Crowdfunding to help fund beer pipeline in Bruges

If all goes according to plan, De Halve Maan brewery will start this autumn with the construction of a beer pipeline under Bruges. The craft brewer hopes to finance part of the EUR 1 million project through crowdfunding.

It sounds like a mad-cap idea to send beer from the brewery to the bottling plant through a 3 km long pipeline - something only the brewer of Bruges Zot (Bruges Fool) beer could have dreamt up.

But for de Halve Maan it has become something of a necessity. Ever since setting up a bottling plant outside the medieval city of Bruges in 2010, its beer tankers have clogged up the narrow streets and bridges, much to the chagrin of tourists and officials alike.

Constructing the pipeline will not be easy: regulations prevent its builders from putting the pipeline underneath houses. To make matters even more complicated, the pebbled streets must not be ripped open either. Fortunately, modern boring technology will overcome these obstacles.

The project, when it was announced late last year, created quite some public interest, which gave the brewery’s owner, Xavier Vanneste, 35, the idea to seek financial support through crowdfunding.

The fundraiser, which De Halve Maan operates through its website and which will run from 15 June until 31 December 2015, entails three levels of funding:

Gold membership costs EUR 7,500, for which you get one 33cl bottle of Brugse Zot Blond every day for the rest of your life, as well as 18 personalised glasses. You’ll be invited as a VIP guest to the ground-breaking and the ceremony to inaugurate the pipeline; Silver membership costs EUR 800 and gets you one case of 24 bottles of Brugse Zot Blond a year for life, six glasses and an invitation to the inauguration; Bronze membership costs EUR 220 for one 75cl bottle of Brugse Zot Blond a year for life, plus one personalised glass and an invitation to the inauguration.

This is the first time a Belgian brewer has resorted to crowdfunding and Mr Vanneste was pleased to report to Brauwelt International that in the first week alone he managed to attract over 100 investors and EUR 70,000 of funds. There is no target, which means that the project will go ahead irrespective of how much money beer lovers contribute towards it.

Mr Vanneste should be able to afford the pipeline in any case. His brewery has been family-owned for 150 years, although it was he who re-started brewing in 2005. To help him expand production, he released bonds to private investors some years ago. This year he plans to sell about 50,000 hl of speciality beers. His brewery, the last one remaining in Bruges, is a tourist destination and sees about 125,000 visitors per year, he says. Many of them sample his beers at his brewery restaurant.