Traditional brewery tours, tastings, bike rides, food pairings, canoe trips, open cellar days and concerts: in October, everything in the Pajottenland district of Flemish Brabant, south-west of Brussels, revolves around Lambic and Lambic Month. Lambic is a type of Belgian beer brewed from raw wheat and wild yeast in wooden casks and fermented for at least a year. Visitors to the Pajottenland can now experience the world of legendary Geuze and Kriek beers through some 40 different activities.
New this year is the ‘Passport Lambiekland’, which allows visitors to collect stamps at various ‘stops’ - from breweries to old Lambic cafés. The card is a must-have, encouraging beer lovers to tick off as many addresses as possible. ‘We hope that people will visit all our breweries to get all the stamps. This can only strengthen the Pajottenland as a beer destination for tourists,’ says Tom Dehaene, who is responsible for tourism in Flemish Brabant Province.
Lambic is a type of beer that is only brewed in the Pajottenland and the Valley of the Senne in Flemish Brabant. This beer is essentially the base product for a whole range of Geuze and Kriek beers.
Putting classic beers in the spotlight
The event is another special opportunity for the province of Flemish Brabant to highlight its unique beer heritage: ‘Thanks to the brewing method and spontaneous fermentation in wooden barrels, Lambic is the “champagne of beers”, a beer that cannot be found anywhere else in the world,’ says Dehaene: ‘In other words, Lambic culture is unique also in the Flemish beer landscape. That is why we are fully committed to making the Lambic experience another tourist attraction.’
Beer tourists from at home and abroad need to be able to plan their foray into the Pajottenland. For this reason, the Visit Vlaams-Brabant website has a separate platform in Dutch with all the information about Lambic Month.