The beers of Brussels

'I'm a bit tired of the berry ones and already tried the peach - is there any other flavours you could recommend?' I asked the young dread-locked lady behind the bar. 'Coconut is my favourite, do you want to try it?' 'Coconut beer? Well yes, why not.' I blinked in the cloud of cigarette smoke as she slipped into the giant walk-in fridge and came back with a disappointingly normal bottle of beer. Then she reached behind the counter and pulled out a half coconut shell and started washing it under the tap, and I reached down to pick my dashed hopes from the ground. She poured the frothy brew into the shell and handed me a cane ring on which to stand the shell. I handed over the 4 euros and whisked my prize over to my friends who were just as tickled as I. (Grab yourself a half a coconut and you can get the Mongozo beer over here)

In a bid to tick off three new countries this year, continuously squirelling away leave, I set off for Belgium over the Easter weekend with my boyfriend and, accidentally, with another couple we know from London.

The Eurostar is always a pleasure when it's fully functioning and we were in luck with a clean pull in to Brussels Midi on schedule. We tumbled out and shuddered to a city surprisingly chillier than London, and scratched around for our brollies.

After being instructed at the info kiosk that our hotel was a short walk away we happily set off, our wheelie bags purring along the cobbled streets. An hour later, the purr having turned into a sneer, we trudged down the final road and arrived at Hotel Bristol Stephanie.

It was a bit more corporate than I was expecting, and we'd certainly brought down the average age; the downside of being so good at finding good hotel deals. After being ignored for 20 minutes, all three attendees flapping over a single customer I was about to give them a piece of my mind when they gave us a room upgrade, prompting me to shut my mouth and smile.

After settling into our tennis court room we took the metro into town from Louise/Louiza station and popped out near the Grand Place (left). We met our friends who'd found a decent bar down one of the side streets and had Hoegaarden Rose (have a look at one here) - a white beer flavoured with subtle raspberry which was rather delicious. We then picked a spot nearby for dinner and, opting for the most obvious choice, waited for our steaming pots of mussels to be carted out (in our defence it was Good Friday our options were already limited, ahem). After some rather mmmmediocre moule frites we went around the corner to Cafe Delirium for a few drinks.

Cafe Delirium is aptly named as, with over 2000 beers available over 3 floors, the place is manic on a Friday night. Peering through the smoke you'll find nifty little nooks and crannies to sit on, and strange old furniture and decorations plonked in, like carriage roofs and trolley tables. Despite it being a rather chilly night we escaped the smog by heading outside with beers we'd picked up from the Floris Bar section of Delirium across the alley (same bar) that specialised in fruit beers.

Here they have Floris Kriek (cherry) beer on tap and a fruit salad of different beers as well as others like chocolate and honey. I tried the cherry, strawberry, apple and peach and sought after something a little different which lead me to the coconut which was probably the best. In the first day we'd done the fruit beers and moules frites and while it was entertaining, it was also surprisingly pricey. We wandered make to our hotel, a little less sturdy than before, and planned the next day in our cloudy minds.