Operating a brewery efficiently in a city that is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site is no small feat. The cold, hard, delicious facts are this: narrow cobblestone streets, thousands of tourists milling about and product delivery via tanker trucks, like too many tequila shots and social media, just do not mix. Such was the issue being faced by Belgium’s Huisbrouwerij De Halve Maan (Half Moon Brewery) in the historic city of Bruges.
Halve Maan, the oldest brewery in Bruges, began operating the world’s first beer pipeline last September. With its opening, the manufacturing of Halve Maan’s beer can still be done within the city’s downtown. The pipeline, carefully laid under public roads using underground drilling techniques, takes care of shuttling 1,000 gallons an hour of yeasty goodness from the brewery to a bottling plant two miles (3.2 kilometers) away. The pipeline also eliminates the need for 40-tonne tanker trucks making 4-5 trips daily to the bottling facilities, something the environment will raise a glass to.
Story by Jay Moon
Sources
- Belgium’s Beer Pipeline Is Saving the Oldest Brewery in Bruges
- 150-year-old brewery opens taps on new underground beer pipeline in Belgium
- Cheers! The world’s first beer pipeline is now open
- A Look Inside the World’s First Beer Pipeline
