Antwerp — Ben's 40th at BierPassie Weekend

Antwerp for Ben Brown's 40th — a long weekend built around beer, friends, and one of Belgium's great cities. The centerpiece is the BierPassie Weekend, Antwerp's beloved festival of Belgian beer, but the whole trip is the point: cobblestone streets, café terraces, a soaring cathedral, and a city that takes its beer as seriously as anywhere on earth. This is the notebook for it — the festival, what we drank, and the photos.

The BierPassie Weekend (Beer Passion Weekend) is Antwerp's long-running celebration of Belgian beer, and 2026 marks its 25th edition — held June 19 to 21 in the restored Handelsbeurs, the city's stunning old stock-exchange hall.

• The pour — more than 200 Belgian beers, around 90 of them on tap; tiny breweries and classics side by side.
• How it works — entry is free; buy a Biersommelier tasting glass (a 20cl glass, about €5) with a catalogue, then pay per pour and taste your way through.
• The hours — Friday 17:00 to midnight, Saturday noon to midnight, Sunday noon to 20:00.
• More than beer — live music and talks from beer sommeliers, so it's as much a lesson as a party.
• The move — go in with a plan, pace yourself, and use the catalogue to chase styles you can't get at home.

Belgium is the most important beer country on earth, and a festival like this is the place to drink widely. A quick map of what to hunt for:

• Trappist ales — brewed by monks at just a handful of abbeys: Westvleteren (the legend), Westmalle, Orval, Rochefort, Chimay, and Achel. Rich, complex, and the holy grail.
• Tripel, dubbel, quadrupel — the abbey strengths: a dubbel is dark and malty, a tripel golden and deceptively strong, a quad big and boozy.
• Lambic and gueuze — wild-fermented sour beers from around Brussels; funky, tart, and unlike anything else. Seek out a gueuze (blended lambic) and a kriek (cherry lambic).
• Saison — the dry, peppery farmhouse ale; refreshing and food-friendly.
• Witbier — cloudy wheat beer with coriander and orange peel (Hoegaarden is the original); the easy summer pour.
• The local — De Koninck "Bolleke," Antwerp's own amber ale, served in its round little glass. Drink one for the city.
• Pace yourself — many of these run 8 to 11%. Small pours, water between, and eat as you go.

The full crawl — 36 beers across the weekend, generously shared around the table. Grouped by style:

Tripels, Blondes & Strong Golden

• Tipsy Gold — Tipsy · 7.5% — spicy tripel with a honey touch.
• Leopold 7 Blond — Brasserie 3F · 6.2% — fresh, fruity, and clean.
• Leopold 7 Tripel — Brasserie 3F · 8.5% — a three-grain tripel, very approachable.
• La Chouffe — Achouffe · 8% — spicy-fruity blonde with honey and coriander; "hors catégorie."
• Whisky Infused Blond — Het Anker — Carolus Tripel infused with Carolus whisky.
• Malheur 10 — Malheur · 10% — pale blonde, spicy and beautifully balanced; an award-winner.
• Malheur Brut — Malheur · 12% — the world's first Bière Brut, made by méthode traditionnelle.

Dark, Dubbel & Quad

• Petrus Dubbel — De Brabandere · 6.5% — coffee, caramel, and chocolate.
• Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel — Halve Maan · 11% — dark and roasted, spicy and full-bodied, impressively balanced.
• Gauloise Bruin — Du Bocq · 8.1% — roasted malt, caramel, chocolate.
• Monks Grand Cru — Van Steenberge · 5.5% — an old brown aged three years; lightly sour and fruity.
• Delirium Black Barrel Aged — Huyghe · 11.5% — barrel-aged dark, big and boozy.
• Gouden Carolus Whisky Infused Dark — Het Anker — dark Carolus infused with Carolus whisky.

IPA & Hoppy

• Brussels Calling IPA — Ben's Beer Sommelier Bar · 6.5% — boldly hopped, for the hop lovers. (Ben's bar, on Ben's 40th — of course.)
• Silly Session IPA — Brasserie de Silly · 4.2% — light, citrusy, and thirst-quenching.

Kriek, Lambic & Fruit Beers

• 1128 Brut Rosé — Grimbergen · 8% — fruity and lightly sour with cherry juice.
• Silly Rouge — Brasserie de Silly · 8% — brown beer blended with cherry juice.
• Rosé de Bruges — Halve Maan · 5% — a fresh, fruity rosé built on Blanche de Bruges.
• Liefmans Peach on the Rocks — Liefmans · 3.8% — crisp, intense peach; an aperitif pour.
• Delirium Red — Huyghe · 8% — deep dark red; almond and sour cherry, sweet-sour.
• Kasteel Rubus Framboise — Vanhonsebrouck · 7% — creamy Kasteel dark with raspberry.
• Kasteel Rouge — Vanhonsebrouck · 8% — the original: Kasteel dark with cherry, a dessert beer.
• Kasteel Tropical — Vanhonsebrouck · 8% — mango, passion fruit, peach, and pineapple.
• Corsendonk Kriek Dubbel — Corsendonk · 7% — black-and-red fruit, full and lightly sweet.
• Kriek Belgique — Corsendonk · 3% — a soft, balanced red-fruit kriek.
• Blanche de Namur Rosée — Du Bocq · 3% — witbier with raspberry; a soft-sour rosé.
• Lindemans Pêcheresse — Lindemans — lambic with a lovely peach aroma.
• Lindemans Kriek — Lindemans · 3.5% — ruby red, sweet-sour cherries.
• Tarot Noir — Lindemans · 8% — blueberry-led, round, with a fresh lambic acidity.
• Lindemans Cuvée René Oude Kriek — Lindemans · 6% — a proper old kriek, cherries aged on foeder.
• Spontan Basil — Lindemans · 5.5% — a "botanical gueuze" made with basil.
• Achel Rouge Légère — Achelse Kluis · 6.5% — a light-footed "rouge."

The Wild Cards

• Bolleke — De Koninck · 5.2% — Antwerp's own amber "Speciale Belge"; the local, drunk for the city.
• Embrasse Peated — De Dochter van de Korenaar — whisky-barrel-aged, with smoky peat.
• Floris Cactus — Huyghe · 4% — green and hazy, with a lime-and-tequila nose.
• Mongozo Coconut — Huyghe — a tropical coconut beer.

Beer wasn't the only thing worth writing down — Antwerp fed us well. A running diary of the meals worth remembering, starting with the standout.

Dinner at Umamido, the Belgian "honest ramen" group — home-cooked broths, ethically sourced ingredients, and two spots in Antwerp (Groenplaats and the South). Exactly the warm, slurpable food a beer weekend calls for, and everything was excellent.

• The Original Ramen of the Chef — the house signature bowl, and the reason to come.
• Japanese Fried Chicken Bun — crisp karaage tucked into a pillowy steamed bao.
• Kimchi Pork Bun — rich pork and tangy kimchi, the perfect two-bite counterpoint.
• 'No Fox Given' — Umamido's own witbier (Belgian white, 5.6%); crisp and easy.
• 'What The Fox' — their Belgian IPA (6.5%), all stonefruit and fresh citrus.
• The souvenir — good enough that the t-shirt came home too.

A stop at Soju Bar on the Grote Markt — Korean fried chicken and soju, "crispy on the outside, moist on the inside," right on Antwerp's grand market square.

• Cilantro Lime wings — Korean fried chicken under a cilantro chimichurri and a shower of fresh cilantro; bright, herby, and crisp.
• Mandu — deep-fried Korean dumplings, hot and crunchy.
• 'Soju Go to Hell' wings — ordered by a braver soul at the table, and billed as arguably the spiciest fried chicken in the realm. Confirmed: extremely, genuinely spicy.
• The pour — soju, naturally: the Korean spirit, neat or in fruity cocktails, and the whole reason the bar has its name.
• The verdict — crisp, herby, and fiery; a lot of fun. (Order the Go to Hell at your own risk.)

No weekend in Belgium is complete without frites, and we did them properly at Frites Atelier — three-Michelin-star chef Sergio Herman's upscale take on the Flemish classic: golden, crisp-shelled fries and a lineup of handmade gourmet sauces.

• Indo Peanut — the one I had: frites under a rich peanut-satay sauce. Great. (The Dutch-Belgian patatje-satay, leveled up.)
• Hot Dog frites — frites loaded hot-dog style; a group favorite.
• Parmesan Garlic — cheesy, garlicky, and a hit with the table.
• Truffle mayo — the upgrade dip, and very good.
• The verdict — frites at restaurant level; exactly the snack a beer weekend demands.

Between the festival and the food, the weekend needed a home base — the bars where the good vibes lived.

Philly's Bar was the favorite — good enough that we went back twice. A cozy, slightly alternative cocktail-and-beer bar tucked on a side street just off the Grote Markt, with a warm, happy, hidden-gem feel.

• The drinks — inventive cocktails alongside a solid beer list; something for every mood.
• The vibe — underground, urban, and friendly; locals and travelers shoulder to shoulder.
• The music — live DJs keeping the room moving.
• The verdict — the kind of place you come back to. We did, twice.

A perfect long weekend — a world-class beer festival, a city built for wandering between pours, food that punched well above a pub crawl, and a bar worth going back to twice. Happy 40th, Ben. Antwerp delivered.