A two-day first visit to Hasselt preceded the annual June visit to Antwerp for BierPassie Weekend. The Limburg city is known for Street art, quality food and previously for producing Jenever.
trains to / from Brussels, Leuven, Antwerp and Verviers via Liege. There is also a regular
bus service to Maastricht in the Netherlands.
The centre of the city within the inner ring road is mainly free of vehicle traffic and is criss-crossed by pedestrian passages shown with green stripes on the map.
It's a pleasant city to walk around with plenty of independent record and book shops.
(above right) is also a cafe and had an art exhibition.
There are also interesting older buildings including some where the ground floor frontage has been updated for commercial use. Street art is featured at the end of this post. Beer bars, cafes and taprooms appear below in the order in which they were visited by Tim. Only a few establishments were open on the arrival date, Tuesday 16 June, so these come first.
Cafe Export is sandwiched between Noncha and Cargo at Kolonel Dusartplein 24, just inside the inner ring road. There is space for many outside tables directly in front of the cafe and on the other side of the pavement.
Inside there is a contemporary look with little character except for the vertical wall lights with red shades and red curtains at the front windows.
A separate area beyond the bar is dimly lit with a raised pool table at the far end.
The beer menu includes 12 draught beers, 12 alcohol free beers, 25 Blond /Triples and five Trappist beers. There is a separate cocktails menu.
Tim chose
Kompel L'Or Noir with a coal miner's image on the bottle and matching glass. This 8.2% ABV golden Tripel is on the sweet side and cost €5.20. Brewing Kompel beers began in 2015 at Maasmechelen, Limburg, near the Dutch border and former
Eisden coal mine (1923-1987). It was possible to watch some of the France v Senegal World Cup game on TV here at the same time as music by Michael Jackson and Bruno Mars was playing.
'the sunniest terrace in Hasselt' was a convenient final stop just before reaching the
hotel on the other side of the inner ring road. There is a statue of the twelfth century poet and writer
De Kleine Hal
As it closes at 8pm midweek,
De Kleine Hal was the first beer cafe visited on Wednesday. Outside tables give views of St. Quintinus cathedral.
It was quiet inside and a table by the front windows was preferred for views of the remaining length of the narrow interior which is reached by a few steps down from the entrance level. The traditional interior has a nice collection of brewery signs and mirrors. The Belgian flags are for the World Cup but the bicycle looks more permanent?!
The tiled bar is a nice feature. The printed beer menu lists seven draught beers and a blackboard shows Westmalle Duo as draught beer of the month.
The menu also lists eight local beers, twenty nine bottled beers and there are twelve Trappist beers on another page. Ter Dolen Wit and
Blimke Piepelier are additional local bottle beers shown on the blackboard. Blimke beers are brewed at Microbrouwerij
De Rechter, north of Hasselt's centre.
As it was relatively early, a coffee sufficed on this visit but Blimke Piepelier has been added to Tim's
Untappd Belgian wishlist. Some good music was playing here including tracks by the Waterboys, Jimi Hendrix, The Eagles and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Cafe De Vaart Van Maastricht
 |
| Rear patio garden and front corner of De Vaart Van Maastricht |
After a walk on this hot Wednesday to Cafe De Vaart Van Maastricht, Tim was ready for his first beer of the day.
This is a traditional corner bar for locals and a great place to relax in the shade with a beer. Music from a radio station was playing.
You can play Flemish billiards /
Bumper pool here on the table with blue baize and a hole at each end. There's an unusual stove at the far end of the pub and Hercules, the small (yappy) bar dog is standing next to it in the photo (left above).
Martens Pils is the refreshing draught Pilsner here.
Also from the Martens range, draught
Sezoens Original Blond with it's distinctive glass and branding was a good reason to stay longer here.
A
Facebook post above indicates that Philippe, Joke and Hercules have now moved to a
B&B in the south of France since my visit. Hopefully standards will be maintained in Hasselt with Jasper now in charge.
Z33 Cafe
 |
| Begijnhof entrance and garden with bombed church ruins |
Heading back towards the hotel, passing Bierpunt Hasselt, there was an opportunity to go through the archway into the
Begijnhof and have a walk around the gardens and ruins before a beer break at
Z33 Cafe which has a terrace inside the Begijnhof giving 'the most beautiful view in Hasselt'.
The obvious beer choice from two options was
Romelaar Blond, the Z33 cafe house beer, brewed in Hasselt by
Brouwerij De HopHemel. It was served with a small bowl of complimentary high quality roasted peanuts. Good value for €4.50 when you like nuts! The upper level of the cafe overlooks the Begijnhof and the
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture.
 |
| Panaramatoren and view from top of Bierpunt and Zuivelmarkt leading to St Quintinus cathedral |
Before leaving the Begijnhof, the free opportunity was taken to ride the lift to the top of the Panoramatoren and view the city. A winding stairway is also available!
Stout
At Minderbroedersstraat 28,
Stout occupies the premises previously used by
Bakkersdochter.
The upmarket bakery and cake shop has moved to larger premises next door at No. 32.
At 5pm on a Wednesday it was a quiet time before Stout closes at 6pm.
Opening hours, events and the beer range are listed on
Untappd and a first beer check-in earns an 'I've been to Stout' badge. Branded tote bags and t-shirts are displayed on a wall near the entrance. There are no draught beers but there are some jars and packages of food and snacks on shelves as well as fridges displaying canned and bottled beers. The fluorescent colours of the can designed by
Karl Grandin for
Omnipollos Flora Session IPA simplified the choice for Tim and the extra pale beer also suited his taste.
For a beer brewed at
Omnipollos Kyrka (Omnipollo's deconsecrated church brewery in Sundyberg, Stockholm), €6 seemed fair for drinking on the premises.
De HopHemel
The
Brouwerij De HopHemel Taproom is near Hasselt station at Bampslaan 21.
The entrance to the large room is reached from a wide archway.
The bar is at the street end of the room. Draught beers are listed on a blackboard above the taps between the front windows.
There are also clipboards with menus for draught and packaged beers. Draught beers are €5 but the serving may be 15cl, 25cl or 33cl with guest beers and stronger house beers served in the smaller measures.
Tim's first beer was HopHemel Verona Hoppy Helles which was more dry than expected.
The taproom has many interesting features and decorative details.
The courtyard extends behind the main building with strung hops, outdoor seating and windows to the brewery in a single storey side building.
HopHemel Quintinus Hasseltse IPA was suggested as a next choice and this was more suited to Tim's taste. The names for HopHemel beers are taken from saints' names as shown in the
Druivelaar, a Flemish daily tear-off calendar.
On a quiet evening it was nice to get the chance for a brief chat with Steven Broekx (left) and Geert Vandormael who met in 2012, began brewing in 2017, incorporated Brouwerij de HopHemel in October 2020 and opened their Hasselt taproom in November 2022. They kindly posed with the first two issues of Berkshire CAMRA Branches magazine '
Pubs & Pints' that Tim left for reference.
Tim was grateful that they were able to sell him a rare can of HopHemel Adelheid, a Barley wine infused with oak chips soaked in apple cider distillate from the local Haspengouw region. This is one of the five beers in the 'Unusual Suspects' category in the '
Hidden Beers of Belgium' book written by Breandan Kearney with photography by Ashley Joanna.
In July 2021, Breandan Kearney also contributed a comprehensive Belgian Smaak post '
A Place in Blossom' about the brewing key players in the Haspengouw region, including Brouwerij de HopHemel.
Grand Cafe 't Hemelrijk
It was nearly 8pm on arrival at Grand Cafe 't Hemelrijk. Most customers were seated around the front terrace.
Inside, a table was chosen away from the bar with a view towards an open front window and terrace beyond.
In conjunction with
Brouwerij Haacht, the current bound menu features pop art by
Stephan Bar that is also on display inside the cafe.
Tim was pleased to a favourite beer in the bottle section - Super 8
Flandrien (€4.90) a Blond beer flavoured with hop, coriander, oak and vanilla. It was served with a complimentary small bowl of nuts and savoury bites. A local beer on the menu is Belgian Craft Beer Company /
Bier Van Hoge Goesting Coccinelle Tripel.
A conservatory area at the back has a darts board and table football. Music playing here included tracks by Paolo Nuitini and Duffy.
Café René
Conveniently,
Café René is next door to 't Hemelrijk at Hemelrijk 9. Once again it was empty inside as all the customers were outside.
From the well illustrated ring-bound beer menu,
Ter Dolen Kriek appealed to Tim and is brewed 15km away in the
Ter Dolen castle brewery in 'Limburg's green heart'.
The 4.5% ABV Kriek is sweet and has cherry and almond flavours (€4.90).
Music playing here included tracks by Sting, ELO, Bob Sinclair and Marvin Gaye.
Jenever Museum
 |
| A Juniper tree in courtyard of Jenever Museum |
Before the train to Antwerp on Thursday, there was time to visit the
Jenever Museum at Witte Nonnenstraat 19. A temporary exhibition included an upended tractor with ball and chain attached, a spoof Jenever post featuring
Boerke (Dickie), a Belgian comic strip character created by
Pieter De Poortere.
 |
| A Pieter de Poortere illustration of museum layout and linked photos |
A post by Derek Blyth for
The Brussels Times mentions 'The Jenever Museum in Hasselt occupies an ancient brick farm that once belonged to the order of White Nuns. It was turned into a distillery in 1803 and converted into a jenever museum in 1982'.
After a walk around the brick floored museum, where Jenever is still produced using the traditional methods, with a leaflet giving English translations of information boards, it was time to taste a jenever / elixir in the bar / shop (included in the ticket price).
 |
| Jenever Museum Sint-Lambertus + Google Translation of rear label |
It would have been rude not to buy a small bottle of the same blackcurrant flavour jenever / elixir to take home!
Other references
Other cafes and bars (unvisited)
 |
| Lto R: De Egel; Fietsbar; Cambrinus |
De Egel (The Hedgehog) at Zuivelmarkt 64, near Bierpunt, was closed.
Fietsbar, Het Dorp 35a, is a cafe combined with a bicycle workshop.
Cambrinus at Het Dorp 25, recommended by Steven and Geert at De HopHemel, is almost next door to Cafe Van Veldeke.
Batopillo (2005), an artwork depicting a man with propellors powered from a backpack, by the Belgian artist, sculptor and inventor
Panamarenko (Henri Van Herwegen, 1940-2019) is mounted on a stainless steel pole outside
De Dry Dagonders brasserie, Botermarkt 28, on a corner near Café René.
Street Art
The front room with an angled corner has windows with stained glass. 
We found a table in a large room further back with copper lampshades and windows onto Rheinstrasse. 
A large painting at the back of the wood-pannelled room features a Düsseldorf Altstadt waterfront scene which apparently dates from around 1890.
There's an English menu card that lists three beers - Alt (dat leckere Dröppke 'that delicious little drop'), Radler and Hosen Hell. 
Hosen Hell, brewed in Bavaria, was introduced in 2026 and is named after Düsseldorf-based band Die Toten Hosen (the dead trousers) who have a longstanding relationship with Uerige.
We took a direct train from Düsseldorf Hbf to Wuppertal-Vohwinkel, walked to the western terminus of the Schwebebahn at Vohwinkel and boarded a coach of the suspension railway. 
We travelled above roads and the curving Wupper river, the full 13 km length to the eastern terminus at Oberbarmen. The coaches sway slightly as they are hanging from a central point.
We got off here and walked to Wuppertal-Oberbarmen for a direct train back to Düsseldorf Hbf via Wuppertal Hbf.
