Grimbergen

Grimbergen is one of Europe's best-known abbey beer brands, named for the Norbertine abbey founded in 1128 by Norbert of Xanten in the Flemish town of the same name. Its phoenix emblem is earned: the abbey was destroyed and rebuilt more than once across nine centuries, and the bird rising from flames travels on every label.

The commercial brand dates from 1958, when the Maes brewery agreed with the abbey's fathers to sell an abbey beer under the Grimbergen name. Corporate history then took over: Maes became Alken-Maes in 1988, was bought by Scottish & Newcastle in 2000, and when Carlsberg and Heineken divided S&N's assets in 2008, the international brand went to Carlsberg while Heineken's Alken-Maes kept the Belgian market — an unusual split that still stands.

In 2021 the story circled back: a new microbrewery opened at Grimbergen Abbey itself, a joint project between Carlsberg and the resident fathers, returning brewing to the abbey grounds for the first time in more than two centuries. The everyday range is still brewed at scale elsewhere, but the abbey once again makes beer of its own.

The flagship Blonde is deep gold and softly sweet, with orchard fruit and a honeyed malt centre rounded off by mild yeast spice and a clean, lightly bitter finish.