Cantillon Brewery

Brussels


Beer lovers shouldn’t miss this unique living brewery-museum. Atmospheric and family run, it’s Brussels’ last operating lambic brewery and still uses much of the original 19th-century equipment. After hearing a brief explanation, visitors take a self-guided tour, including the barrel rooms where the beers mature for up to three years in chestnut wine casks. The entry fee includes two taster glasses of Cantillon’s startlingly acidic brews.

Expect plenty of cobwebs, as spiders are considered friends of lambic’s spontaneous fermentation process, which occurs (winter only) in a vast, shallow copper tub in the attic room.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Brussels attractions

1. Recyclart

0.51 MILES

This ‘arts laboratory’ recently moved from its old graffitied central Brussels location to Molenbeek. It hosts art installations and theatre productions,…

2. Josephine Baker Mural

0.52 MILES

In one of the most distinctive Marolles murals, slinky chanteuse Josephine, with a leopard on a lead, shakes hands with a rotund monk. Behind, both in the…

3. Jardin d’Enfants

0.56 MILES

Victor Horta's first civic commission, the charming Jardin d’Enfants in the Marolles still functions as a schoolhouse.

4. Tibet & Duchâteau

0.59 MILES

This mural very effectively depicts a life-sized figure teetering towards a trompe l’œil window.

5. Église Notre-Dame des Riches Claires

0.6 MILES

From a public courtyard off Place St-Géry (go through the black steel gates next to the bistro La Lion St Géry), there's a view of Église Notre Dame des…

6. Au Lion d'Or

0.61 MILES

The vaulted 1811 brick, neo-Gothic Au Lion d’Or building bridges a branch of the Senne River.

7. Zinneke

0.66 MILES

In the old Bruxellois dialect, zinneke means ‘a person of mixed origins’, which sums up the city’s inhabitants to this day. Hence Flemish sculptor Tom…

8. MIMA

0.66 MILES

On the banks of the Brussels Canal, the engaged and engaging Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art (MIMA) showcases contemporary art with a permanent…