Ça sent la bière - Brussels Bar Explorations

Brussels Beer Explorations

Including a couple of the Belgian capital's best bars, a Jacques Brel statue (from whence the post title comes), Punk IPA opportunities and Japanese psych rock. 

It was about time I went back to Brussels to negotiate an orderly withdrawal from the EU 
...to drink lots of beer and watch some noisy live bands.

I checked into my hotel, in the vicinity of the Avenue Louise shopping district and Palais de Justice.  From there I navigated my way down to the old town and made a bee-line for the crowds gathered around the inexplicably popular Manneken Pis. 
Just across the road from this is one of the cities most famous and characterful bars.

Multi-coloured bicycles on the walls, but still not detracting tourists from photographing the urinating toddler.

Le Poechenellekelder (Rue Du Chene 5 - web)
You've gotta love a bar full of mannequins and other assorted odd decorations.
Don't you?
Or perhaps I've just been affected by coming-of-drinking-age when ramshackle, cluttered 'olde ale houses' were all the rage.

That lengthy name roughly translates as 'puppet cellar', with the building once housing a puppet theatre.
My mid-afternoon visit was good timing to get a great table near the bar and efficient, friendly service.

There were three beers on tap, but a wealth of delightful bottles available from a hefty beer menu. From this I picked 'La Guillotine' - an 8.5% ABV Belgian pale ale by Brouwerij Huyghe.   Gutted that Newbury Tim beat me to the 'losing your head pun' on Untappd.
To accompany this, I ordered myself a tasty & filling plate of Spaghetti Du Chef.

This is the kind of place that you could happily linger, sampling a few beers and enjoying the fantastic surroundings.

When you strike up a conversation with him, you know you've had too many of those 8% beers.

But I didn't linger too long, as just a little further up Rue du Chȇne is a small square, where a bar I'd heard a lot about was situated.

Gist (Oud Korenhuis 30)
Gist focuses on micro breweries from Belgium and beyond and, unusually, serves a couple of them on cask.
I grabbed myself a 'Mongy IPA', brewed by Brasserie Cambier, hailing from somewhere in northern France.
Music comes from a big vinyl collection at one end of the bar and, on my visit, favoured wicked noisy psychedelia.  Which suited me down to the ground as I had tickets to see Japanese psych-rockers Acid Mothers Temple this evening.
Some bonkers music and a great beer list - I couldn't resist staying for a second, this time 'Pigeon', a 3.5% ABV sour IPA (?!?) brewed by La Source Beer Co.

Jacques!

Now, do you really need to visit Brewdog when in Brussels?
Probably not, but I was curious.
Their Brussels branch, opened in 2015, is located in the modernist buildings by Central Station.  This was, in a past-life, the headquarters of Belgian national airline Sabena.

Brewdog Brussels (Putterie 20 - web)
Once inside it's all very familiar to anyone who's visited a Brewdog-or-two: industrial-chic decor, big white beer-boards above the bar, neon signage, and seating ranging from canteen tables to high stools and wooden blocks.
Super-quick service ensued, despite the bar being pretty busy.  So quick that I was put on-the-spot to make a hasty choice from the list of 30+ beers.  I opted for a 'North X Temescal IPA', before twigging that North Brewery are from Leeds and it wasn't really the plan to come to Brussels for Yorkshire beers.  Nice as it may have been.

Looks familiar

Walking a fair way through the city centre, I made my way from Central Station eastwards, calling into the great Brussels Beer Project en-route.

Crossing the canal, it was ten-minutes walk further on to get to Magasin 4. If your musical taste takes in grungy, alternative, noisy & experimental delights, do check out Magasin 4 - it's a cracking venue.
And as an added bonus they serve several different types of local No Science beers in bottles for under €3.00.  'Heavy Porter' in hand, I picked my spot to stand and enjoy the psychedelia of Acid Mothers Temple.  

Acid Mothers Temple at Magasin 4.

More Belgian beers and bars and waffle (the written type) in part 2 shortly...