Brouwerij De Plukker

Brouwerij De Plukker grew from Poperinge’s hop country rather than from a conventional urban brewhouse. Its brewery occupies a former hop-picking and drying shed, linking production directly to the region’s agricultural identity. That connection is more than branding: the brewery’s documented beginnings combine local brewing with Poperinge hop cultivation, giving De Plukker a distinctly West Flemish sense of place. A brewery in a hop shed The brewery was installed on a hop farm in a building once used to pick and dry hops. The former hop kilns were removed to make room for brewing vessels, and the building was adapted for food production. This physical setting explains why De Plukker’s identity is so closely associated with hop farming and Poperinge. From approval to first brew The official application for Brouwerij De Plukker was submitted in 2011, with recognition following in September of that year. The brewery made its first brew on November 9, 2011. Its original batch size was 450 litres; later additions increased brewing capacity to 1,000 litres per batch. The name and the glass The Belgian Beer Glass Museum records De Plukker as a Poperinge brewery represented by a 33-centilitre goblet. Its notes connect the name De Plukker—“the picker” or “the plucker”—with the people and machinery used to harvest hops, while the brewery’s logo reinforces the hop-farm association. A hop-farm brewery whose buildings, name and regional identity remain inseparable from Poperinge’s hop-growing landscape. Poperinge, West Flanders, Belgium 2011 2011: The brewery received official recognition in September and brewed for the first time in its own brewery on November 9. 2016: De Plukker installed an automatic filling line, replacing manual bottling and allowing faster, lower-oxygen packaging. 2025: A De Plukker goblet documented by the Belgian Beer Glass Museum was manufactured, with the Museum noting continued investment in the brand after production moved away from Poperinge.