Belgian beer takes over Stillwell | The Coast Halifax

Belgian beer takes over Stillwell

For one day, you won't have to travel to get this stuff.

Belgian beer takes over Stillwell
Meghan Tansey Whitton

Belgian Beer Fest
Sunday August 27, 1pm
Stillwell Beer Bar
1672 Barrington Street

Stillwell co-owner Chris Reynolds has been on a mission to bring more Belgian beer to the bar’s taps, having travelled and tasted what the country has to offer multiple times. The Belgian takeover of his dreams—“12 kegs and a slew of bottles”—is finally happening this weekend.

“The list is truly special,” Reynolds says of the Belgian Beer Fest offerings. “They’re the very, very best examples of what is available in Belgium.”

While Stillwell has had Belgian beer available before, most of those brews were “shelfies,” as Reynolds puts it: Ones you can get off a store shelf. Stillwell has tried to partner with Belgium-based breweries in the past, but it’s difficult. Many of what Reynolds considers the best breweries are small and don’t enough supply to do a tap takeover. However, they eventually found a supplier willing to deal with the logistics of getting their “dream list” of beers together and sending them to Nova Scotia.

Reynolds encourages anyone who’s interested in food and drink to come out to the event—even those who aren’t beer drinkers. The beers on offer “taste like none of the beers in Nova Scotia.” Lambic beer, for example, is ideal for winos due to it’s dry, acidic nature.

“It’s a totally different species of beer,” says Reynolds.