West Flanders in Belgium: our terroir

Buxbeer is from West Flanders, the lowlands province of Belgium that faces the North Sea. This flat landscape yields some of the finest grains and hops.

1998: How beer and sheep became connected

Not far from the brewery is Ypres. Back in the 13th century the city of Ypres was a world famous center for the wool and cloth industry. Hence not surprisingly sheep are still part of the landscape.

In 1998 for the 20th anniversary of the sheep breeders association of Moorsele near Ypres, a one time anniversary craft beer was brewed. The beer was named “Bukske” after the dialect word for a male sheep.

2014: A treasure in the cellar

In July 2014 along with the recipe a few bottles original “Bukske” were rediscovered in a cellar by Dieter Van Biervliet. After all these years the beer still tasted surprisingly well. Dieter, at that time already a passionate micro-brewer, decided to brew the original “Bukske” using the authentic recipe.  It was immediately a success and the whole lot of 3000 bottles were sold in no time.

Ever since Dieter is brewing the original “Bukske” craft beer in a limited edition version.

2015: Prestigious labels

We are proud that in 2015 our beers were awarded with the highly respected Belgian Hops labels for using exclusively Belgian hops. Furthermore since our beer history and the ingredients used are deeply embedded in the terroir of West Flanders that same year we also obtained the label of  authentic West Flemish (West Vlaams) regional product.

2016: Expanding the range

Different flavours and the need for an international name. As demand grew and to maintain the limited edition character of the “Bukske” beer a separate line of beers was created using exclusively local hops. As bukske was difficult to pronounce in French “BUX” proved to be the ideal replacement yet staying close to the original name .

2017: Steene Molen and 160 years of street horse racing 

In 2017 we started brewing ” Steene Molen ” (the Brick Mill) an authentic high fermentation and unfiltered beer using the original recipe. The beer is reminiscent of the old mill that acted on 6 October 1857 as the arrival place for “Winkel Koerse”, the last surviving street horse racing in Belgium.

2018: A beer based on gin herbs

In august of 2018 Dieter Van Biervliet and his business partner Pol Meersman from the brewery Dikke Jan launched apero.beer. The beer is based on gin herbs and it took one year of effort to painstakingly balance the flavours and character of this beer, a unique real beer with 8,5% alc.

2019: International expansion

Along with the new website and webshop comes the international expansion. We are participating in fairs in Taiwan, France and Japan.