some of the details they had in mind for the 5400 sq ft warehouse.

He showed me where the new German brew house, and 4,000 litre Italian made fermenters would be housed.

And, he even showed me where the tasting bar was going to be set up, so that the people could walk in off the street and test the brews.  

On issues setting up he said, "you always have delays, but it takes time to get permits and registrations... but, stuff is like that everywhere. 

"It's even maybe less so in other countries, but it's still a burden."

"We had to wait months, and months, and months paying rent, just to do the paperwork," but he also added that it had been, "So far so good."

If you read my blog post leading up to this one you'd have seen that Beer Project Brussels is "a newly crowdfunded company who has started up a micro-brewery in the center of Brussels."

Not to mention their beer for life scheme, which to that Sebastien had to say, "I can't wait till 2025, people come in 12 years later, they get still their 12 beers every year. It's a cool feeling." 

The concepts mentioned in the latter are just some of the things that make them different from traditional breweries in Belgium.

But, the one main difference they see between themselves and other Belgian breweries is that they have an open minded philosophy towards beer. 

In other words, they don't want to keep secrets on how the beer was made, and on top of that, they want to help others co-create and come up with new ideas for beer as well. 

It's an innovative idea for the Belgian world, and it's also promising for beer lovers too. 

I had the pleasure of tasting all four of their gorgeous beers, and even got some feedback from Sebastien about them.

DELTA [6.5% ALC Organic Belgian IPA] - "A fusion between new and old," this beer was picked from the prototypes to be the pilot beer for Beer Project Brussels. 

DARK SISTER [6.66% ALC Belgian Black IPA] - "The evil twin"

GROSSE BERTHA [7% ALC Organic Belgian Hefeweizen] - This is a blend between a "Hefenweisen and Triple." 

BABYLONE [7% ALC Bread Bitter] - This guy is made from "recycled bread," and "Chinook hop." 

After few beers later, I managed to sneak in the question about his and Olivier's plans for the grand opening. 

He managed a quick smile before he said that it would be "something special." What a way to leave a guy hanging! 

It's all okay though, because after the talk about Beer Project Brussels' newest beer in the making -"A Camomile Pale Ale fermented in Pinot Grigio," - I have the feeling that it's going to be real tasty. 

Note:

Unfortunately, while you can't find Beer Project Brussels beer state side just yet, there are plans to get them to America in the coming future. 

Keep your eyes and ears open!