Bruegel, in fact, wouldn’t be out of place in this café, with its beer steins and folkloric witches hanging from the ceiling, its brown stools and its beer barrel tables. It’s location attracts the tourists, but it’s also full of locals looking out for a beer they haven’t tried yet.

About 150 brews appear in an inch-thick menu, listed alphabetically. There are no descriptions whatsoever. To help you choose, you can limit yourself, say, to the beers on tap. With eight options, most with intense alcoholic percentages, you could easily while away a few hours sipping on some freshly poured classics like Westmalle Triple, Delirium and La Chouffe. Lesser-knowns worth trying are the Barbãr Honey Ale and the St Bernardus 8°.

Or you can order the beer of the month, which changes and features a buy-one, get-one-free offer. This is tempting, but with such a diverse menu, it feels shameful to stick to one choice.

Another option is to ask the proprietor for his suggestion, if you can get his attention. For a bar frequented by tourists, the owner is surprisingly lax in customer service. In fact, he can be down right gruff. But the man knows his beer and, naturally, the poor reception is part of the bar’s legacy.

Your third option for making a decision is the riskiest. Order a Max of the House. This is 1.5 litres of Kwak beer served in a coachman’s glass – a tall, bulbous beaker housed in a wooden container with a handle. Coachmen driving carriages used to use them to have a beer on the road without spilling it.

Brewed by Bosteels in Buggenhout, Kwak is a funky, sweet beer that fosters strong reactions of love and hate (okay, mostly hate). If you opt for this unique beverage at Dulle Griet, consider yourself warned. You will be required to hand over your shoe. The shoe is placed in a basket and hoisted to the ceiling. Perhaps it’s to prevent theft of the wholly unique container or perhaps it’s a gimmick – but it is always entertaining. Fear not – when you return the glass, you get your shoe.

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