Close your eyes and take a sip

On why you can be sure of excellent quality when drinking a BFB beer.

We hope that when you are in a pub, you are having too much fun to look down at your bottle. However, if you have a moment to spare, take a peek. Your bottle can tell you a lot. When counting your empty ones for instance, you will know how long you have been sitting at the bar and you can even calculate how much the bill will be. If you have time to read the label, you will get information about the beer and the brewery. You might even learn something about the beer style, the ingredients or the brewing process.

Maybe you are lucky enough to have a beer from one of our members in your hands, a BFB beer as we call them. When investigating the label, you may notice the small black/yellow/red logo. This little sign has a lot to tell you. Did you know it gives you certainty on the quality of the beer you are about to drink?

(c) Erik Verdonck – BeerTourism.com

Only independent breweries that have been brewing beer in the same Belgian family for at least 50 years are allowed to request the label. These brewers are committed to their craftsmanship as it has been passed on in their family with the greatest of care from generation to generation. Not only do they have a profound knowledge of brewing, they also have access to all the little secrets they learned from their ancestors. This inherited craftsmanship guarantees speciality beers with a rich tradition and an outstanding quality.

But not all beers from these breweries are allowed to carry the label. The beer has to be brewed in the brewery and no copies of the beer can be sold under any other brand, name or label. You will find the logo on about 150 specialty beers, each of them very different. In these authentic family breweries, beers with a unique character still find their reason to exist and feed the richness of the tasting palette that is linked to the Belgian specialty beer landscape. But the young brewers are also very keen to innovate. They invest in new equipment and new styles making the traditional breweries ready for the future and bringing authentic new beers to the market.

So next time you are not sure which beer to choose, or if you want something different but still want to be sure of excellent quality, you know what to do. Look for that little label on the bottle, close you eyes, take a sip. And feel free to let us know what you think when finding the label on your bottle! Post your pictures and comments on social media using the hashtag #BFBbeer. We look forward to hear from you!

(c) Erik Verdonck – BeerTourism.com