Ghent city brewery Gruut
Beer wasn’t always brewed with hops. Depending on the region, brewers used “Gruut” instead of hops untill the 14th or 15th century. “Gruut” had the same function of hop, which is to preserve the beer as well as to give it a nice taste. Hop was in those days the exception.
Today, the taxes on beer are determined, based on the alcohol content, but at that time, the taxes were determined based on the “Gruut” use. The right to produce and sell gruut was well protected and often belonged to the church, landowners and city’s.
Today, beers that are brewed based on Gruut are the exception, as hop has become the standard.This is the perfect reason to broaden your horizon, and try these gruut based beers. You won’t regret it.
The Ghent city brewery Gruut was founded by Annick De Splenter in April 2009. Both her mother and father were well known in the brewing world.
Since a lot of knowledge about Gruut was lost over the years, it wasn’t easy to bring this way of brewing back to life, but with a lot of research and help of different universities, they’ve done a great job.
Today, they have 5 beers in their range: Gentse Gruut White, Gentse Gruut Blond, Gentse Gruut Amber, Gentse Gruut Bruin and Gentse Gruut Inferno. A special “Maîtresse” beer is also brewed every few months.
Visit
Ghent is a great city to visit. Many medieval buildings, lots of modern shops, trendy café’s and restaurants… But you haven’t seen Ghent if you haven’t visited the only brewery in town. You can even combine a brewery visit with a boat trip.
A free brewery visit will cost you 20 € per person, a gift package with 5 beers, coasters and a glass included.
The same formula, combined with a boat trip at 4 pm (except Wednesdays and Thursdays) will cost you 33 € per person.
During COVID times, we strongly recommend to make a reservation, and always inform before your visit via booking@gruut.be . During the “Gentse feesten” in july, there’s a brewery visit every day at 2 pm and 4 pm
Guided brewery visits: on reservation only & min. 2 persons. All the info about the visit can be found here .
Address:
Rembert Dodoensdreef 1, 9000 Ghent
Phone: +32 9 269 02 69
