Gluten-free beer in Bruges: what to drink and where to buy it

Belgium is famous for beer made with barley and wheat, but travelling with coeliac disease no longer means sitting out the beer tasting altogether. Belgian brewers now make an unusually varied group of beers sold as gluten-free: easy-drinking export lager, organic blondes, tripels, a dubbel, sour cherry beers, tropical fruit beers and even strong experimental recipes with rum and oak.

In Bruges, the most useful place to explore that range is The Bottle Shop ↗ at Wollestraat 13, a few minutes on foot from Markt and Burg. Its specialist selection makes it possible to compare very different Belgian styles in one stop rather than treating gluten-free beer as a single substitute category.

If you also need help with restaurants, waffles and chocolate, see our broader gluten-free Bruges guide.

Gluten-free Belgian beer at a glance

The table mixes beers found in The Bottle Shop's gluten-free selection with a few Belgian references worth knowing, especially Vicaris and Brunehaut. The useful point is how wide the category has become: gluten-free Belgian beer is now a collection of styles, not one style of beer.

What “gluten-free beer” means in Belgium

Under European rules, a food or drink sold as gluten-free must contain no more than 20 mg/kg of gluten. That does not necessarily mean the beer started life without barley or wheat.

Several Belgian breweries deliberately keep traditional brewing cereals and reduce or remove gluten during production. Grisette, Vicaris, Slaapmutske and Brasserie Dupont all publish information about this approach, and some analyse every batch before release. Brasserie Dupont's FOMO and Saison Légère also carry the Crossed Grain certification used under licence by the Association of European Coeliac Societies.

This distinction matters for a separate allergy to barley or wheat: a beer can meet the gluten-free threshold while still being made from ingredients derived from those cereals. For coeliac travellers, the exact gluten-free labelling and certification of the beer are therefore more informative than trying to judge it from the beer style alone.

FOMO: a Belgian beer built around coeliac inclusion

FOMO ↗ is one of the most interesting additions to Belgian gluten-free beer. Brasserie Dupont in Tourpes created it specifically as an organic tasting beer suitable for people with coeliac disease rather than as a stripped-down alternative to its regular range.

It has 6.7% alcohol and uses 30% buckwheat alongside traditional brewing cereals. In the glass it is dry and balanced, with fruit and cereal notes and a firm bitterness from Hallertau Mittelfrüh and Spalter Select hops. The name means *Fear Of Missing Out*: a deliberate reference to drinkers who too often miss the speciality-beer experience because gluten-free choices are absent.

Dupont brews its gluten-free beers at the beginning of the production cycle, after tanks and installations have been cleaned, and controls the final gluten level. FOMO and the brewery's Saison Légère, an organic gluten-free saison at 2.8%, have Crossed Grain certification. That combination of traditional Belgian brewing, a modern technical process and a clear reason for the product's existence makes FOMO much more than a token gluten-free bottle.

Grisette: two certified organic options

Brasserie St-Feuillien in Le Roeulx makes two particularly useful gluten-free beers in its organic Grisette range.

Grisette Blonde Bio, at 5.5%, is pale, light and refreshing with a fine white head and a clearly perceptible bitterness. It is a very approachable starting point if you want something recognisably Belgian without immediately jumping to an 8% speciality beer.

Grisette Citra Hop Bio, at 8%, moves in the opposite direction. It belongs to the Belgian tripel family and is dry-hopped with Citra, giving a stronger golden beer a bright citrus character. Both are certified organic and gluten-free. St-Feuillien explains that barley malt is used, the gluten is removed during production and each batch is analysed by an independent accredited laboratory before sale.

Slaapmutske: a whole tasting flight, from dubbel to kriek

Slaapmutske, from Melle in East Flanders, is useful because its gluten-free range is not confined to one pale beer. The brewery removes gluten during lagering and states that each batch is analysed and receives an analysis certificate.

Slaapmutske Dubbel Glutenvrij, at 7.4%, is dark brown, malty and soft, with caramel and coloured-malt notes. It is the bottle to choose if what you miss is the darker, richer side of Belgian beer.

Jan Van Oudenaarde Glutenvrije Tripel, at 8%, is a single-hop beer using Challenger for both the main hopping and dry hopping. It is floral, dry and easy-drinking for its strength, with a soft bitter finish.

For something completely different, Slaapmutske FLOSS Glutenvrije Kriek, at 5%, is an unsweetened kriek based on the brewery's gluten-free sour brown beer and real cherry juice. Expect tartness, cherry, wood and a touch of oak rather than the syrupy profile people sometimes associate with fruit beer.

The brewery also makes Slaapmutske Extra Glutenvrije Lager, at 5.3%, a dry-hopped lager with a firm hop character. Together, the range can almost form a miniature Belgian tasting session on its own.

SUPER 8 Export: the straightforward thirst-quencher

Not every beer needs to be a tripel or a tasting project. SUPER 8 Export, from Brouwerij Haacht in Boortmeerbeek, is a 4.8% golden export beer marketed as gluten-free.

Its attraction is precisely its simplicity: smooth, refreshing and easy to drink, with a firm head and a lower alcohol level than most Belgian speciality beers in this guide. It is a good choice with lunch or for anyone who normally reaches for lager rather than abbey-style beer.

Coucou Kriek Royal and Brasvar Tripel: two very different beers from Menen

Coucou Kriek Royal, at 4.3%, is made at Brouwerij Eutropius in Menen for Let It Beer. Coucou presents its range as certified gluten-free, using enzymes to reduce gluten and reporting levels below 10 ppm. Kriek Royal is red-fruited, lightly sweet and clean in the finish: a friendly introduction to gluten-free Belgian cherry beer.

From the same brewing site comes Brasvar Tripel, at 7.5%. It is a blonde, malt-led, spicy tripel with a malty finish. Putting the two side by side is a neat demonstration of the range available without gluten: one bright and fruity, the other much closer to the strong blonde tradition people often come to Belgium to taste.

Mongozo: fruit beer with a Fairtrade story

Mongozo is the most colourful branch of the selection. Brewed at Brouwerij Huyghe in Melle, Mongozo Banana, Mango and Coconut are all 3.6% fruit beers. Banana is sweet and unmistakably banana-led; Mango is light and refreshing; Coconut is exotic and creamy in character.

The story behind them is more unusual than the flavours. Mongozo was created by Henrique Kabia and Jan Fleurkens and built around combining brewing traditions with fairer sourcing. The company says Mongozo Banana was the first beer in the world to carry Fairtrade certification, drawing on a traditional recipe associated with the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania. Coconut followed in 2005 and Mango in 2008, with Fairtrade principles built into the project. Mongozo describes its beers as Fairtrade-certified, organic and gluten-free, and the whole range as vegan.

Its technical gluten-free page gives especially detailed information for Mongozo Premium Pilsner and Mongozo Buckwheat White: gluten is removed at two stages, each batch is independently tested and the brewery reports less than 3 ppm. Those two are worth remembering if you want a more conventional pils or white beer after trying the fruit range.

Vicaris: gluten-free beer with alcohol as well as 0.3% options

Vicaris deserves more than a footnote about low-alcohol beer. Brouwerij Dilewyns in Dendermonde launched its Creatives by Vicaris range in 2023 around original recipes that are gluten-free, and the family brewery has several genuinely different options.

The strongest is Vicaris Tripel/Rhum gluten-free, at 8.5%, sold in its gluten-free 33 cl can. It starts from the Vicaris tripel idea and adds premium brown rum and French oak chips, producing a powerful blonde beer with oak and vanilla notes. It is also vegan.

Vicaris Red Punch, at 3.5%, goes in a completely different direction: 300 ml per litre of sour cherry juice plus honeyberry juice, giving a dark-red beer with a slightly sweet opening, fresh acidity and strong red-fruit aromas.

At the low-alcohol end, Vicaris NANO° is a hoppy, citrusy blonde at 0.3%, while Vicaris ROSSO°, also 0.3%, is based on cherry juice and balances sweetness with refreshing acidity. NANO° is brewed from barley malt but the brewery says every batch is analysed by an accredited laboratory before release as gluten-free.

Brunehaut: three classic Belgian styles, all organic and gluten-free

Brasserie de Brunehaut in Hainaut offers a particularly clear trio. Its current range identifies Brunehaut Blond (6.5%), Brunehaut Saison (4.5%) and Brunehaut Triple (8%) as both organic and gluten-free.

The Blond gives you the classic strong-enough Belgian blonde profile; the Saison is lighter, fruity and slightly malty with a persistent bitterness; and the Triple is the richer, stronger choice. If you would rather explore familiar Belgian styles than fruit beer or experimental recipes, Brunehaut is one of the easiest ranges to understand.

Where to buy gluten-free beer in Bruges: The Bottle Shop

The Bottle Shop ↗ is at Wollestraat 13, 8000 Brugge, on the short walk from Grote Markt towards Rozenhoedkaai. It specialises in Belgian beer, gift packs and matching glasses, with hundreds of Belgian craft and classic beers across the shop.

For a gluten-free traveller, the advantage is concentration: instead of trying individual bars and supermarkets, you can compare several specialist bottles in one place. Its gluten-free selection includes beers across the spectrum covered in this guide, from SUPER 8 and Grisette to FOMO, Slaapmutske, Coucou, Brasvar and Mongozo.

The shop's usual opening hours are 11:00–19:00, seven days a week.

If we were choosing five bottles

For a compact introduction to how varied gluten-free Belgian beer can be, we would build the tasting around five contrasting bottles:

1. SUPER 8 Export for a light, straightforward lager-style start.
2. Grisette Blonde Bio for a refreshing organic Belgian blonde.
3. FOMO for a modern, certified gluten-free tasting beer with a distinct Dupont character.
4. Slaapmutske Dubbel Glutenvrij to add a dark, malty style that is often missing from gluten-free selections.
5. Coucou Kriek Royal or Slaapmutske FLOSS Kriek to finish with cherry and show two very different interpretations of fruit beer.

If you prefer strong Belgian beer, swap the first bottle for Grisette Citra Hop Bio, Jan Van Oudenaarde Tripel or the 8.5% Vicaris Tripel/Rhum gluten-free can.

Belgium's gluten-free beer scene is much more interesting than a single replacement lager. Across the current Belgian range, you can move from a 0.3% cherry beer to an organic blonde, a dubbel, a kriek and an 8% tripel — and still feel that you are exploring Belgian brewing rather than opting out of it.

For the rest of the day, continue with our guide to eating gluten-free in Bruges or explore the city's wider food culture in traditional food in Bruges.

For coeliac disease, use the gluten-free labelling of the exact product as your reference. A separate allergy to barley or wheat requires different advice.