Poperinge beer and hops

A cart used in hop yards for stringing outside the Hop Museum

Staying in Poperinge from 24-27 October, 2025, gave an opportunity to visit some local bars, walk around the town, visit the annual beer festival and to make side trips to Ypres and Westvleteren. See other posts for: Folk games in Poperinge pubs; Ypres and Westvleteren; Poperinge Bierfestival.

Cafe de Snoek

Near the railway station terminus, Cafe de Snoek was visited with Graham, after we returned from Ypres by train on Friday night. Nearby Cafe Britannia had looked more inviting earlier that evening but it had closed in the meantime.

It was well lit inside and we found a table with a view of the bar which was decked with hops. The draught beer range included Jupiler, Cristal and Rodenbach Classic. 

Tim chose bottled beers here - St Bernardus Tripel (€4) and later Tripel Plukker (€4) shortly before 'last call' at 11.45pm. Although the St Bernardus Tripel seemed dry for a Tripel, the Tripel Plukker now brewed nearby at Terrest Brewery was impressive, especially for head retention.

Bistro de Stadsschaal

At Gasthuisstraat 7, Bistro de Stadsschaal has an impressive frontage. There is also a back entrance which leads to the toilet block and the courtyard of the Hop Museum.

The courtyard features a large poster with a map of the Belgian part of the Westhoek region showing breweries, hop gardens and the hop museum building. 

While Graham and Les visited the hop museum, Tim and David went inside the Bistro which has an upmarket style. Draught beers include Stella Artois, St Bernardus Tripel Blond, Poperings Hommelbier and Queue de Charue Ploegsteert Blond.

Despite knowing it as a dry beer, Tim ordered Poperings Hommelbier (€3.50) as it seemed the most appropriate place to taste it again. The entrance to the Hop Museum could be seen through the window from our table.

The extensive bottled beer list includes 13 Belgian blonde beers and 11 in other styles. Brewed nearby at Terrest Brewery, De Plukker Keikoppenbier, a 6.1% ABV 'hoppy blonde', is derived from a nickname (stone heads) given to people from Poperinge by their long-time rivals in Ypres.

Having completed their visit to the Hop Museum, Graham and Les joined David and Tim and later our group headed north and east along Gasthuisstraat towards GAST and the town centre, passing Skindles Guest House built in 1720 and historic Talbot House on the way.

GAST

GAST (Guest - 'our name stands for hospitality') is on the other side of the road at Gasthuisstraat 24. 

The beer cafe with 12 draught beers was opened by Ines and Kim in July 2023 after ten months of renovations.

Inside, there's a lot of exposed brick and greenery including hops. The seating and tables are in a basic contemporary style.

Tim's choice from the draught beers and listed on the 'suggestions' blackboard was Terrest Golden Tripel, served in a thin stemmed 33cl glass. The printed menu lists 16 bottled beers in the Blond section and a wide range of other beers at competitive prices e.g. St Bernardus Extra 4 €3.4, Poperings Hommelbier €3.6. A visit to GAST, suggested by David (above right) was a good idea. 

When we were ready to leave for Poperinge Bierfestival, Kim suggested that we should try Soesol there, the first available beer brewed by Brouwmens  - three Poperinge friends - Pepijn, Jordi and Michiel. Reader, we followed Kim's advice.

D'n Hommelzak

Later on Saturday, David, Graham, Mark and Tim left the beer festival for a meal at D'n Hommelzak (The Hop sack) which is situated at Paardenmarkt 10b, above the Carrefour Express and reached by a door to the left of the supermarket entrance followed by stairs. Having arrived later than the others while waiting for the rain to ease, Tim was directed to a billiards and snooker room where the others were already seated at an overflow table, due to the main bistro room being completely full. 

Photo: Mark Geeson

Mark and David were full of praise for their steak dishes while Tim and Graham also enjoyed their spaghetti based meals. Yves, our genial host was most accommodating and as well as serving us personally was keen to chat and see if any of us had an interest in football. We had to disappoint him on that score! 

The menu features a variety of bottled beers with Poperings Hommelbier and Tripel Plukker among many Blond beers. The draught beers are Stella Artois, Palm and Leffe Blond.

We told Yves that he can expect a reservation for a visit from a larger contingent of our festival-going friends next year.

Other cafes and bars in Poperinge

Apart from three featured in the Folk games in Poperinge pubs post (Het Mysterie, In den Havermuis and De Legen Doorn), the two below may justify a visit in future:

The Old Fiddler

De Nieuwe Toren

Poperinge Bierfestival 2025

It was nice to be invited to join a group of CAMRA friends on their annual trip to Poperinge for the beer festival on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 October 2025.

The 28th edition of Poperinge Bierfestival was held in Zaal Maeke-Blyde, a concrete barn-like building with a car park in front.

It's located north of the town centre but only a short walk away.

Poperinge itself is near the French border and just over an hour's drive from Le Shuttle terminus near the Channel tunnel entrance just west of Calais. 

Poperinge has a railway station with an hourly train service to Antwerp via Ghent stopping in Ypres and Kortrijk. (Ghent is served by frequent trains from Brussels. Kortrijk is served by hourly trains from Lille.)

On arrival at Zaal Maeke-Blyde, there is a self service cloakroom area before reaching the ticket desk. With free admission, it is only necessary to purchase a 15cl tasting glass (€5) and tokens (€2 each) before entering the hall which has no windows and lighting with colour effects making it difficult to take photos and see the true colour of beer in a glass. Entrance to the good quality toilets involves a payment of €1 fee which earns an ink stamp on your hand to qualify for further use on the same day.

A useful four page programme lists all the beers and the location of the 25 individual brewery stands located at the four edges of the hall.

My first beer on Saturday afternoon was one that had been recommended to us on a preceding visit to GAST. Brouwmens Soesol is the first beer brewed by three friends - Pepijn, Jordi and Michiel - who met in Poperinge and discovered brewing during the coronavirus period. It's a pleasant 6.5% ABV Blond beer.

The official welcome and opening of the festival, organised by Bierclub Poperinge, took place in mid afternoon with toasts from the stage. This would be the only break from the continuous amplified music from the stage where Gregoir was on permanent duty as DJ.

The hall could easily seat over a hundred people at round tables and there were people of all ages from Belgium and beyond. Cheese, ham or crab baguettes could be purchased for 2 tokens (= €4) from a counter near the entrance.

Lupulus Fructus & St Bernardus Prior 8

Many of the stands around the hall were for small local breweries like Brouwmens but there were a few larger breweries including Leroy Breweries with Hommelbier, Brouwerij St Bernardus from Watou and Lupulus. 

Terrest Golden Tripel & De Plukker Rookop served by Valerie Van der Bauwhede

Valerie Van der Bauwhede brews Terrest Brewery and De Plukker beers at Terrest Farm outside Houlthurst. In the Keikoppenbier section of his book Hidden Beers of Belgium, Breandan Kearney writes 'In the summer of 2023, Valerie Van der Bauwhede started interning on [Joris] Cambie's [De Plukker organic] hop farm as part of an 'introduction to agriculture' class.' This weekend, Valerie was serving beers and answering questions about them at Stand 25, near the entrance to Poperinge Bierfestival.

Having enjoyed Tripel Plukker at Cafe De Snoek on Friday, Tim tried three more beers brewed at Terrest Brewery during the festival including De Plukker All Inclusive, an 8% ABV Blond featuring eight hops: Cascade; Fuggle; Centennial; Challenger; Goldings; Phoenix; Pilgrim and WGV.

At Stand 16, Brouwerij St Bernardus shared with Brouwerij Kazematten. After reading a Belgian Smaak post by Breandan Kearney about Kazematten and it's unusual location behind the ramparts of Ieper (Ypres), Tim added Wipers Times Tripel to his Untappd Belgian wish list. On Sunday evening, he was finally able to enjoy drinking it!

At Stand 1, near the entrance, two tokens (= €4) were needed for a glass of Brouwerij Werbrouck Tripel Blond with added Poperingse Patron Picon (17% ABV). This was a memorable way to enjoy a final Sunday drink at the festival. Located in Roesbrugge, near the French border, the family brewery was founded in 2018 and brews with Poperinge hops.

After a few beers, it was easier to accept the coloured lights and constant pop music and get used to a couple of tunes that were played regularly for DJ Gregoir to get a response from the drinkers - The Poperinge Song (Poperinge, Poperinge chorus) and Sweet Caroline (video above)! 

Before closing time on Saturday there was even a conga line circling around those still seated that can be viewed above.

Sunday night was less busy but our group again stayed on until after the closing speech and the lights were turned up.

Thanks to the festival organisers, breweries, friends in our group especially Terry for driving and Mark for accommodation etc. Thanks also to the kind people at the festival who gave us spare tokens and shared tipples with us! See you in Poperinge in October 2026?!