’t Koelschip

Brewery with beer store not far away from the North Sea dyke. The place is pretty messy, with the brewery on the ground floor and the shop on the first. You have to go through a part of the brewery before reaching the stairs up to the shop. The selection is not bad: Homebrews and other Belgian beers like Westvleteren, 3 Fonteinen and similar brands. The guy who served me, I guess it was the boss, seemed to be nice. But his prices were over the top. Plus he didn't give me an invoice for the beers I bought.

Went twice and although the doors were open, I didn't manage to find someone to sell me anything. The selection looked pretty decent but the customer service leaves a lot to be desired

Visited this place around noon time last Saturday with my girlfriend; conveniently located in the same street as the hotel where we were staying, I’ve been curious about this place, a beer shop that started brewing their own beer a couple of years ago now, for quite a while. The owner – which I read below can be quite unpleasant, it seems – wasn’t there, but his wife was, and we were allowed to go perusing upstairs, where the actual shop is; all the space on the ground floor seems to be occupied by the brewing equipment and activities. Upstairs looked like a living room – which is probably what it originally was – including comfortable sofas and other pieces of furniture, lined by shelving with the beers put on display, a kind of ‘beer boutique’ as it were. Selection was interesting though not overly exclusive – especially in such a boutique-like setting – including ordinary Belgian classics alongside some lambics (the Hanssens experimental series, among others), some of the less common Struise, Dochter and Verzet beers, local ‘streekbieren’ and of course their own house beers, yet nothing from the international craft beer scene; I did find a few ticks there, at prices which are, in all, a bit steep for what it is, especially considering the fact that most beers were already quite old and not in good condition anymore. The lady settled the bill downstairs (didn’t even pay any attention to us while we were the only people ‘shopping’ upstairs) and did this as quickly and efficiently as possible, without being particularly welcoming or even asking why we were there or why we were interested to visit the place. Apparently tastings were held outside on the sidewalk in the afternoon the same day. Weird place, their own beers are far from good and seem like amateur brews with sometimes huge technical flaws, their selection of other beers is okay I guess but prices are a bit high and many bottles have past their prime. Happy to have finally seen this place, maybe I’ll even return next time I’m in Ostend, but only because I like the city in general and this is basically the only shop with an above average beer selection.

Weird, I thought I had rated this location before... :-o Anyway, semi-large selection, but most of it is pretty standard. Visited a couple of times, without being able to find a new tick. Owner can be very friendly or pretty rude, depending on his mood (or hangover? :p ). Prices are very high, IMO. Oostende is not Brussels...

Visit this shop during my few days in Oostende. Not a must visit. Pretty classic selection of belgian beers, and prices that are made for tourists.

Total disappointment. This shop has quite some nice beers, a selection of Struise and Alvinne.. but a bit too pricey imo. Nevertheless, the main reason I’ve rated this place so low, is the owner. Very unenjoyable, "hautain", talks to his customers as if they were morrons and is everything but friendly. Went there a couple of weeks ago and he talked to me as if I was some imbicile, asked me to be careful when I took a bottle, and was just being a major dick. I’ve heard from others that this guy isnt your regular sunshine. There are enough beershops in Belgium..

Small beer shop near the casino of Oostende. Rather large selection of beers including a nice selection of Struise brews. Also possible to organize a beer tasting there. Friendly staff. Prices are rather expensive though. When in Oostende certainly worth a visit.

Nice little bottle shop in Oostende, open on Sunday afternoon, though it seems we entered during a private tasting of sorts: as soon as we were inside a sign was put in the entrance, acting as a sort of barrier to limit entrance to others after us(?).

Loads of Westvleteren. Westmalle Extra, a decent amount of Struise brews, a nice selection of lambics (decent but nothing too fancy though) among others. Seems like mostly authentic beers, no label beers (etiketbieren).

The person helping us was quite knowledgeable but appeared a bit smug.
All in all a nice place to browse through though.

Theoretically, a fine beer store, superbly situated (2 min from Casino/Kursaal and in sighting distance to Tourist Information). Behind the shop windows you behold the most exquisite and sought-after bottles of Alvinne oak aged editions, Struise, Strubbe and even Westvleteren trappist. Unfortunately, nobody knows the opening hours. Once (in Feb. 2010) we succeeded to enter and a young, friendly albeit not over-competent man sold to us some of his treasures. On all our visits afterwards, at many and different days and hours and including (unanswered) telephone calls we had to content ourselves with the vision. Jammer.