Best in Brussels

Des de Moor visits Beer Mania in Belgium, a magnet for international beer lovers.

Browse the impressive framed collection of international press coverage on display at Beer Mania and you’ll find that most journalists who visit Brussels’ best specialist beer retailer write at least as much about the proprietor as his shop. Not surprisingly, since Nasser Eftekhari is a remarkable character: knowledgeable, articulate and outspoken in his opinions. And then there is the intriguing question of how a political refugee from Tehran came to be one of the leading international ambassadors for the Great Beers of Belgium.

In fact Nasser’s family were Zoroastrians with no taboo against alcohol, and he became interested in homebrewing while still in Iran.

Things became difficult when Khomeini came to power and Nasser fled the country in the early 1980s, eventually arriving in Brussels where he developed his passion for the local beer. Beer Mania had already been open for three years when he bought it in 1986.

Since then Nasser and his wife Natasha have built the shop up into an essential stop for international beer hunters, who are well rewarded for the effort of heading off the tourist track to the vibrant, cosmopolitan and increasingly yuppiefied community of Ixelles.

Around 400 hand-picked beers are stocked, all of them Belgian except for the Dutch La Trappe beers that complete a comprehensive Trappist range. There are particularly strong collections of abbey beers, lambics and rare Wallonian microbrews, and few big commercial brands. Aged beers, big bottles, gif.....

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By Des de Moor

Section : Spotlight

Page number : 55