Bruges Beer Museum – a new beer museum – opened last month in Bruges just a stone’s throw from the city’s main square.
The venture is the brainchild of two young entrepreneurs from the city, Thibault Bekaert and his lifelong friend, Emmanuel Maertens.
Bruggeling Lars Pillen is on hand to show me around.
THE TOUR OF BRUGES BEER MUSEUM
The museum is modern and interactive. Visitors receive an iPad mini and Sony headphones and are able to navigate the information in the museum through text, audio and film in one of the ten languages available. The technology is intuitive. Hold the iPad up to the exhibit at which you are standing and it will automatically give you the option to ‘Read’, ‘See’ or ‘Hear’ something about that which you are pointing at.
The museum itself takes you through the history of beer in the world and in Belgium with a nod to the local breweries in the Bruges region. There is information on the role women play in the world of beer and various gastronomic tips on pairing beer with food.
Sofie Vanrafelghem was advised the museum on matters of content. “She’s a great person,” says Lars. “And she really knows a lot about beer”.
An interesting corner of the museum shelves bottles of beer together by style, from Milk Stout to Saison and from Faro to IPA.
They’ve covered one of their walls with a large map so that you can find out about beers around the world and hear more about the history of beer in your own country.
“I’ve worked all around the world in the tourist industry,” says Lars. “But I’m especially excited by this project. And I’m learning so much about beer all the time.”
THE THIRD FLOOR | FOEDERS AND THE TRAPPIST WALL
On the third floor of the museum, they’ve recreated four large ‘foeders’ which imitate those used in the Rodenbach brewery in the production of their Flemish red-brown ales. Visitors have the opportunity to not only find out more on their iPad and headphones about the raw ingredients of beer, but also to taste, smell and feel the grain, hops, yeast and spices which are set out for them inside the foeders. The museum houses several old pieces of brewing equipment which add to the old-worldly museum vibe of the rooms.
On a back wall of the third floor, they have created painted representations of all ten Trappist breweries in the world and visitors have the opportunity to use their iPad to find out more about each one.
Noticeable is that many of the exhibits about beer have below them a children’s exhibit which follows a separate storyline. The children’s journey around the museum follows the search for ‘the bear of Bruges’ who they must try to set free. It was written by the Belgian children’s writer, Peter Verhelst and illustrated with a drawing by Stedho. The children’s story can also be heard in ten languages through the iPad. “We were thinking about having a children’s section,” says Lars. “But we really wanted this to be a family activity that parents and their kids could do together, so we developed the children’s storyline.”
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Lars leads me down to the tasting room, a spacious café style bar area with an enviable view down onto Bruges’ Grote Markt. They have 16 beers on tap and a series of cheeses from Oud Brugge, Chimay and Rochefort. Visitors are offered three beers for tasting after their tour.
So how did the idea for the Bruges beer museum come about? “I went to Prague and visited the Prague beer museum there,” says Thibault. “As soon as I saw it, the idea struck me. Right there and then I called my best friend, Manu, to tell him that we were going to start a beer museum in Bruges. ‘Really?’ he replied. One and a half years later, we’re open”.
HOW IT WORKS
The iPads not only bring an interactive element to the visitor experience but equip the museum owners with statistics on visitor behaviour so that they can see which exhibitions are most popular and how long visitors remain at each one. It’s just the beginning. “We will continue to change the museum to ensure we can deliver the most enjoyable and informative experience for each visitor”, Thibault says. “It may not be designed specifically for beer geeks, but we think that anyone interested in beer will enjoy their visit here.”
THE TASTING ROOM
Thibault and Manu have partnered with Palm Breweries so that they can offer a variety of beers in the tasting room and for financial assistance to secure equipment for exhibits. They’ve got the old work desk of Rudi Ghequire from Rodenbach which sits cosily in the tasting room.
“Although we work with Palm Breweries in the tasting room, we can show we want in the museum itself,” says Thibault. “The museum remains completely objective so that they can display anything relating to Belgian beer culture that we feel is important.”
“We’re really happy with the variety of beers on offer in their tasting room,” says Thibault. “This includes Steenbrugge wit, Brugge Tripel and Palm Hop Select.”
“We’ve also got three quite exclusive beers for visitors to taste,” he says. “We’re really excited to be able to offer Rodenbach Foederbier, Unfiltered Palm and Boon Oude Lambiek”.
It’s not a bad place to have a beer.
