People travel here from all over the world to experience this distinctive, traditional beer culture – from each beer being served in its own special glass to the rich variance in styles. Yet overall beer consumption among Belgians is down, leading to the demise of many neighbourhood cafes and craft breweries.

“Belgian beer culture is well known, but not in Belgium,” explains Tom Robbroeckx, one of five founders of De Verhuisbrouwerij, or The Moving Brewery, a unique, non-profit organisation with a mission is to preserve beer culture by educating the public – where they live.

The moving brewers bring the act of beer brewing to the masses. They travel around the country with a caravan specially equipped with all the necessary gear – essentially a mobile brewery. They go to a new site each month, brewing at a variety of locations, from public events like Waasmunster’s Easter Fair to private parties. Their free, daylong demonstrations cover the entire brewing process (with the exception of fermentation and bottling).

The idea is to get people thinking more about the beer that they drink. Robbroeckx notes that despite the fact that there are more than 600 different kinds available, beer drinkers in Belgium today overwhelmingly choose bland, mass-produced lagers like Jupiler and Stella Artois.

Most people also won’t take the trouble to go to a brewery for a tour. But seeing and smelling the brewing process first hand piques their interest. And talking to the passionate and knowledgeable Verhuisbrouwers just might influence their behaviour.

“If Belgian people stop drinking local beers, they’ll disappear,” says Robbroeckx. “If we get two or three people who, after our brewing demo, buy something different than a lager beer, we’ve succeeded.”

There are now seven brewers onboard the mobile brewery, all with regular day jobs. Each of them has a chance to come up with their own beer recipes to try out and perfect at the weekend brewing demos. As a "home brewer", they are not allowed to sell the beer they brew, but once they have a recipe that everyone agrees is good, they take it to a brewery and have a small quantity produced for sale. This allows Verhuisbrouwerij to make enough money to cover their expenses.

You can find two of their brews in specialty beer stores. The Trisser is a solid tripel with a nice touch of hoppy bitterness and the Lustem is a clever cross between a German dunkelweizen and a Belgian wheat beer.

For the Zythos beer festival in March, the Trisser recipe was made by three different breweries: De Proefbrouwerij in Lochristi (Trisser XI), ’t Hofbrouwerijke in Beersel (Trisser XII) and Brouwerij de Graal in Brakel (Trisser XIII) – creating an exceptional opportunity for tasters. There are surprising differences between the three, even though they share common ingredients.

The Trisser came in fifth place in the Zythos consumer’s choice award (out of 292 beers), despite the fact that many people neglected to write down which version they liked best, which disqualified their votes.

The brewers have been surprised by the overwhelmingly positive feedback; they now get about 65 requests a year for demos. Last summer, they were even invited to brew for the Canvas television show about Belgian beer, Tournée Générale. Balancing brewing with the film crew’s need for the perfect take proved to be an arduous task, but the brewers enjoyed the opportunity to interact with hosts Ray Cokes and Jean Blaute, and it ended up being one of their most remarkable brewing sessions.

Brewing at a different site each month incurs its own set of unique challenges. With a mobile brewery, one vital ingredient is never consistent: water. This means that one batch will never taste quite the same as the next, even if it’s the same recipe. Other obstacles the moving brewers have encountered include forgetting crucial ingredients – like yeast – and having to send someone back to get it and a frozen water line when brewing in frigid December temperatures.

Barriers like this would be enough to deter most brewers, and that’s why there is probably not another mobile brewery like this. But the Verhuisbrouwers are remarkably flexible and good-humoured, and they remain dedicated to their cause.

“A brew day where nothing goes wrong is a boring day,” says Robbroeckx.

Meet Verhuis
13 June, from 14.00
Beerse Bierfestival
Wijklokaal Hemelrijk
Stadionlaan, Beerse, Antwerp province
www.verhuisbrouwerij.be