It was supposed to be Belgian beer’s crowning glory. In September 2023, Belgian Beer World, a sprawling museum devoted to the country’s unique and richly varied brewing culture, opened as part of a $94 million scheme to restore Brussels’ former stock exchange.
Hopes were high that 360,000 tourists would visit in the first year, lured by interactivity, jaunty exhibits, and a huge bar on the roof with a lengthy beer list and a view of the Brussels skyline. In the end, though, fewer than half of that number came — and while potential explanations for this are legion, it undeniably reflects a difficult moment in the long history of Belgian brewing.
Beer sales are dropping fast, particularly exports. Breweries are closing. Bars are struggling to balance the books. “Over the last couple of years, almost every brewer I’ve spoken to — small, medium, and larger — is really struggling,” says Breandán Kearney, author of the recently published “Hidden Beers Of Belgium.” “It’s disheartening.”
Belgian brewers are not alone in their struggles, of course, but the country’s outsized contribution to global beer culture makes its difficulties particularly significant. Should drinkers be worried, too?
Shrinking Markets
Beer sales in Belgium dropped by 5.8 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, while exports were down by 7.5 percent, according to industry association Belgian Brewers. In terms of domestic sales, Belgium is not unusual; the same thing is happening elsewhere, as Yvan de Baets, head brewer, co-owner, and co-founder of Brasserie de la Senne in Brussels, points out. “It’s a tough time for everyone,” he says, “but it’s still scary.”
In terms of exports, though, Belgium is unusual. Seventy percent of Belgian beer goes overseas, according to Belgian Brewers’ most recent annual report. A number of successful Belgian breweries, such as Beer Select in Ghent, are even largely or entirely focused on export.
The global situation, though, is making this approach increasingly challenging. But, as Kearney points out, Belgian brewers have deftly overcome similar export problems before, moving their focus from the U.S. to the BRICS countries to France, as local demand and global politics dictated. Perhaps, he says, they can do it again.
At home, meanwhile, conservatism is setting in, according to De Baets. “Everything [that is] a little bit historical is struggling [to sell],” he says. “Lambic beer is harder to sell these days; same for saison and dark beers. People seem to [be going] towards easy-drinking options.”
Closing Doors
Breweries are also beginning to fall, albeit slowly. According to Mark Van Pee, who has been tracking brewery numbers for consumer group Zythos for the past decade, Belgian brewing’s modern peak came in 2022, when there were 430 physical breweries and 309 “beer companies,” which don’t own brewing equipment. Now there are 413 and 300 brewing companies.
Thirty-six breweries closed last year; 31 more have followed in 2024. “They’re mostly very small breweries,” Van Pee says. “A lot of them are one-man bands.”
But bigger operations are also suffering. De Struise Brouwers, once a global craft darling, has seen its sales slump; Brewery Roman in Mater, family-owned since the 16th century, has decided to postpone indefinitely the construction of a visitors’ center; Het Anker, makers of the iconic Gouden Carolus, is for sale (the official reason given is lack of family succession); and small-scale consolidation — as when two small Ghent breweries, DOK and the Ministry of Belgian Beer, amalgamated in 2022 — is increasingly common.
“We have very loyal customers, and [our customer base] grows step by step, but we don’t see big growth. What we sell is still a niche product in Belgium.”
In Brussels, meanwhile, two breweries have shut this year — most notably En Stoemelings, one of the leaders of the city’s recent brewing revival. It has sold its equipment in order to pay off debts, but will continue to contract-brew. “They were ground down by four years of muddling through,” says Eoghan Walsh, the Brussels-based author of “A History of Brussels Beer in 50 Objects,” which was launched at En Stoemelings in 2022. “They really struggled through the pandemic.”
Many of Brussels’ bars are finding life difficult, too, he adds. Staff are hard to come by or too expensive, and opening hours have been cut.
There are still a lot of breweries, though, for a small country of just under 12 million people with a contracting market. You might assume this would fuel resentment toward the 300 non-brewing beer companies, and it does, but not universally. As Van Pee points out, around 25 percent of Belgian breweries are making beer for these companies. It’s helping them to survive.
New Approaches
In the Netherlands, Belgium’s northern neighbor, beer has been buoyed over the past decade by the rise of American-style, hop-forward craft beer. But it hasn’t taken off in the same way in Belgium, according to Koen Kostermans, co-owner of modern bottle shop/bar Hops ‘N More in the student-heavy city of Leuven.
His most popular beers are IPAs but that’s not typical in Belgium. “We have very loyal customers, and [our customer base] grows step by step, but we don’t see big growth,” Kostermans says. “What we sell is still a niche product in Belgium.” Most of his customers are in the 30–50 age range, as younger people are looking for “volume, not quality.” Many young people, here as elsewhere, are drinking less than previous generations, too.
“It’s not attracting people who have a fascination for beer, and it’s not attracting people walking in off the street.”
Hops ‘N More sells around 20 non-alcoholic beer brands, a sector that now represents around 5 percent of the Belgian market. It’s an opportunity for Belgian brewers, although the cost of technology gives big players an advantage — and that’s not all, according to Kearney.
Family brewers are being pressured by supermarkets and distributors to add non-alcoholic beer to their range or risk losing their entire listing. “So they either have to invest in really expensive equipment or contract it at one of the big breweries,” he says.
Non-alcoholic beer also presents a technical challenge for smaller Belgian brewers, whose products tend to be higher in ABV than their counterparts in Germany or the U.K., for example.
This rise of non-alcoholic beer has gone hand-in-hand with a government campaign against drink-driving, which remains a serious issue in Belgium. ABVs are dropping all over, even if not everyone wants to make non-alcoholic beer. “Anecdotally, I see ABVs going down — either by a point or two, or by [breweries] bringing out new beers,” says Walsh.
The government’s campaign has drawn Zythos’s ire. “We know alcohol is not healthy, but [the government’s view] is one-dimensional,” Van Pee says. “There are lots of positive aspects to moderate consumption of a product like beer.”
Problem Solvers
Belgium’s deep brewing roots may prove a trump card, according to Van Pee. With more long-established breweries, Belgium is less exposed to the problems beer faces in the Netherlands, where recent growth has been more dramatic. These new Dutch breweries had to invest heavily to grow and are now more exposed in a shrinking market. “They’ve been hit hard,” he says.
Belgian Beer World’s problem is different, according to Walsh, who says that it “falls between two stools: It’s not attracting people who have a fascination for beer, and it’s not attracting people walking in off the street.” Brussels citizens were offered free entry in November, and Dirk Lubbers, general manager, is taking a long view. “We’re on the right track,” he insists.
He’s not the only one remaining bullish, despite the tenor of the times. There is an element in the Belgian character, Kearney notes, that has served them well before and will again. “Belgians are pragmatic,” he says. “They are good problem solvers. I think whatever problems there are now, they’ll find a solution.”
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