The sound of the bus growled and echoed away, leaving me in a quiet and empty road. Apart from a cyclist who disappeared around a corner, I was alone in the village of Breendonk, ready for my tour of the Duvel brewery

Truth be told, while I was a little early for my tour of the Duvel brewery I had little time to take a peek at the place that gave us the Duvel Moortgat brewery. As a town, it is very residential and given its proximity to both Brussels and Antwerp, I can imagine that many people commute to work in either city from here. In both World Wars, this area was heavily fought over by both sides. I didn’t have time to visit the fortifications used by King Leopold as the Belgian Headquarters in World War II, now converted into a museum. Flanders is one of those regions that has some nugget of history in every nook and cranny but I had more pressing matters to attend to.

The brewery itself is a discreet building and if you’re driving through, you could easily pass it and not realise that you’ve missed the site that produces the Belgian gold that is Duvel.

The first part of the building is a large well-lit pub with polished wooden panelling, numerous old brewery signs and a heavy sense of tradition. I was greeted by the tour guide here and, once the group of 10 or friends assembled, we set off on our walk around the place.

We started on the quaintly named Hopstraat (Hops Street) towards the main brewery building. This place was founded in 1871 by the original owner, Jan-Leonard Moortgat. The business is still family owned, the fourth generation is currently in charge, and they are rightly very proud of their heritage. As brewers, they were famous in Belgium for many beers long before they even thought of Duvel.

Following World War I, they noticed the threat to their business from cheap exports flooding the Belgian market from Great Britain. Terrified that the Scottish ale would mean the end of their operations, Albert Moortgat travelled up to Scotland to attempt to get the recipe for a good ale that they could use. None of his Scottish counterparts was willing to provide any help, so he returned to Belgium with the next best thing – several sacks of Scottish yeast to see what is so special about Scottish ale. A sharp-eyed professor at the University of Leuven shifted through the 120 types of yeast in this collection and spotted 12 distinct types of yeast that were not available in Belgium. Excitedly, the brewers used these yeasts to create a special blend of their own. They ended up with a rich beer that had an alcohol content of 8.5% which was higher than what the local market was used to at the time. Sure that they would not be able to sell it, the brewers decided to turn their attention elsewhere.

The Moortgat family was taken by this beer though and they kept a few barrels of it for themselves. Sometimes they would have a few drinks on special occasions or would treat distinguished guests with the beer that they wished they could sell.

Around 1923, while treating some friends to the beer, one of their party took a long draught of the beer and, in the local Flemish dialect, exclaimed, “Ooh, that’s a devil of a beer!” Duvel, the Flemish word for devil, was christened. Encouraged by the reaction, the family started unearthing their recipes once again and started selling Duvel beer to the world.

Since then, the brewery has expanded to produce nothing but Duvel at this site. Half of their production is exported – the USA is their largest export customer – and they are proud to be able to say that Duvel is produced in Belgium alone. There is no other production facility in the world for Duvel beer and they doubled their facility 6 years ago to ensure that they could keep this claim. They still use the original 12 strains of yeast from Scotland and pair them with aromatic hops grown in Czechia and Slovenia where the greater sunlight produces the best results. When fertilised properly, the hops gives the beer less ‘head’, or foam, which is noticeable when pouring the drink.

Once used in the production of Duvel, the spent hops are sold to local farmers as cow feed, which must lead to some very well-marinated burgers.

The whole brewing process takes an exhausting 90 days to ensure that Duvel is produced just right and includes two fermentation processes. The second-stage fermentation occurs in the bottles and their gleaming, fully automated bottling plant ensures that every bottle is carefully washed, the glass is the right colour, every label is carefully printed and every one is correctly filled.

The complete tour – which shows you the automated bottling plant, the storage tanks and the entire facility – lasts about an hour and is conducted by a group of Duvel lovers whose infectious enthusiasm has you rooting for this Belgian Pale Ale before you as much as lay eyes on a bottle. You can feel the sense of pride that the tour leaders have – proud to be working there, proud to be Duvel lovers and proud to be part of a well-known part of Belgium.

The tour is a great way to while away a Belgian afternoon. At the end of the tour, you are invited to relax in the pub, or on the sub-dappled patio if the weather’s nice, and enjoy a drink of your favourite brew.

I’ve reviewed some of Duvel’s beers too, if you care for another opinion.

This is not to say that Duvel is the only drink they serve; a few shrewd business investments means that they bought several other Belgian breweries  and so they have a delightful range of dark beers, fruit beers and light lagers. Since the tour includes the option to taste two beers of your choice, you can pick and choose whatever takes your fancy.

Tours are available every day except Sundays and public holidays and reservations are highly recommended; there have been people who travelled from Italy to do nothing more in Belgium than tour the brewery and then catch the next flight home! Information about the three types of tours (Standard, a Beer Tasting package and a Luxury Tour) are available on the Duvel website.

Getting there is simple enough as it is a short drive from Brussels or Antwerp. Public transport options are good as both trains and buses serve the town. Taking the bus from Brussels Rogier takes 40 min to get there.

Should you be unable to enjoy the tour just yet, you can get your hands on Duvel beer through their online shop which delivers internationally.

I attended the tour as a guest of beertourism.com, the premier web site that celebrates beer, food and Belgium – Thanks Guys!