After years of conniving about how to make a quick trip to Belgium and bring back a suitcase full…read moreof beer, De Hopduvel has become mecca. The prices are warehouse. There are other great warehouse beer outlets in Belgium, but this one you can get to by streetcar. The others you all need a car, car. Much cheaper than the beer shops in central Brussels, you also get to hang in Ghent, which is the best city in Belgium (more casual and more enchanting than Brussels, but not overrun by tourists like Bruges). I looked up their selection before going to pick out what to get. This visit, I stayed at an Airbnb right across the canal from de Hopduvel, had a couple days of tourism, and then loaded up the bags with loot from de Hopduvel (at top in picture). The streetcar then takes you right to the train station.

If this beer shop did mail order, I would be an alcoholic…read more It's a short walk away from a Hopduvel pub but it's not clear if they're related- possibly not, since when we visited the pub most things were out of stock, but when we visited this beer shop everything was quite definitely IN stock. It's a stockist of many many hundreds of beers, most of them Belgian, and beer-related goods such as glasses from dozens of different manufacturers, beer-making equipment and a few bits of memorabilia. The prices are excellent- just round the corner in the tourist heart of Ghent you could be paying up to 10 Euros for some of the more special lambics and gueuzes, yet in here most of the bottles are under 3 Euros each, many under 2 Euros. An absolute bargain. We took home as much as we could possibly carry. It's open to the public, they don't seem fussy about wholesale though there is a separate wholesale section. Beware the opening times though- they do close down for lunch every day, which I think is between 12.30 and 1.30. It feels a bit like a cheap supermarket, with cardboard boxes piled up from the floor, and some hand-written label notes. There is a small section of soft drinks, which is mainly bottled water. There's no guidance about 'best' beers or any real promotion of one beer above another- if you don't know much about Belgian beers you might want to read up on it first to make sure you don't buy the wrong ones... It's a minefield out there, with some absolutely amazing drinks, but a few not so good ones. I wish this shop was within walking distance of my house. If it were, I would be so drunk and happy I wouldn't be able to type.

Gorgeous place with excellent wine selection which changes every couple of months! Located just…read moreoutside the center so tourist-free (for now) but easy to reach. Prices are super reasonable!

What a gem! Unique down-to-earth wine bar in Ghent's city centre. Very nice and affordable…read moreselection of excellent wines. I started with the Quinta do Encontro Baga & Merlot, a dark red Portuguese wine with spicy hints. I then had a glass of excellent Chakana Organic Syrah, which had some chocolate flavors. All this was accompanied by Neil Young music in the background. I hope this quiet but unique and innovative concept will be kept as it is, it works perfectly fine for me.