If your idea of a great weekend is to jump on a bus – or bike – and go on a tour of some of the best breweries in Belgium then the Toer de Geuze is right for you.
What Is the Toer de Geuze?
The Toer de Geuze is more like an open house than a beer festival, but instead of visiting museums and stately homes, you pop into breweries and sample their best tipples. The breweries are free to enter. You don’t even need to book an appointment, although organisers HORAL (High Council for Artisanal Lambic Beers) do provide a bus to take you around the breweries, which specialise in lambic and geuze beers.
History of the Toer de Geuze
The first tour was in 1997, and involved four breweries and two blenderies. Since then it has been held each two years with the 2024 event being the 15th tour.
Toer de Geuze 2024 Breweries
In 2024, 13 breweries and blenderies will be opening their doors. These are: Boon; De Cam; De Troch; Den Herberg; Eylenbosch; Hanssens; Kestemont; Lambiek Fabriek; Lindemans; Mort Subite; Oud Beersel; Tilquin; and Timmermans.
When Is It?
The Belgium beer festival will be on Saturday 4 May (11am to 7pm) and Sunday 5 May (10am to 5pm).
Where Is It?
Addresses for the breweries can be found here.
How to Get About
If you wish to take the bus, departures are from Halle and Denderleeuw train stations. Details of the bus schedule are here. But you can drive yourself or take a bike. But please do so carefully. The bus is free but you have to book a seat in advance.
HORAL Megablend 2024
To commemorate the 15th anniversary, all HORAL’s members have collaborated to produce 34,800 bottles of a HORAL Megablend. If you can not make it to the festival then you can always order a box of 12 via [email protected].
All images provided by Visit Flanders, © Toerisme Vlaams Brabant.
