How I became a glass collector

In the late summer of 2024 I found myself a newly arrived British expat living in Brussels, but it wasn't until late December 2025 that I realised I was acquiring Belgian beer glasses in any noticeable sense.

I'd come home from one of the Brussels Christmas markets with three plastic festival glasses carrying Lutgarde branding. I added them to the other branded glassware I'd accumulated: Stella Artois and Jupiler glasses in different sizes, a La Chouffe glass.

In early spring 2026, we went with friends to the interactive brewery tour at De Koninck in Antwerp. I bought a box of six Vedett flute-style glasses in the gift shop. Around that time, I'd picked up a couple of glasses at the Marolles flea market in Brussels, including Leffe and Grimbergen examples.

Over the late May bank holiday, I went to Ypres and a friend arranged a visit to the Kazematten brewery. I met the head brewer and a member of the Leroy brewing family, which had recently taken over Kazematten.

I bought a glass and some beer and, in a moment of madness, announced that I collected Belgian beer glasses. The head brewer promptly told me that his own collection numbered more than 4,000.

Nevertheless, my declaration had consequences. I was given a slightly uncommon Wipers Times glass and arranged to meet my new acquaintance from the Leroy family the following day, when he had promised to find me a glass from his family's brewery. That turned out particularly well: instead of one glass, I came away with more than half a dozen different examples.

I was now collecting Belgian beer glasses.