Podge’s Belgian Beer Tours

The Big Limburg Beer Tour

Wednesday 03 September – Sunday 07 September 2025

Abrand new Tour exploring Belgian beer in the the most easterly of the provinces of Flanders, Limburg. To the south of Limburg is the French-speaking province of Liège and it joins the Netherlands to the north. We are based in the capital city, Hasselt at the luxury four star IHG Holiday Inn. We include visits to breweries in Sint-Truiden (the fruit-growing area of Belgium, to Genk (famous for Ford manufacturing and some brilliant beer bars) and to Heusden-Holder, the former coal-mining area, with super beer venues offering coal-mining beers! It's a lovely, varied province, home to the excellent Wilderen Brewery and distillery, which we'll visit. Get on your gas-mask for the Limburger cheese, we're going in!

Oh, Belgian breweries, why do you look so inviting!...

We are based in Chelmsford in Essex and we use a UK hired coach to travel. We try to use Le Shuttle (Eurotunnel) from Folkestone to get to and from Belgium, but if not available we go by ferry from Dover to Calais. Most of our Travellers join the Tour at our main pick up point outside The Woolpack Pub, 23 Mildmay Road, Chelmsford CM2 0DN and most come from other parts of the UK, and some from further afield, especially USA. Lots of our Travellers stay the night before a Tour (and often the night of our return) at Chelmsford Travelodge, only a few minutes walk from The Woolpack or at the Premier Inn, near the Railway Station, about a 10 minute walk to the pick up point at The Woolpack. Podge's Central Chelmsford Map shows suggested accommodation and pubs! We all usually pop in to The Woolpack the night before departure for a meet, greet and a few beers with Siobhan who is your Tour Manager, Tour Guide and drinking pal for the duration.

Our Galloways luxury coach (49 seater coach with toilet) starts from Suffolk and on the way to Folkestone (or Dover if we go by ferry) and picks up at several points, as agreed with Siobhan, as below:

Ipswich, Bus Stop, Tesco Store, Pinewood, Ipswich IP8 3TS.

Colchester, McDonald's, Tollgate West, Stanway, Colchester C03 8RG.

Chelmsford, The Woolpack, 23 Mildmay Road, CM2 0DN.

Dartford, BP Garage (formerly Esso) 474 Princes Road, DA1 1YT. On the return leg we drop off at Dartford Railway Station DA1 1DR.

Swanley, Unit 4, Moreton Industrial Estate, London Road, BR8 8DE.

Ashford, pull in Outside Dobbies Garden Centre, Opposite Premier Inn, Ashford Eureka Leisure Park, Rutherford Road, Ashford, Kent, TN25 4BN.

Folkestone, Shell Garage, Stop 24 Services, J11, M20, Kent, CT21 4BL.

This Tour is now arranged and the detailed, timed itinerary is set out below. If you want to find out about general updates on this and all Tours you can subscribe to our monthly email newsletter - there is a form to do this at the foot of this page. If you would like to join us please send Siobhan an email or call on +44 (0) 7722 724 558 for details on how to secure a place and pay the deposit of £210 per person. The Tour price is at the foot of this page.

The beautiful pair, Westmalle Dubbel & Tripel.

Day 1 – Wednesday 03 September

05.00hr Coach departs from Galloways coach depot at Denters Hill, Mendlesham, Suffolk, IP14 5RR.

05.30hr Coach pick up Bus Stop, Tesco Store, Pinewood, Ipswich IP8 3TS

06.15hr Coach pick up The Woolpack, Mildmay Road, Chelmsford CM2 0DN.

07.00hr Coach pick up at BP Garage (formerly Esso), 474 Princes Road, Dartford, Kent, DA1 1YT (the one with the big McDonalds at the rear).

08.00hr Arrive Le Shuttle (Eurotunnel) Folkestone.

09.20hr Departure of Le Shuttle (Eurotunnel) Train crossing from Folkestone.

11.00hr Arrive/Disembark Calais.

13.00hr Arrive at the Urbancafé in Beernem. The name is something of a misnomer, as it in the middle of a big green belt south of Bruges called the Bulscampveld. We will stop here to slake our great Channel Crossing Thirst and have a meal. The Bulskampveld formerly stretched between Bruges and Ghent and was the largest heathland in Flanders. The first lord of Bulskampveld, Lambert Malfait, converted his farm into a castle which stands today not far from this uber-modern café. The whole of the Bulskampveld was sold to the province of West Flanders in 1970 and opened to the public as a nature reserve. Try one of these newer beers all on offer here:

• Obuz (Passchendaele)

• Dark Love (Blankenberge)

• Zeven Zonden Gula (Kortrijk)

• Blonde Betsy (Bredene).

15.30hr Leave the Urbancafe in leafy Bulskampveld, Beernem.

17.30hr Arrive for a comfort and beer stop on our way to Hasselt at the brilliant Kapelhof Café in the marshland village of Rillaar. This roadside café sports a beer card of over 100 choices. A cyclist friendly cafe because they on the pilgrimage road from Aarschot to Scherpenheuvel. They have a nice big open terrace which should still be fine in September for us to lounge in. All the Belgian Trappist beers are here and they are proud of being Orval Ambassadeurs as well as La Trappe gouverneurs.

18.30hr Leave ‘t Kapelhof in Rillaar, Flemish Brabant.

19.15hr Arrive at the Holiday Inn by IHG Hasselt, our base for the next four nights. There are two Holiday Inns in Hasselt, and this is the posher one on Kattegatstraat! Hasselt is a lovely place and is the capital city of Limburg Province. The evening is free for you to explore this beautiful city armed with a copy of Podge’s Hasselt Bar Guide* and accompanying map*. The Grote Markt and nearby streets are lined with restaurants, brasseries, cafes and taverns. Hasselt is also home to the National Jenever Museum and the largest Japanese Gardens in Europe. Indeed, Hasselt brands itself as the "Capital of Taste", owing to its local Jenever (Gin) distilleries, Hasselt Speculaas (spiced biscuits) and local chocolate production. Sounds like a night out.

A Group of Podge Beer Tour Travellers in their natural habitat, on a Brewery Tour

Day 2 – Thursday 04 September

10.00hr Following a buffet breakfast* we head off by coach for an adventure into deepest Limburg!

10.45hr Arrive at the amazing and beautiful Alden Biesen Commandery in Bilzen-Hoeselt, near the Dutch border, not far from Maastricht. We would recognise this as a moated castle, and it is the largest castle in Belgium. It was founded by the Knights of the Teutonic Order in the 1100s who were a catholic-military order hailing from what is Germany today. They owned lots of separate power bases called commanderies and this one was the headquarters of their Order in the Maas and Rhine region. The Order was founded to aid Christians on pilgrimages to the Holy Land by establishing hospitals, but they also served as a crusading military order for supporting Catholic rule in the Holy Land. The commandery premises are huge and the current buildings date from 1500s-1700s. We’ll have a guided tour* of the buildings and grounds which should look lovely in early September. An opportunity for a breath of fresh air and a leg stretch before beer-time.

13.00hr Leave Alden Biesen Commandery in Bilzen-Hoeselt.

13.30hr Arrive in the city of Genk for a lunch stop. This is a new visit for Podge’s Belgian Beer Tours, though Podge & Siobhan visited there years ago. There are some great beer bars, and you can also get somewhere to eat if you want to with the aid of Podge’s Genk Bar Guide and Map. There is a brewery called Brauw in town which has a big comfy brewery tap and the Patio Bar has 115 beers on the menu. Genk is one of the most important industrial towns in Flanders, located on the Albert Canal between Antwerp and Liège. It’s an old settlement but this area modernised slowly and even by 1900 it was just a small village of landscape painters who painted in the open air. Things were to change when in 1901 large amounts of "Black Gold" or coal was discovered here. After WWI, the village attracted large numbers of Belgian and foreign immigrants, and quickly became the biggest town in Limburg after Hasselt. The main coalmine closed down relatively early in 1966 and Genk had to develop new industries. It did. The Genk Body & Assembly factory of Ford Motor Company was the largest and most important employer in Genk until it too closed in 2014. One of the old coalmine sites, C-mine is a big centre for the creative arts such as games, apps, websites, sets for television, drones and has beer bars too. Genk may not be the picturesque painters village it once was but Travellers will find it interesting.

16.30hr Leave the city of Genk.

17.00hr On the way back to Hasselt we’ll have a stop at a mega-beer café, the Bierpunt in Diepenbeek, home to Hasselt University. This is a spacious beer hall in the centre of the town with a mighty 10 beers on tap and a further 250 bottled choices. There are a handful of these Bierpunt cafes in Limburg Province including one in our base city of Hasselt!

18.30hr Leave the Bierpunt in Diepenbeek.

18.45hr Arrive back at the Holiday Inn by IHG Hasselt, for a night on the town.

Day 3 – Friday 05 September

10.00hr Following a buffet breakfast* we head off by coach north of Hasselt to explore Limburg’s historic coal mining area.

10.30hr We arrive at Marlou Drinks in Zonhoven which is our beer warehouse stop for this Tour. This beer shop has a choice of 1900 different sorts of beer, and you’ll likely find some of the smaller, local breweries offerings here. Travellers will have a chance to stock up on their favourite beers to take home.

11.45hr Leave Marlou Drinks in Zonhoven.

12.00hr Arrive at the old mineworking towns of Heusden and Zolder – now joined together as Heusden-Zolder. Our first stop in town is a brief visit to the first of two bronze statues to miners. Mineworking dominated this area from 1900 onwards when rich coal seams were discovered here, but it’s over 30 years since the Zolder mine closed, the very last coal mine in the Benelux. The old heritage is now being celebrated and brought to life, as we will see today. This elegant 1994 statue shows a standing miner (not a position they occupied once underground) with helmet and lamp, leaning on a drill. If you think he looks classical, you’d be right, as the artist borrowed the proportions and style from ancient Greek sculpture.

12.30hr Leave “The Minewerker” statue and on to the mine works themselves.

12.45hr Arrive at the highly impressive former coalmine complex at Heusden-Zolder. It’s a big site where you can still see the giant remains of the old industry. Before lunch we’ll have a quick look around the ZLDR Luchtfabriek (Air Factory)* which is the huge 1924 building which housed the winding engine, compressed air and oxygen plant, so the miners could breathe in the deep mines. You can walk through the building and see what life was like here and admire the huge machinery. They have a balcony with a beautiful view. Around the square site of the mining buildings you’ll see the tall exhaust chimney of the boiler house and the giant water tower both built innovatively from concrete before WW1. The huge winding gear skeleton can be seen here too and you can’t miss the old slag heap which is still there. It was created from stones separated from the coal in the coal washer, which were transported to the spoil heap by a narrow-gauge railway and later a conveyor belt. In 1997, the spoil heap mountain was sold by the mine company to the Flemish Community. It was sown and classified as a nature reserve. Apparently the slopes on the south side have a special microclimate that warms up quickly and Mediterranean plants thrive there.

13.45hr Leave Heusden-Zolder ZLDR Luchtfabriek (Air Factory) and cross the square on foot to the handsome old main miner’s washroom building which now contains a beautiful restaurant called Lavandi (from the Latin verb “to wash”). On the way there we’ll pass another statue dedicated to the miners whose work made this area so rich. This one is unusual and depicts a miner with a huge pick, and swinging from this are his wife and child. Yes. Perhaps you need to see it. We’ll settle in and have a meal and a choice from their beer menu which includes some coal-mine beers from Kompel Brewery in Maasmechelen, Limburg (brewed for them by Proef Brouwerij). Kompel means ‘mine comrade’. They offer here:

 Kompel Bovengronds (Above ground) this is a thirst quenching 6%abv beer for miners thirsty throats after the hard labour. Re-fermented in the bottle. Ooh, order me one of these while I sort the group out!

 Kompel Ondergronds (below ground) is a 6%abv dark beer reminiscent of the miners faces, working hard in the outstretched underground mine tunnels. Re-fermented in the in the bottle.

 Kompel L’Or Noir (Gold/Black) is an 8.2%abv soft blonde Tripel beer, referring to the black gold or coal. Re-fermented in the bottle.

15.45hr Leave Restaurant Lavandi in Heusden-Zolder. We will spend a little free time here in this old mine complex as there are other café bars around the square, check out The Forum and the Mijnwerkerscafe. If you are feeling energetic after lunch, you could walk up the spoil heap nature reserve. Really.

17.30hr Leave the Coal Mining Complex in Heusden-Zolder.

18.00hr Arrive back at the Holiday Inn by IHG Hasselt, for a little nap then a night on the tiles.

Rochefort Beer at the Abbey on a Podge Tour.

Day 4 – Saturday 06 September

10.00hr Following a buffet breakfast* in our hotel we head off by coach for a day of being driven in a luxury coach around the beautiful fruit growing district of the Haspengouw, including Sint Truiden and the oldest town in Belgium, Tongeren.

10.30hr On the way to our first venue of the day we stop at the first of two large public artworks in the middle of nowhere which Siobhan would like to see. The first is a piece called “Reading between the Lines” and is a see-through church. We’ll hop out of the coach and have a look at this intriguing and difficult to photograph artwork!

11.00hr Arrive at Sint-Truiden to see the second weird public artwork in this area, also, oddly, a church, but this one is called “The Floating Chapel”, and it does.

11.30hr Leave the Floating Chapel at Sint Truiden.

11.45hr Arrive at the Brouwerij & Distillery Wilderen in Sint Truiden. This lovely place is the product of an ambitious project by entrepreneur Mike Janssen. The buildings here go back to 1642 when it was a farm. Beer was brewed here until 1800, but they also had a distillery which ceased production in 1939. Both beer and spirits production are both back in force! Mike opened up here after extensive renovations in 2011. Their beers include the blonde Wilderen Goud at 6.2%abv, the Triple Kanunnik (‘Cannon Triple’) at 8.2%abv, brewed with four types of grain. They also make the malty-amber Betty Ford at 5.2%abv and the ruby-red, liquorice/caramel notes Cuvee Clarisse at 9.2%ab. Their Cuvee Clarisse Whisky Infused at 10.2%abv contains the house-distilled spirit Wild Weasel Whisky. I am told by people who know that the Wild Weasel Whisky is excellent. They have a gorgeous high ceilinged wooden barn to sit in if the weather is inclement or the lovely outdoor terraces, if fine. We all really enjoyed this visit when we were last here in 2023. Siobhan will buy everyone a beer here*, and we can have a wander around this pretty site.

13.45hr Leave the Brouwerij & Distillery Wilderen in Sint Truiden.

14.00hr Arrive at Brouwerij Kerkom also in Sint Truiden. This is such a lovely area and this venue is a very picturesque old square farmyard from 1878. It had a brewery many years ago, and this was revived in the 1990s but has been through challenging times, and the kit here wasn’t used for a while in the 2000s. Now however, the brewer Marc has some help from his friend and master brewer Nino Bacelle of De Ranke brewery, who for the moment is brewing Kerkom’s beers at this site for bottling and distribution. They should be excellent in that case. The beers sold here on site, on draft may well by now be made by Marc here on site. They have the Bink range (Bink means ‘bloke’ and is the name given to locals). They also brew the Abbey beer range Adelardus. Also Hop Verdomme IPA, Kerckomse Tripel and the Winterkoninkske, which has apparently had a name change and is now called Winterbink. Which is a shame as Winterkoninkske is the Flemish name for a Wren, ‘The Little Winter King’. It’s a strong, dark winter beer, but I am pleased to report that the label artwork still sports the little wren in a winter scene. We’ll stop here for a meal and a sample of their beers. Siobhan will get everyone their first beer*.

16.00hr Leave Brouwerij Kerkom in Sint Truiden.

16.30hr Arrive at the excellent Retro Velinx café in Tongeren. We go from super-old to super-modern. This new café is housed within the brand new Velinx centre which is a city theatre and library. This airy, light and attractive café has a gorgeous outside terrace overlooking a lake with black swans. It may be a little odd to come to Tongeren, famed for its Roman origins and the oldest city in Belgium, to visit an uber-modern place in a town, but we are here because it has a great beer list including a house beer brewed for them called Moeder Madonna on draft. They also have 38 other choices including a good selection of locals. Try these:

 Fleur Witbier – Polygoon Beer Firm, Tongeren

 Ambiorocks – Ambiorix Brewery (Broeder Jacob)

 Small Street Beer

 Tungri Blonde

 Toetëlèr (dialect for elderberry bush) Brewery, Tongeren - Blonde

 Toetëlèr Brewery Tripel Amber

 Toetëlèr Brewery Bloesem Bluier – a fresh Tripel with apple blossom.

 Toetëlèr Brewery Speculaas Bier – an amber beer with warm Speculaas biscuit spices.

18.00hr Leave Retro Velinx in Tongeren.

18.30hr Arrive back at the Holiday Inn by IHG Hasselt to “verf de stad rood” (paint the town red).

Day 5 – Sunday 07 September

10.00hr After breakfast* check out of the hotel.

11.15hr Arrive at the Cabardouche Brewery & Tap. This is a first visit for us to a newish brewery and taproom which began in 2012 from a group of young adventurous people. They have installed a brewery and smart glass-fronted comfy tap room under the railway arches in Borgerhout, on the eastern approaches to Antwerp station. They are a craft brewery in the sense that rather than classic Belgian styles they brew innovative combos. They have a core range of:

• Blonde Stoot – gold blonde beer of 5%abv

• Stout Mokke - a 9%abv black beer with a creamy, satin head (I can hear some of you slavering from here)

• Kloeke Diva – an 8.5%abv tripel-style. Described as refined, spicy, with a soft citrus twist.

They do like experimentation and brew over 30 limited edition beers each year and will brew for other businesses, cafes etc if asked. I hope they have on tap the Rode Furie, a 7%abv Raspberry-Pomegranate Sour which is, apparently, fresh, fruity and sparkling pink (a bit like me then). By the way, the name "Cabardouche" is a Belgian (Antwerpian) slang term referring to a type of small, often disreputable, café or cabaret. Apparently it comes from a corruption of the French term “Cabaret Douze” which in turn comes from Napoleon Bonaparte wanting to regulate sex workers and brothels (as he did in Paris). He instituted the categorisation of brothels systematically in order to control them. In the Napoleonic era a "cabaret" of the twelfth category (douze in French) was considered the lowest and roughest establishment. You’ll see references to that industry in this Antwerp brew-pub. They have nine beers on tap, for those who like it fresh, and a bottled menu too. We may hear the trains rumble past overhead or see them from the small outside seating area to the front of the railway arches.

12.45hr Leave the Cabardouche Brewery & Tap in Antwerp.

14.00hr Arrive at de Ramblas Cafe Restaurant on the main market square of Eeklo in East Flanders. We’ll have a meal and slake our great thirst at this nice big beer restaurant at the centre of city life in Eeklo. The Ramblas have 60 beers including 15 Trappist beers. They have a house beer brewed for them by Van Steenberge brewery, called Lotjen. It is a 7.5%abv triple beer with hints of Italian parsley and orange. Better have one of those, then. The beer is named after a nearby city statue of a woman with a cabbage instead of a head. Siobhan will tell you why.

16.30hr Leave de Ramblas in Eeklo.

18.30hr Arrive Calais Le Shuttle (Eurostar) Terminal.

19.50hr Leave Calais on Le Shuttle (Eurostar) train.

19.25hr Arrive Folkestone Le Shuttle (Eurostar) Terminal.

20.45hr Coach drop off at BP Garage (formerly Esso), 474 Princes Road, Dartford, Kent, DA1 1YT (the one with the big McDonalds at the rear).

21.20hr Coach drop Junction Lady Lane & Mildmay Road, Chelmsford CM2 0EA.

21.30hr Coach drop off Travelodge Hotel, 128-136 Parkway, Chelmsford CM2 7GY.

21.45hr Coach drop Premier Inn Victoria Road, Chelmsford CM1 1NY.

22.30hr Coach pick up Bus Stop, Tesco Store, Pinewood, Ipswich IP8 3TS.

23.00hr Coach drop Galloways coach depot at Denters Hill, Mendlesham, Suffolk, IP14 5RR.

Tour Price is £1005 per person price sharing a double or twin room.

Single Supplement: £335 if you would like a room of your own.

The deposit payable to secure a place on this Tour is £210 per person.

Send Siobhan an email to find out how to pay the deposit.

Included in the cost of this Tour are:

Hotel accommodation and breakfasts;

Hotel city taxes;

Luxury coach travel on a 49 seater coach with toilet;

All brewery visits, tours and brewery beer tastings;

Entrance fees to attractions, museums and historical sites;

All items marked with an asterisk above and on the individual detailed tour itinerary when issued;

Copies of Podge’s City Bar Guides and Maps for the town where we stay or spend some time;

Still and sparkling water on the coach;

Pick up from one of our agreed joining points on the way to Folkestone or even on the other side of the channel.

Courier Services from Siobhan McGinn, your Tour Guide.

Travellers are responsible for the costs of all food and drink apart from items marked with an asterisk on the detailed itinerary plus all passport and insurance costs.

All itinerary times are local and approximate.

Personal insurance is not included in the Tour price but is required to be taken out by Travellers on Podge's Belgian Beer Tours, as is carrying the free UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) which is the 2021 replacement for the old EHIC. You can still use your EHIC card so long as it is in date, then you need to apply for the GHIC replacement online.

All Tours are subject to our Terms and Conditions.

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