05 May 2016, 18:27 / Business

Belgium will soon have a beer pipeline

Its owner has found an unusual reason to finance the construction, which will appeal to every beer lover Matthias Verbergt

The pipe under the streets of Bruges will transport 5,700 liters of beer per hour / WSJ / Mahaux

Xavier Vanneste, owner of the brewing company De Halve Maan (Half Moon), is close to realizing his dream of building a beer pipeline. One morning four years ago, he woke up and saw through his window workers laying cables in the medieval square in front of his home in Bruges, where his brewery is located. According to Vanneste, this immediately helped him find a solution to the problems of transporting beer by truck through the narrow streets of the city.

“It all started as a joke. Nobody believed it would work,” Vanneste says of the beer pipeline construction, which is due to be completed in a few weeks.

The beer pipeline will connect the De Halve Maan brewery to the bottling plant, which is located more than 3 km from the center of Bruges. Beer will flow through it at a speed of 19 km per hour. In this way, almost 5,700 liters can be transported in an hour, and the company will no longer need to use trucks hundreds of times a year. Basically, the beer pipeline will be located at a depth of about 1.8 m underground, but in some places - at a depth of 30 m. The taste of beer will not be spoiled by transportation in this unusual way, De Halve Maan assures.

Soon after the project was announced, residents of Bruges began dreaming about how to create a branch pipe from the beer pipe - some were inspired by a satirical program on local television, which suggested that houses along the beer pipe could be installed with personal beer taps. It will be impossible to illegally pump beer out of polyethylene pipes because, according to Vanneste, they are stronger than steel. But everyone's attention gave him another idea. He managed to partly finance the project, worth 4 million euros, by offering people a lifetime supply of beer in exchange for investment. Drink lovers invested about 300,000 euros in construction. At the same time, they were offered three options. The most expensive of them is the “gold” membership for 7,500 euros, for which a person will receive a 0.33 liter bottle of Brugse Zot beer every day for the rest of his life (retail price 1.7 euros), and will also receive 18 personalized glasses.

One of the 21 residents of Bruges who chose this option was the owner of a local restaurant, Philip Le Loup. He also purchased a “bronze” membership worth 220 euros (entitles one bottle of beer of about 0.7 liters per year) for 12 of his employees. “In total I invested more than 10,000 euros,” says 35-year-old Le Loup. “I figure my investment will pay off if I get my free beer for 15 years.”

In 2015, De Halve Maan exported around 200,000 liters of its most popular brands, Brugse Zot and Straffe Hendrik, to the US. This is double the number from 2014. Music teacher Ronald Martin from Buffalo, New York, was one of 76 foreigners who also invested in the project. As Martin notes, he became convinced that the beer pipeline was actually being built when he visited Bruges, and wanted to become the first American investor. When Martin entered the brewery, the secretary was already taking a call from another American, so he immediately brought the money. “When it comes to the beer pipeline, everyone thinks it’s a joke. But this is actually a serious thing,” says Martin.

Some sports arenas in Europe already have beer pipes, but they are above ground. In the Danish town of Randers, an underground pipeline supplies beer to some bars, and at the annual Oktoberfest in Germany, beer lines are piped to some of the tents. Also in Cleveland, Ohio, Great Lakes Brewing transports beer via pipeline from its brewery to a bar across the street.

Authorities in Bruges, which welcomed 6.6 million tourists in 2015, have long sought a way to reduce traffic in the city center, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Therefore, the mayor of the city, Renat Landoit, calls the beer pipeline a “huge achievement.” He admits that he is even ready to think about building pipelines for goods such as chocolate, for which Belgium is also famous. “We welcome anyone who offers alternative modes of transport,” says Landoit.

The construction of a beer pipeline attracts the attention of many passers-by. “It has become a landmark,” says Alain de Prez, who is supervising the construction. “People take pictures of it more than any other monument in the area.”

Translated by Alexey Nevelsky