is a classic, mid-size family brewery in the small village of Buggenhout, in East Flanders, central Belgium. Founded in 1971, the brewery has been run by the Bosteels family for seven generations. Although family breweries everywhere are under pressure to keep up with the multinationals on the one hand and with and the versatile micros on the other, Bosteels seems to have found its market niche. Between 2002 and 2010, Bosteels’ sales have gone from 25,000 to 65,000 hl (21,300 to 55,400 bbl).

After extensive investment in modern brew equipment in 1953, the Bosteels added an emporium of music halls, where the brewery’s bottom-fermented Salamander sold in massive quantities. This attraction fell out of favor in the 1970s, but a renewed interest by beer drinkers in specialty ales more than made up for the decline in entertainment revenues. One of the unique Bosteels beers is the Pauwel Kwak, an ale that is world famous for the stemless coachman’s glass in which it is served. The beer’s name means “babbling Paul,” a reference to a legendary local coachman who just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. The glass is shaped so that it can be hung on the coach, keeping the driver’s hands free for reining the horses. Then there is the Tripel Karmeliet, a multigrain brew of wheat, oats, and barley, served in an attractively etched tulip glass. One of the Bosteels’ ales is called “The Same Again,” which make you wonder what they were thinking when they gave that brew such a tongue-in-cheek name. A most unusual brew is the DeuS Brut des Flandres. This brew, whose name is reminiscent of the Latin “dues” for “God,” is made at Bosteels, but then shipped across the border to the Champagne region of France, where it is finished by the méthode champenoise like an actual champagne. The result is a fine-pearly, truly pétillant beer of supreme elegance and delicacy that is best served in a champagne flute. Just as eager as the brewery is to introducing innovative beers, it also has no hesitation to discontinue brews that do not sell. Thus, abandonment was the fate that befell such traditional Bosteels brews as Cupido (an ale), Buggs (a low- alcohol beer), and Prosit Pils (a lager and the brewery’s oldest product). Next to the sophisticated glassware and attention-getting idiosyncratic names that ensure notoriety for Bosteels beers, it certainly has not hurt that the brewery has also been a reliable award winner at many international beer competitions.