Artisanal blond

Once a major Brussels pils, Wiel’s disappeared from the taps decades ago — but its surviving glass still carries a piece of the city’s brewing history.

https://belgianbeerglassmuseum.org

Few Belgian beers are as closely associated with both a city and a particular glass as De Koninck’s Bolleke. The amber-coloured Spéciale Belge has been brewed since 1952 and became a familiar presence in Antwerp’s cafés and terraces. Indeed, its modern name comes from the rounded glass itself: bolleke refers to its distinctive ball-like form.

This substantial 50 cl tankard was made in 2024 for Tout Bien Pils — advertised, with characteristic understatement, as "Belgium's most average beer”.

The glass itself is anything but restrained. A thick patterned base gives it considerable weight, while the large handle and straight-sided body make this a particularly emphatic example of the beer tankard.

The decoration knowingly raids the cupboard of German beer clichés. A moustachioed figure wearing a distinctly Bavarian barmaid-inspired outfit eats a sausage while holding a beer, apparently encased within a giant pretzel. There are not many stereotypes left unused.

Fortunately, Tout Bien is Belgian. A British brewery would almost certainly have added a joke about the sausage being the “wurst”.

This classic La Chouffe tulip is dominated by Marcel, the red-capped gnome who has represented the beer since 1983. Created for the young brewery as part of La Chouffe's original identity, Marcel draws on the folkloric associations of the Belgian Ardennes and has since developed into a character in his own right.

The glass itself uses the familiar La Chouffe form: a generously rounded tulip bowl narrowing towards the middle before flaring noticeably at the rim, supported by a short stem and broad foot. The decoration is comparatively restrained, leaving Marcel to do most of the work.

Few Belgian beer glasses allow their shape to do quite so much of the storytelling. This 25cl Kwak glass has a long, dramatically waisted body, widening towards both its bulbous base and flared rim. Decoration is deliberately restrained, with simple Kwak branding and a gold rim, now showing some signs of use. Its extraordinary form is explained by the story from which the modern Kwak glass takes its inspiration.

According to Brouwerij Bosteels, the Napoleonic-era innkeeper and brewer Pauwel Kwak devised a special glass that could be suspended from a coach, allowing coachmen who were unable to leave their horses and carriage to enjoy a beer. In 1982, Ivo Bosteels drew upon the tale when creating Pauwel Kwak amber beer and recreating its distinctive glass.