We don't do things half-arsed in Belgium. Okay, that's debatable as I can bring up many examples that would contradict this statement (*cough* roads *cough*). Let's be more specific: we don't do things half-arsed when beer's involved.
I first noticed this article on engadget: Belgian brewery to reduce truck use with underground beer pipeline.
I first noticed this article on engadget: Belgian brewery to reduce truck use with underground beer pipeline.
In order to cut down on the number of trucks it puts on the streets, is Brouwerij De Halve Maan working with the city of Bruges to construct an underground beer pip eli ne. While the brewing still happens at its original site, filtration, bottling and shipping operations were moved outside of town in 2010. To get the tasty beverages from point A to point B, dozens of trucks go back and forth each day, but not for much longer. Folks familiar with the Cleveland, Ohio-based Great Lakes Brewing Company may recall that it uses an underground system to send its suds from a production facility to a taproom/pub across the street. The effort in Belgium will be much more elaborate though, replacing the 3-mile tanker route with 1.8 miles of polyethylene pipe, and cutting transit time to between 15 and 20 minutes. De Halve Maan claims the system can send out 6,000 liters per hour -- on top of cutting traffic and reducing emissions. What's more, the brewery (er, brouwerij) will foot the bill for installation and road repairs, reducing the financial burden on the city.
That's neat in itself of course, but then I went to the source that they posted, an article from Het Nieuwsblad (the link is in Dutch):
There's of course one large problem: the pipeline still has to be constructed and they will need to break apart the driveways of several inhabitants along the line. As a compensation, they'll receive a beer tap in their houses.
Also in the news, Haacht Brewery Tongerlo Blond just won the World's Best Beer 2014 award, both in its category (pale beers) and overall.