Brouwerij De Halve Maan

In Bruges, Brouwerij De Halve Maan keeps a working brewery rooted in the city centre while carrying six generations of Maes family brewing into the modern era. Its identity is unusually place-bound: beers are still brewed at the historic Walplein site, while a 3.3-kilometre underground pipeline carries finished beer to the bottling plant beyond the old city. The result is a brewery where heritage and practical innovation share the same address. A Bruges family brewery The modern family story begins in 1856, when Leon Maes—also known as Henri I—became owner of De Halve Maan. The brewery’s official history describes an earlier tradition of brewing on the site, followed by successive generations of adaptation: English-influenced techniques in 1867, bottom-fermented beers from 1919, and continued investment under the Maes family. Today the brewery remains in Bruges and is led by the sixth generation. Tradition carried underground De Halve Maan’s most distinctive modern project is its beer pipeline, completed in 2016. It links the historic brewery in central Bruges with the bottling facilities outside the city, allowing brewing to remain at the original location while reducing tanker traffic through narrow historic streets. The Belgian Beer Glass Museum also records how this infrastructure appears on Brugse Zot glassware, making the pipeline part of the brewery’s visual identity as well as its logistics. A brewery expressed through its glasses The brewery’s serving culture is visible in its branded glassware. Museum records identify De Halve Maan glasses for Blanche De Bruges, Brugse Zot and Straffe Hendrik, including a goblet for Brugse Zot and a tulip-shaped glass used across the Straffe Hendrik range. These pieces connect individual beers to the brewery’s Bruges setting and to the recognizable half-moon and jester imagery associated with its brands. A historic Bruges brewery whose family continuity is matched by an unusually modern way of moving beer through the city. Walplein, Bruges, Flanders, Belgium 1856 1856: Leon Maes became owner of Brouwerij De Halve Maan, beginning the documented Maes family era. 1867: Henri II and his brother Achère introduced English-influenced brewing methods after visiting England. 1919: Henri III invested in new installations, enabling production of bottom-fermented beers. 2005: Xavier Vanneste revived the brewery with the launch of Brugse Zot. 2016: The brewery completed its 3.3-kilometre underground beer pipeline between the city-centre brewery and bottling plant.