Antwerp is clearly full of passionate craft beer drinkers and as you might expect, a lot of passionate bar owners. In the case of Spéciale Belge it’s four friends and now business partners that created their own space to share this passion and their beers.
The owners
There are four owners actually, not often that you see that. Is that too many cooks in that small kitchen? Well, if they all have a different focus in the company it works and that’s the case here. I’ll introduce you to them (well, not really, I only met Davy). Their names are Davy, Bavo, Kobe and Uwe. Do you want to know a fun fact about Kobe? He’s the brother of Lien, one of the owners of Café Ernst. Small world, right?
So, how did they meet? The keyword here is ‘Kapitein Zeppos’, a restaurant in Antwerp. This is where they got to know each other while they worked there. Well, most of them. Bavo entered the pictured later but he’s been Davy’s best friend for ages. As you can see that’s a nice cumulative collection of restaurant/bar experience.
The location they picked for Spéciale Belge was destined to be either a bakery or a brewery. It became sort of a brewery in the end and they opened up in 2018.
The location
What is that location? Well, it’s called PAKT and it’s an interesting location focused on ecology and sustainability. There are farms on the roof and every company in the complex has to fit into this vision. There are other bars and restaurants but also a beekeeper and coffee roaster and so many other small businesses. There’s also the office of renowned restaurant The Jane which also grows some of their ingredients on that roof I mentioned.
One thing I do have to mention is that PAKT is not always easy to find. You have to walk from a tram or bus stop nearby and in my case Google pointed me inside an area I wasn’t sure about if I was allowed to walk there. I was and you are too. Don’t worry! I also recommend just sticking around because after all that effort, why would you leave quickly?
How did that vision translate to Spéciale Belge? Well, they do aim to not waste anything and recycle if possible.The tables in this place are made from re-used wood in the old building for example. Bavo was the handy fellow responsible for that.
The beer
Not all the beers are done that way of course since they don’t make enough beer to fill all those taps. Among those there’s a focus at Spéciale Belge on Belgian craft beers. Among them are breweries like De Ranke, ‘t Verzet, De Ryck and De La Senne. All breweries I’m familiar with and I wholeheartedly support them getting attention. There’s a total of 18 taps and that collection of course changes a lot but there’s always beer from De La Senne and ‘t Verzet on draft, some of their own brews (including the permanent ‘Al Blondy’) and a pilsner. The choice of the boys ended up being Bavik for the latter.
Beers on draft are available in flights as well even though I didn’t get one myself. Next time I will though! I was told that they prefer people not to order those at busy times though so please go early if you want one. For large groups they might make an exception though. Check out Untappd or their website for details!
The food
There’s a small kitchen in Spéciale Belge from which you can order cold and hot snacks. You know the kind, the kind that goes well with beer. There’s a lot of beer after all!
The brewery
Spéciale Belge serves its own beer as I mentioned. That means there’s a brewery on location! That opened in 2021 but not without issues. There were a lot of problems with the contractor they hired to do the remodeling just before COVID times. That wasn’t the end of the issues though when the cooking kettle broke and the warranty had run out.
They overcame these issues and now they brew beer with a lot of passion. The two responsible for creating the beers are Kobe and Davy. Their test brews are released under the ‘Tourist’ label and when they are sure about it the beer gets a real name. There are exceptions to these rules though. When they do a collab with another brewery it gets a name straight away. Some of the breweries they’ve worked with are Uncharted, SE10 and even other bars and hobby brewers.
The beer named ‘Al Blondy’ that I already mentioned is one they can’t brew in large quantities all the time so that one gets made at their partner ‘t Verzet.
The future
What is next? There were a lot of plans when I talked to Davy but some of them won’t be happening for now. One of those plans was barrel aging and a meeting room in the basement. Unfortunately that area is too humid (or for those that hate that word…moist) so that plan has to be shelved for now. Instead Spéciale Belge wants to focus on making beers to be poured at other bars in Antwerp and perhaps even the whole of Flanders. Is that enough ambition? Sell all over the world boys! I’m just kidding of course but…can you imagine?
