A Belgian Brewery Just Built a 2-Mile-Long Beer Pipeline

Who sits atop the European brewing throne? Germans may have their pilsners, beer purity laws, Oktoberfest, and their beer steins and boots, but lately the real beer geniuses look like the Belgians. Not only do they largely rule the big leagues through the corporate octopus that is AB InBev, they have a history of insane monk-brewed beers on their resume.

And even though some of Belgium's best breweries are hundreds of years old, they still have plenty of tricks up their sleeves. In a feat that could've been dreamed up by some hopped-up Willy Wonka, a Belgian brewer has installed a two-mile long beer pipeline that pumps beer straight from his downtown Bruges brewery to his bottling facility outside of town. Soon, beer will flow under the medieval streets at a rate of 1,500 gallons an hour.

Xavier Vanneste, the owner of the 160-year-old De Halve Maan or "The Half Moon" brewery, the last in downtown Bruges, had a problem with his trucks bottlenecking in Bruges's claustrophobic streets. One day, he saw construction workers running a cable and got the idea that maybe he could solve his problem by going underground.

"It all started as a joke," Vanneste told the Wall Street Journal. "Nobody believed it was going to work."

Now the dream is becoming a reality, and the $4.5 million beer pipe—about 10 percent of which was funded by people who will get a lifetime of beer in return—should be fully operational in the coming weeks.

When people heard about the pipe, some asked whether they could tap directly into it for a home or bar tap, partly fueled by reports on a local satirical TV show. Unfortunately, that won't be happening, and Vanneste says it will be impossible for would-be beer criminals to tap into the polyethylene tubes, which he claims are stronger than steel.

Bruges, a UNESCO World Heritage Site filled with canals, has long had traffic problems, and even the mayor is loving the beer pipe. "The pipeline is a breakthrough," mayor Renaat Landuyt told the Wall Street Journal, adding that he would consider pipes for other famous Bruges products like chocolate. The beer pipe is six feet underground in most places, but dives 100 feet deep in others.

The beer pipe could signal a new era of beer transportation, but it isn't the world's first beer pipeline. There are some aboveground pipes in European sports stadiums, and Randers, Denmark has a beer pipe that carries beer to some bars.

Regardless, public works projects involving beer are always welcome, like the all-you-can-drink beer fountain in Slovenian town of Žalec. Soon, perhaps beer will zoom through pipes beneath a city near you. We may not have the flying cars we were promised, but the future looks bright.