If you’ve ever hoped to stand upon terra firma, channel your best Daniel Plainview and say, “There’s a whole ocean of oil under our feet! No one can get at it except for me!” … except you really meant “river of beer” that you can get at quite easily, well, we’ve got good news for you.
Bruges — the Belgian city known for its picturebook squares, tourist hoardes and a 2008 Colin Farrell crime caper — is also a centuries-old brewing center. Or it had been, until brewers fled the city center for less expensive real estate outside of town.
The city’s oldest working brewery, De Halve Maan (“Half Moon”), has been in continuous operation for over 450 years. Now, in order to avoid a banishment to suburbia, its director has hatched a plan to continue brewing in Bruge’s center … by conveying “enough beer to fill 12,000 bottles an hour” along a two-mile underground pipeline to an industrial bottling facility in the hinterlands.
Result: Bruges keeps its historic brewery, some extra delivery trucks are taken off the busy streets, and tourists can rest assured that the streets are literally made of beer.
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