Belgium & Sweden Trip

[mcs84]

BNer's ,
I will be going to Belgium and Sweden for 3 months starting Sept. 7th-Nov. 30th for work and would like to visit as many breweries/beer related events as possible during my stay. Any recommendations?

Thanks!

[PseudoChef]

Not a lot of good beer in Sweden, unfortunately. It's also expensive as hell. You can also only buy beer (other than a pub) at the Systembolaget.

For an otherwise awesome country, the alcohol laws really suck.

[MikeB]

My thoughts on the Belgium part of your trip:

See if you can hit Dupont Brewery in Tourpes during their open house near the end of September. We missed it last year by one week.

If you want to tour Rodenbach Brewery in Roeselare call ahead to see what days they have a tour scheduled.

Visit Drie Fontenien in Beersel if you like lambics. There is both a restaurant and lambic blending facility/tasting room with the same name near each other.

Drive to Saint Sixtus Abbey (near Poperinge) and pick up Westvleteren beer. Make sure you call ahead to arrange your day to pick up the beer. You can come away with 3 cases of Westvleteren 12 if you time your visit right.

I think Cantillon in Brussels has an open house event, but I'm not sure when. In any case, you can visit and walk through the brewery anytime.

Buy Good Beer Guide Belgium by Tim Webb. It lists pubs and breweries in every region of Belgium.

Stock up on the Belgian beer, so that you have something good to drink in Sweden.

[dunleav1]

If you go to Stockholm, go to the old city, the kings castle, and the Vasa museum.