×

We've got news for you.

Register on SowetanLIVE at no cost to receive newsletters, read exclusive articles & more.
Register now

Underground beer pipeline in Bruges nearing completion

Bruges is a medieval, fairytale city in Belgium where winding canals beg couples to stop for a kiss, cobblestone streets slow time down and where, by summer's end, beer will flow underground.

It may have all the markings of an urban legend, but De Halve Maan brewery is making the beer lover's fantasy come true with the construction of an underground pipeline that will carry suds from the center of Bruges, to its bottling plant outside the city.

The pipeline, which will measure about 3 km by the time it's completed this summer, will pump beer at a speed of 4,000 liters an hour.

However novel it may sound, the project is more prosaic than anything. For 160 years, the Maes family has been brewing beer in the center of the city.

When the company moved their bottling plant just outside the city limits, beer had to be transported to and from the plant in massive tanker trucks, which would rumble through the historic, narrow, cobblestoned streets.

In order to continue operating as one of the last remaining breweries in Bruges and avoid becoming the town nuisance, the family came up with the idea of building an underground pipeline and launched a crowdfunding campaign, pitching it as “social project” for the good of locals with the promise of free beer to their biggest donors.

The appeal worked, with locals pitching in to help fund the construction which is pegged at about $4.5 million.

The pipeline, which is due for completion by summer, is estimated to take 500 tankers off the road a year.

Earlier this year, the Slovenian city of Zalec also made headlines when city officials voted in favor of building a beer fountain, to promote the city's primary economic activity: hop plantations.

Plans call for the beer fountain to be erected in the town square, where visitors will be entitled to three servings for 6 euros, in a commemorative mug.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.