The recommencement of brewing has also been confirmed at the old Straffe Hendrik brewery at Brugge (Bruges) in West Flanders, for some years now the most visited not-a-brewery in Belgium. It is a complicated story but put simply the family that owns the brewery, the descendants of Henri Maes (no relation to the Pils), no longer own the brand name Straffe Hendrik, so they have reverted to the brewery’s old name of Halve Maan (Half Moon).

HALVE MAAN
Huisbrouwerij De Halve Maan
Walplein 26
8000 Brugge
T 050 33 26 97
F 050 34 59 35
E info@halvemaan.be
www.halvemaan.be

Now you see it, now you don’t. Now you see it... When we started preparing the first ever edition of the Guide back in 1988 this small brewhouse in old Bruges, founded in 1856, was called Henri Maes and had just re-opened to brew the beer called Straffe Hendrik. Then its brands got taken over by a bigger brewery called Riva, though its plant remained familty-owned and managed. Straffe Hendrik did very well but the parent company gradually transferred its production to its own plant, leaving the descendants of Henri Maes increasingly cheesed off. The Guide likes what happened next. In 2005, in circumstances that are not entirely clear, the old brewery site became active once more and a new pale ale appeared. With a touch of Flemish irony the new beer’s name translates as Bruges Lunatic. We guess that contractual obligations remain with the Liefmans group in regard to the brewery tap (see West Flanders: Brewery cafés). Tours are plentiful (see Brewery Tourism).

Annual output: <1,000 hl.

Regular beers:
Brugse Zot (6%: ***)
An inoffensive, soft pale ale that will no doubt develop in time.