How I became a glass collector

A message from the Curator

I had my first La Chouffe in a small guest house in the Ardennes in the summer of 2023. I noticed the slightly odd glass with the gnome on the front, but otherwise chugged the beer fairly quickly and ordered a second. As dinner was served, I ordered my third and this time paid more attention as it arrived ready-poured in a fresh glass, with the empty bottle presented alongside it. A curious ritual. I inspected the squat little bottle and realised, with surprise, that what I had been drinking rather enthusiastically was 8% ABV.

Fast forward to late summer 2024 and I found myself a newly arrived British expat living in Brussels, the bureaucratic capital of Europe.

Around that time, an old acquaintance took me to one of the city's numerous bars where the beer menu can be longer than the wine list in a fancy restaurant. He guided me through a few choices, which later that evening led to my first Paix Dieu. I don't remember the finer details. A beer served in something akin to a wine glass rings a vague bell; otherwise, my head the following morning remains my clearest memory.

It wasn't really 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, and even a La Chouffe glass bought in honour of that first encounter in the Ardennes.

They all had something in common: I used them. They weren't display items.

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, still intending to use them properly. Around the same time, I'd picked up a couple of glasses at the Marolles flea market in Brussels, including Leffe and Grimbergen examples — both beers I had tried.

Then, around the late May bank holiday, we spent a couple of days in Ypres and a friend arranged a visit to the Kazematten brewery. It was there that we 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 a real collector of Belgian beer glasses.