Jean Hummler, co-owner of the Moeder Lambic bars in Brussels and co-organiser of BXLBeerFest, 28-29 Sept., tells us why the 2024 is the last edition of the festival in this format. He plans to severely downsize it to a few local breweries next year. Along the way we talked about the state of beer festivals and breweries and bars in Belgium. Some choice quotes: ' We lost it. The industry won the war. They are more powerful than ever....Winning the game was not the goal. Playing the game is already an achievement.....We have to come back and think about the business model. Before Covid you could open a brewery, pee in a can and it was sold out....It's over. Now we can get back to brewing more serious stuff.' Sign up to our newsletter here: www.idiots.beer