We recently took a roadtrip from the Netherlands to the Ardennen in Belgium. Its a beautiful green region that is situated between southeast Belgium, northern Luxembourg and France. The areas we visited were in Belgian region of Wallonia namely the cities of Dinant, La Roche-en-Ardennen and Durbuy. The scenery, weather and history was pleasant. I quickly discovered that there was no shortage of new beers to try, an activity which I found most enjoyable.

I tried 17 beers and I have ranked them in the table below from most favourite to least favourite:

Beer Brewery Rank
Ceci n’est pas un Saxophone Brasserie Minne 1
Maneblusser Het Anker 2
Tripel Karmeliet Brouwerij Bosteels 3
Vinum 30% Chablis Brassierie Minne 4
Slow Focus NEIPA Unseen Brewing Co 5
Orval Orval Brewery 6
Chouffe Light Brasserie d’Achouffe (Owned by Duvel Moortgat) 7
McChouffe Brasserie d’Achouffe (Owned by Duvel Moortgat) 8
Ardenne Belle d’Ete Brassierie Minne 9
Chouffe Brasserie d’Achouffe (Owned by Duvel Moortgat) 10
Dinant IPA(Bierre De Dinantais) Brassierie Minne 11
Philomen Florale Brasserie de Clocher 12
Lupulus Hopera Brasserie Lupulus 13
Bels Pilsener Duvel Moortgat 14
Westmalle Blond Trappist Abbey of Westmalle 15
Ardenne Wood aged in CHablis barrel Brassierie Minne 16
Dinannt Biere Artisanala (Blonde) Brassierie des Legendes 17

Here are some images to identify my top five favourites:

Some fun facts:

  • After I learnt that both the inventor of the Saxaphone (Aldolph Sax) + and the Belgian surrealist artist, René Magritte (Ceci n’est pas une pipe), originated from Belgium. I finally understood the meaning of Ceci n’est pas un Saxophone.
  • The Maneblusser beer literally means extinguishing the moon, the host that served us food in Mechelen told us the urban legend that a drunk man, thinking a Cathedral was on fire, alerted the townsfolk and tried to extinguish the “fire”. Only to later realise it was the bright light of the moon shining through the mist.

The map below displays the locations of the breweries that brew these beers: