The Beers of Luxembourg

You may, or may not, be wondering what the beers of Luxembourg are like. I may have gone into that a little in some of my earlier posts but I am going to make a point of trying all the different beers that are brewed in Luxembourg and reporting the results here, good or bad. In addition to trying all of the beers I could find in cafes and supermarkets, we are also going to try to visit all of the breweries Luxembourg. Visiting all the breweries of a country would be a daunting task in America, Belgium, England or Germany but not in Luxembourg since there are only about 7 breweries or brewpubs.

The beers of Luxembourg are almost entirely lagers. Pale lagers and a few dark lagers. The alcohol content is relatively low which is to be expected with the lager style. Luxembourgish beers start off at about 4% abv and top out at about 7% at a max. There are a few newer beers that I have seen that seem to be lower than 4% and possibly marketed towards a non beer drinking crowd. There are the occasional fruit beers but nothing that I can really find that has a Belgian influence in it. The beers are mainly influenced by the beers of Germany.

One of the main breweries in Luxembourg, Mousel-Diekirch is owned by the Belgian beer giant, Inbev, from what I can determine. The others seem to be Luxembourgish owned. Without further delay, here is the extensive list of beer makers in Luxembourg:

Mousel-Diekirch - This brewery makes beers under both the Mousel and Diekirch labels with several beers in each. The beers of Mousel include Premium Pils, Altmunster and what I am told is a rarely seem beer, Gezwieckelte, which is a Euro pale lager. I have so far tried both the Pils and Altmunster and thought both were decent.

The other label of this brewery is of course, Diekirch, which is a very pupular beer in Luxembourg. Most bars, cafes and restaurants in Luxembourg that serve beer have a sign out front with the name of the main beer they serve. These signs are 99% of the time either Diekirch or another brewery I will mention below, Bofferding. It seems that these 2 large breweries dominate the scene. The beers of Diekirch include Premium, Grand Cru, Grande Reserve, Exclusive, Christmas and a newer beer that I have seem around, Surf. All of these beers are in the lager style.

Battin - Another Luxembourgish brewery is Battin which produces about 6 or 7 beers. The beers they produce are Gambrinus, Extra, Edelpils, Donkel, Christmas and one that I just noticed at the supermarket and picked up, Fruit. I am not sure which fruits are in the beer, I will have to wait to find out.

Bofferding - Bofferding is the next brewery we see alot here. I think they dominate the bar and cafe signage scene. They product just a few beers including their Lager, Hausbeier and Christmas. There may be a few others that they produce on a seasonal basis but that is all I have found so far.

Simon - The last real brewery in Luxembourg, and probably the smallest of the group is Brasserie Simon. Simon produces 5 beers as of now. There is the Pils (which I am drinking right now as I type, Dinkel, Regal, Prestige and Noel. Again, as with the other breweries, all of these beers are in the lager style. Although they are a relatively small brewery, I think they produce the best beers in Luxembourg overall.

There are also a few brewpubs that I am not familiar with yet but will get familiar as time goes by. In the coming weeks I am going to gather together all of the Christmas beers offered by Luxembourgish breweries to do a tasting. Stay tooned for the results.