Catalogue no. BBG168
Glasses
Exhibit information
Glass style Balloon A rounded, stemmed glass with a generous bowl, designed to concentrate aromas while leaving ample room for the beer's head.
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Explainers
Capacity 25cl Curator’s Notes Rubensbier was created for Antwerp's 1977 Rubens Year, marking the 400th anniversary of the birth of Peter Paul Rubens. The commemorative beer was produced by Brouwerij Lootvoet of Overijse, then closely associated with Artois and already responsible for brewing Leffe.
The 25 cl glass is shaped rather like a traditional brandy balloon, with a large rounded bowl narrowing towards the rim, a very short stem and broad circular foot. Its handsome branding is unmistakably devoted to the artist: a stylised portrait of Rubens, complete with his characteristic broad hat, appears against a gold disc, with RUBENSBIER arranged beneath it in red lettering.
Contemporary accounts show that Rubensbier was widely available in Antwerp during the celebrations. One writer drinking it there in 1977 described the beer as brown and hoppy, while reflecting on the extraordinary range of Rubens-themed products produced for the anniversary. Rubensbier was part beer, part souvenir of a city celebrating its most famous painter.
Rubensbier appeared at an interesting moment in Belgian beer culture. Later accounts of Antwerp's emerging speciality-beer scene remember 1977 as something of a turning point, with the commemorative beer's widespread availability helping to bring less familiar beers to greater public attention.
This particular glass has another curiosity. The stem and foot are noticeably off-centre beneath the bowl. Measurements put the centre of the stem approximately 3 cm from one side of the bowl but only 2.2 cm from the other. A second example I bought at the same time has exactly the same asymmetry, suggesting that this may have resulted from the manufacturing process rather than accidental damage to an individual glass.
I found both glasses at the Marolles flea market in Brussels for €2 each, almost fifty years after Rubensbier was created for a single commemorative year.
