Visiting Brouwerij De Halve Maan

While in Bruges, Belgium, we decided to take a tour of the brewery De Halve Maan (The Half Moon), which according to them is the only brewery really inside Bruges' town center.

During winter they have hourly tours between 11am and 3pm, in English, Dutch and French, and they are limited to 50-60 people per tour. They quickly show you the new brewery where they brew today, and then spend the rest of the time showing you the old brewery. Please note that you have to walk up and down some very steep stairs (240 steps in total, allegedly), so this tour might not be for everyone.

The 45 minute tour is €5 per person, and it includes a glass of Brugse Zot at the end, so it is quite good value.

Visiting Hook Norton Brewery

Being in the Cotswold area, we dropped by Hook Norton Brewery on the way back to London. As it was Bank Holiday Monday, there were unfortunately no brewery tours, but at least the shop and museum were open.


The variety pack (£10.50), different to the one on their website, contained:

• Twelve Days [4/6]
• Haymaker [3/6]
  
• 303 AD [3/6]
  
• Hooky Bitter [4/6]
  
• Old Hooky [4/6]
  
• Hooky Gold [3/6]
  

They also had two more bottled beers, which I of course also bought to have a complete "set of eight":

• Double Stout [3/6]
  
• Cotswold Lion [3/6]
  

I have tried two of these before, and as I liked both of them, I look forward to tasting the remaining six.