Belgium has world's best beer pub
For the third year running the international beer website RateBeer has declared the Belgian inn appropriately named 'In de Verzekering tegen de Grote Dorst' (meaning 'Assurance against Big Thirst'), the best and cosiest pub in the world. This famous address can be found in Eizeringen, a hamlet in the Flemish town of Lennik, near Ninove. So, once again, its patron Kurt Panneels can add another golden medal to his cabinet.
The local pub mainly attracts those who love the so-called lambic beers, which are its speciality. Lambic is one of the last remaining original beers. It is created after spontaneous contamination by yeast and bacteria that are found in the brewery and in the air in the Valley of the Senne and particularly in the Pajottenland district to the west of Brussels. Wild, untamed micro-organisms in other words. The still beer matures in wooden barrels, and can be drunk as it is, but is generally diluted into geuze, which continues its fermentation in the bottle, and forms the basis of fruit beers, such as the cherry variant known as kriek. It is also the only pub in Belgium to list Bokkereyder, a creation by the best young brewer in the world, Raf Souvereyns from Hasselt.
And to top things off: the list of the 100 best brewers in the world also includes an icon from the province of Flemish Brabant, namely the traditional geuze distillery 3 Fonteinen in Beersel.
In de Verzekering tegen de Grote Dorst is normally only open on Sundays from 10 am until 1 pm. The inn will be celebrating its 175 anniversary in 2017 and especially for the occasion doors will remain open until 8 pm.