A visit to the La Chouffe brewery, Belgium -

Located in the Belgian Ardennes, in the town of Achouffe, you can find the brewery of the well-known beer brand La Chouffe. If you’re a beer lover, you should definitely pay a visit to this brewery when travelling through the Belgian Ardennes. In this article I’ll share my experiences of my visit to the brewery.

Arriving at the brewery

When arriving in Achouffe, you can easily find the brewery. There are several free parking places so there’s plenty of space to leave your car at a parking spot. I’m not sure if the brewery is good to reach by public transport, but I think a (rental)car is a perfect option for a road trip in the Belgian Ardennes anyways.

The direct environment of the brewery offers a really nice hiking trail (perfect to combine your visit to the brewery with this hike!) and just in the back of the main building you can find a small park where you can enjoy a short hike around the pond. If you booked a guided tour, you should sign up in the La Chouffe shop and wait there until the guide is ready to start the tour.

Guided tour (including beer tasting)

It’s absolutely recommended to book a guided tour through the brewery when you would like to have the full experience. You cannot walk through the brewery by yourself, so the only way to explore it is by guided tour. There are several language options: English, French or Dutch. The tour itself takes around 45 minutes, where the guide will tell all about the history and the production of the La Chouffe beer. After the tour, there’s a beer tasting of approximately 45 minutes. During the tasting, you’ll get to taste three beers.

The perfect way to get to the La Chouffe brewery (when you’re planning to do the guided tour) will probably be by foot, as in that way everyone can enjoy the beer tasting. For us it was almost a 1,5 hours walk from the place we were staying, Houffalize, so we decided to go by car. In that way it wasn’t possible for us to both join the beer tasting, but that wasn’t a problem.

La Chouffe shop and tavern

The brewery also provides a shop, where you can buy all the types of the La Chouffe beers and all kinds of souvenirs. It’s really nice to walk around and may be to buy some of your favourite beer. Next to the shop, you can also find the La Chouffe tavern. Here you can enjoy a La Chouffe beer while enjoying a nice dinner.

Practical information

If you would like to take part of a guided tour, the price will be EUR 10,- per person (time of writing July 30th, 2020). The shop and the tavern are free to enter.

The opening hours of the shop are: from Monday to Friday 09:00 AM until 05:00 PM and during the weekends from 10:00 AM until 06:00 PM. The tavern is open from Thursday to Monday from 11:00 AM.

For the actual information it’s recommended to take a look on the official website.

Covid-19 adjustments

If you’d like to plan a visit to the La Chouffe brewery at this period of the year (time of writing July 30th 2020), you should take into account that there are some adjustments around the brewery due to the Corona virus:

It’s important to know that you need to make a reservation for the tour beforehand online, per e-mail
During the tour, it’s obligated to wear a face mask.
It’s also obligated to wear a face mask when you’d like to pay a visit to the shop
Of course it’s important to keep a distance of 1,5 meters with other guests
The tours currently goes in groups of a maximum of 15 persons (before the groups were bigger)

Although there were some adjustments due to the Corona virus, I enjoyed my visit to the La Chouffe brewery just as much.

Are you a beer lover and have you even been to the brewery of La Chouffe or to the Belgian Ardennes? I would love to hear your story, which you can write down in the comment section below.

Author: Tamara