Located in the old center of Bruges, owned and operated by the Maes family for 6 generations.
The tour started in the modern brewhouse (1997) and continued into the old brewery, now a museum allowing a glance into pre modern brewing. We past through the old malting kiln, open fermenters, conditioning tanks straight out of Space Odyssey and even a koelschip.
De Halve Maan’s claim to fame (besides the excellent beers) is their 3.2 kilometer long pipeline. High gravity beer is transported from the brewery to the packaging plant, where it’s brought down to regular strength and bottled or kegged. This has allowed the brewery to remain in the city centre while reducing their environmental footprint.
So in short, visit beautiful Bruges and stop in at de Halve Maan for a history lesson, we sure enjoyed it.
