Belgium

In 2016 UNESCO inscribed beer culture in Belgium on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The listing describes nearly 1,500 types of beer made by different fermentation methods, regional specialities, craft beer popular since the 1980s, Trappist communities whose beer profits go to charity, and the use of beer in cooking and with food. Skills pass through families, master brewers, university courses and small test breweries.

Around Brussels and in the Pajottenland, brewers make lambic by spontaneous fermentation and blend it into gueuze or steep cherries in it for kriek. In the farmhouse breweries of Hainaut, in Wallonia, saison was brewed in winter for summer. Hoegaarden, east of Brussels, gave its name to the revived witbier. Five of the abbeys whose beer carries the Authentic Trappist Product label are in Belgium: Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle and Westvleteren.