A new microbrewery opened in 2005 in a suburban village between Mons and La Louvière in northern Hainaut. It is said to produce a blond and an amber beer, plus maybe a wheat beer. There are plans to open a tasting room on the premises though the place is said to look like a building site right now.

Annual output: <250 hl.

What this clinical description fails to mention is that Barbiot’s labels have enraged some more nationalistic Flemish beer lovers by featuring a picture of the canal lift at Strépy-Thieu in northern Hainaut. This magnificent edifice has left the Central canal with possibly the world’s finest canal lift, a worthy partner to the amazing "sliding lock" at nearby Ronquières, built in 1961.

Flemish meanies suggest, on the frankly rather flimsy grounds that it is only used by a couple of boats a day for its intended purpose, that it should not have been subsidized out of public funds. However if you approach public building projects on the principle is that their main purpose is to appear as backdrops for pix of Earl and Maisie do Europe 2010 then Strépy-Thieu is an ohmygod unmissable masterpiece.