This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Pipeline to carry beer under Belgian city
The medieval town of Bruges has approved plans to install an underground beer pipeline to reduce the number of delivery trucks rumbling through its streets.
A canal in the medieval town of Bruges. Source: Wiki
The project has been approved by Bruges City Council and will see a 3km underground pipe connect the five-century-old De Halve Maan brewery to a nearby bottling factory carrying 6,000 litres of beer every hour, as reported by Belgium’s deredactie.be.
Said to be driven by environmental rather than economic considerations, the pipeline will take some 500 trucks off the city’s cobbled streets each year.
Speaking to Belgium’s Het Nieuwsblad, the brewery’s CEO Xavier Vanneste said: “The beer will take 10 to 15 minutes to reach the bottling plant. By using the pipeline we will keep hundreds of lorries out of the city centre. This is unique in the brewing industry with exception of one German brewery that has installed a similar system.”
The cost of the project has not been revealed, however it will be paid for by the historic brewery, a UNESCO World Heritage site, which welcomes up to 100,000 tourists each year.
Construction is expected to begin next year.