Huge Museum Celebrating Belgium Beer Culture Opens in Brussels

Belgium is cementing its status as beer capital of the world with a brand new museum, opening Saturday in Brussels.

Belgian Beer World takes the place of the former Brussels Stock Exchange, a neoclassical structure renovated at a cost of €90 million (96.25 million USD). The museum strives to illustrate why the country’s beer culture is so noteworthy while providing an interactive history of the spirit’s origins.

Visitors will learn about brewing all the way back to the Middle Ages, when beer was an alternative to polluted water and hops were first introduced as a preservative, up to the present. Modern brewing methods involve up to four separate fermentation methods, which patrons will be shown as well. Each tour ends with a beer, recommended by a virtual bartender, on the building’s rooftop bar.

The country produces around 1,600 beers, with Belgian beer culture making UNESCO’s global list of traditions worthy of preservation in 2016. Yet this is the first museum on par with its reputation. Brussels is home to an older, much smaller institution that features only older brewing equipment and a modicum of information. "It's very typical of Belgium. We are too modest. We are someone who says 'maybe it's not necessary'," Brussels city Mayor Philippe Close said in a statement (via Reuters).

Belgian Beer World expects to see about 300,000 visitors in its first year. Tickets cost €17 (18.20 USD) for adults, and €14 for seniors (60 and over) and students (16–25). Children of all ages are allowed into the museum at varying rates, though presumably they won’t get the post-tour beer.