Malt Attacks

(© Saskia Vanderstichele)

Hear, hear, beer lovers: there’s a new specialist beer shop in Sint-Gillis/Saint-Gilles. Malt Attacks stocks a wide variety of Belgian and foreign beers, by independent breweries and small producers. Good news for budding brewers, the shop has some homebrewing equipment on sale as well. Owner Antoine Pierson graduated as a historian, worked an office job for the last ten years, but broke free and decided to open a beer shop. He settled down on avenue Volderslaan, next to wine and bookshop Cépages. Open the door and enter beer land, with Belgian brews on the left, foreign beers on the right. Amongst the 120 different bottles, you will find the entire range of the Brussels Brasserie de la Senne, which belong to the shop’s most popular beers. Antoine is quite proud to stock Brasserie Fantôme (from Soy in the province of Luxemburg/Luxembourg) as well. Nearly all their bottles are exported, so they’re quite hard to find. For those who love the American-style hop beers, the brews by De Ranke or Brasserie La Rulles won’t disappoint. If this holiday season, you would like to serve beer as an aperitif, Antoine suggests an old, crisp gueuze (by Cantillon, for instance). Round off the meal with a full-bodied Christmas beer, you’ll notice that many Belgian breweries come up with a special one for the end of the year. Over to the foreign beers, with bottles and cans from England, the Netherlands, Denmark and the US. From the popular Scottish BrewDog and Danish Mikkeller, to the lesser known, small breweries such as the London-based The Kernel or the craft canned beers by Westbrook from the US. Or try the Norwegian Two Captains Double IPA on tap, available in customised and reuseable Malt Attacks bottles. And if you’re up for a challenge, you’ll find some homebrewing equipment at the back of the shop. A beer tasting corner is coming up too. Cheers!

MALT ATTACKS ●●●
avenue Jean Volderslaan 18, Sint-Gillis/Saint-Gilles, 02-534.96.88, www.maltattacks.com, di/ma/Tu > za/sa/Sa 11 > 19.00