‘t Brugs Beertje – Kemelstraat 5, 8000 Brugge
A side street bar, a legendary location to the south of Grote Markt, ‘t Brugs Beertje is the must visit venue in Brugge. Many Belgian bars have exhaustive lists of bottled Bier, this must have been a pioneer of the genre. The array of tap Bier ain’t too shabby. The array of glasses is immense. Every Bier must be poured in the correctly branded glass.
The bar is in the front room, a smaller room behind leads to the facilities, nothing has changed here in decades.
To the rear is a locked room which is made available to larger groups as was discovered when twenty of us descended upon the place.
Opens daily at 16.00, Wednesdays excepted, until midnight; 01.00 on Friday & Saturday.
In July 1997, Michael and Hector made a day trip from Brussel to Brugge, we were assured that the city was worth a visit, and ‘t Brugs Beertje was the bar to visit. It was a Wednesday, and this bar still closes on this day.
We returned on the Thursday and met Daisy Claeys the legendary proprietor. Somehow, she sussed that we were serious about our Bier. She suggested we try Hanssens Kriek at 6.5% The bottle had no label, just a chalk mark. The EU eventually insisted that they must have a label on their bottles.
Poured by the lady herself, into the appropriately labelled tumbler glass, an historic moment, never forgotten. Hanssens, cheek-suckingly-sour, remains my favourite Kriek, especially when accompanied by a plate of Gouda, smothered in Celery Salt.
Since then, many a Bier has been tried, the Hector has a limit of two Krieks at one sitting.
