Sunday, May 15, 2016

In Bruges, beer to flow underground

In the city of Bruges, Belgium a full two mile pipeline is being built underground. What is special about this pipeline is that it is exclusively reserved for beer, and is planned to be completed this summer. This pipeline is estimated to pump beer at a speed of 4,000 liters an hour, starting at the De Halve Maan Brewery towards a bottling plant outside of the city of Brussels. Xavier Vanneste's family has owned this brewery for 160 years, and they have had these plans to be the first to ever do such a thing for a while. He said that majority of people around the town have been very supportive of this endeavor, especially if they were allowed to have a "tap-in point" to the pipeline. However, the pipeline was built as a more logistical solution rather than just a leisure pleasure for town citizens. A few years back in 2010, the brewery had moved their bottling plant outside the city, and now they are in need of easy transportation of beer between the two buildings (especially since the town is old and the narrow, cobblestone streets cannot hold larger tanks). While people are not allowed to personally tap into the pipeline directly, Vanneste has started a crowdfunding campaign to help pay for the estimated $4.5 million project and decided to reward the monetary contributors with free beer for life depending on their contribution amounts.

Hailey Brzoska

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/15/travel/bruges-beer-pipeline/

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