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In full revaluation of locavorism and craftsmanship, Belgium has more than 600 microbreweries producing a wide range recognized worldwide. A real comeback for a sector that was once despised.
It is twenty minutes from the parvis of Saint-Gilles, at number 258 of the chaussée d’Alsemberg, a very long avenue in Brussels (Belgium) which runs from Flanders to Wallonia, that the Janine bakery is located. At first glance, behind the large glass front, nothing could be more normal for a business of this type: country loaves basking in the pill on a wooden counter, pastries overflowing from wicker baskets and cinnamon rolls in a row onion on a stainless steel trolley. But in this bakery, we don’t just knead: we also brew – beers, from unsold bread.
“In Belgium, bread represents 20% of national food waste”, explains Bertrand Delubac, who opened in 2021, with his brother, Maxime, this sign bearing the first name of their grandmother. The half-baking, half-brewing formula is mathematical: “With a slice of old bread, we make 33 cl of beer. And with the spent grains [ce qu’il reste des céréales après le brassage, ndlr] two 33 cl beers, you get a loaf”, rejoices the Belgian who does not hide his “pride to marry the manufacture of two products that everyone loves”. “Bread and beer, what do the people want?” jokes a customer passing the door of this microbrewery, one of the 607 that have been counted in the country since 2020 (there were only 267 in 2014, according to figures from the Belgian association of beer consumers Zythos ).
Ordinarily, it takes