Bierbrasserie Cambrinus

We had our heart set on Bierbrasserie Cambrinus. It was the first place we picked out in researching Bruges. Cambrinus looked and sounded absolutely incredibly delightful. The website features day and night pictures of the beautiful building that was built in 1699. It was enchanting….and then there were the beers. Cambrinus offers 400 different beers, some on tap, but mostly in bottles. The website lists them in alphabetical order. http://www.cambrinus.eu/ This incredible array of beers was quite overwhelming. We figured we could spend our entire Bruges stay in the hallowed Bierbrasserie Cambrinus.

The place is named after some mythical king of beer. No, his knick name is not “Bud”. One inside wall features a huge mural of a beer sodden king, his crown askew, sleeping on a barrel. Outside there’s a statue on the corner of the building of the good king Cambrinus holding aloft a stein. We were ready and thirsty and hungry to visit this wondrous place, but we were somewhat disappointed. Now, this is not meant to dissuade you from visiting this place. You should. There are lots and lots of favorable reviews. People like it. For us though, the place has a too slick feeling to it. A touristy feel to it. Perhaps it is the acme of beer drinking, but the experience was off for us.



Bierkaart at Cambrinus

 Cambrinus is just off the Grote Markt on Philipstockstraat, which means it is right in the middle of the tourist area of town, although in hindsight all of Bruges is a tourist area. Still, catering to beer enthusiasts who’ve traveled here in droves, can be, despite their enthusiasm, can be exhausting after awhile. Consequently the wait staff seemed annoyed when we hemmed and hawed over our order. It wasn’t a language barrier; everything was in English, Flemish and French and mid-afternoon the place was not crowded. But, there were 400 beers to choose from after all. Questions about beers were met with shrugs. I guess to be a beer enthusiast you have to know what you want to drink. The “Beerkaart” was unwieldy to us. The proprietor of Bier Tempel had said he helped put the book together. At that time we wished he was with us to aid in the selection. We took a table near the window, away from the frowning burly barmaid and finally settled on two “safe” beers. I had a Rochefort 10 and Janet had la Trappe Dubbel; both Trappist brews. We didn’t really remember this fact, but each beer is printed out on a little receipt with different prices. The Rochefort 10 cost 5.50 Euros (it’s around $13 back home), and the Trappe Dubbel was 3.50 Euros. That and the appropriate glass served with the beer and you are sure to engage some memory cells. We also went to Cambrinus to eat. Mussels were not in season, yet that’s what we wanted to eat. It cost 21.95 Euros for mussels in white wine, which we thought was a lot of money. This high price was pretty consistent around town.


Again, there are lots of favorable reviews about Cambrinus. Do your research so you know what you want and the 400 beer selection won’t be so intimidating. Tell us about your experiences at VFH... globe_gnome2000@yahoo.com We're always interested in hearing what our readers have to say.


Anyway, despite the "flat" karma at Cambrinus we were already weaving from just two beers; the first two at the Halve Maan. We retrieved the two Westvletern 12’s we had stowed at the Bier Tempel and somehow found our way to the hotel where we fell asleep for a number of hours, the windows wide open and the Bells of St. Gilles not stirring us until the early evening.

Not to give Cambrinus short shrift we decided to return the next day as part of our extended Bruges Pub Crawl. We were left with the same impression as before, that the overall experience at Cambrinus felt rushed, this despite our drinking a Gentse Tripel and a Westvletern 8, which cost 3.25 E and 9.95 E each. To say drinking the Westy was some sort of reverent experience would be a bit too much. I had been looking forward to tasting this quixotic and rare brew. It was very good, but of course all the beers are good. Beer Advocate http://beeradvocate.com/ gives it an A.