Luxembourg beer, from Bascharage to Diekirch and Wiltz

Luxembourg is known for white wine and crémant, rightly so, but leaving out its beer would be unfair. There’s a national brewery that opens its doors, a town that gives its name to a beer and a national museum devoted to brewing inside a castle. Here’s which names to look for and which visit I’d make.

What beer do people drink in Luxembourg?

The two you’ll see most are the Brasserie Nationale in Bascharage (in the commune of Käerjeng), which brews Bofferding and Battin, and Diekirch. The national portal adds that Luxembourg beer is enjoying a revival, with microbreweries producing a huge variety, and the tourist board lists local beers among the country’s products alongside ciders, perries and spirits. I won’t give you a ranking of brands, because there isn’t an official one, but I can tell you where to drink them well.

The Brasserie Nationale at Bascharage

This is the visit I’d make first. The tourist board presents it as a family brewery several centuries old that shows you the whole process with a guide, from the vats where the master brewer measures out water, malt, hops and yeast, to the tanks where the young beer matures for several weeks, then bottling and labelling. The tour continues through a museum covering more than two centuries of brewing and ends in the tap room with a Bofferding. There are also tastings, a course in how to pour properly and the BrauAtelier, a microbrewery where you can brew your own.

From 15 June to 15 September there’s a tour every Saturday at 15:00, and the rest of the year tours are arranged by appointment, Monday to Saturday. No price appears on the official page, so I’d check when booking. More on the village in Bascharage.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Diekirch for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

Diekirch, a town with a beer’s name

The tourist board puts it plainly. Diekirch is known for its beer, which is still brewed there, and a museum of the brewery’s history traces that tradition with advertising material spanning more than a century. The big date is the Beer Festival, held over the Whitsun weekend. The 2027 date hasn’t been published, so I’m giving you the rule rather than a day. The town, its museums and how to get there are in Diekirch.

The brand comes in several versions, and the brewery lists them on its website. The Brasserie de Luxembourg, founded in 1871 as the Brasserie par actions de Diekirch and part of AB InBev since 2002, opened a new brewhouse on its historic site in 2019, with capacity for 200,000 hectolitres a year, where it still makes the five Diekirch beers and Mousel. They are Diekirch Premium, a blonde lager of pure malt and hops brewed with spring water; Grand Cru; the 0.0%, fully fermented and then dealcoholised; Radler Lemon & Lime; and Christmas, the seasonal one. If you ask for a «pression» at the bar, you’ll simply get draught beer rather than a separate variety. I’d start with the Premium, the house blonde, and save the Grand Cru for comparison.

A brewing museum in Wiltz Castle

Up north, Wiltz Castle houses the National Museum of Brewing Art, alongside the Battle of the Bulge museum and a tourist office. The tourist board says you can take a master brewer course and taste your own brew on the spot. It’s a neat plan if you’re already heading north for the castles or the war history, and a good rainy-day option anywhere in the Luxembourg Ardennes. I’d pair it with the Battle of the Bulge museum in the same building and make a half-day of it. See Wiltz Castle.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Diekirch for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

What I’d eat with it

Beer has its place at the Luxembourg table as well as the bar. The youth hostels’ food blog suggests Bouneschlupp, the green bean soup with bacon, with either a white or a local beer, and the beer strikes me as the more natural choice in winter. At the fairs, a cold beer with freshly fried potato fritters needs no explanation. Where I wouldn’t order one is with Rieslingspaschtéit, which is made for a glass of Riesling and loses its point with anything else.

Beer in the capital

For a drink in Luxembourg City, my first stop would be Clausen. The LCTO notes that Benedictine monks were growing hops in the district as early as the 14th century, and the buildings of the old Mousel brewery are now a complex of bars, restaurants and clubs. The Grund, next door, has bars and pubs along the Alzette. And if you’re in town for the Schueberfouer, the national portal says its Fouerfësch, battered whiting, comes with chips and a beer or a dry Moselle white, which will feel reassuringly familiar to anyone raised on fish and chips.

As for prices, no official source publishes the price of a pint, so I won’t invent one. If you’re bringing beer home to Britain, gov.uk allows 42 litres for personal use. The rest of the country’s food and drink is in Luxembourg food.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Diekirch on GetYourGuide.

If you would rather go at your own pace, see the car hire deals in Luxembourg: the earlier you book, the more cars are left to choose from.

Before you fix your dates, compare tickets to Luxembourg: the same journey can cost very different amounts from one day to the next.