Belgian Brewery and Beer Shop Websites: Age Gates Export, Tours

A Belgian brewery website is rarely just one thing. It is a brand showcase, a webshop for bottles and gift packs, a booking system for tours and tastings, and sometimes an export enquiry desk for importers in Germany, the Netherlands or further afield. Each of those jobs is touched by a different set of rules, and alcohol sits in the middle of all of them.

This guide is written for owners and marketing managers of small and mid-sized Belgian breweries and beer shops. It covers what the FPS Public Health says about who may be sold beer, how to design an age gate that is honest rather than decorative, what changes if a draft royal decree on alcohol advertising is adopted, how excise duty decides whether you can ship to a customer in another country, and how to sell tour tickets without breaking consumer-law expectations.

It is information for planning, not legal advice. Where a rule is still in draft, or where we could not find an official statement, we say so.

The FPS Public Health states that in Belgium it is prohibited to sell, serve or offer alcoholic drinks to anyone under 18, with one exception: beer and wine may be sold, served and offered from 16, unless they contain added spirits. Sellers such as shops, cafés and festivals must check the age of their customers, may ask for an identity card or another document proving age, and must refuse the sale when in doubt.

For a brewery, this has three practical consequences.

• Regular beer is a 16+ product, but your range may not be. A barrel-aged beer with added spirit, a beer liqueur or a distillate sold in your shop falls under the 18+ rule. If you sell both kinds, the product page must show the correct minimum age per item.
• The check belongs to the seller. A visitor ticking a box does not discharge your duty to check age. The responsibility sits with the person who sells, serves or hands over the drink.
• Penalties are real. The Consumer Products Inspectorate of the FPS may carry out checks, sometimes with mystery shoppers. The administrative fine for a retailer can run from EUR 208 to EUR 8,000, and for repeat offences an establishment can be closed for up to 30 days.

The age limits are set out in the rules for sale, so they apply equally to an online order as to a counter sale. We have not found an official page that prescribes a specific technical age-verification method for web shops, so the design in the next section is our recommendation, not a legal template.

Many brewery sites open with a full-screen "Are you over 18?" pop-up. It is cheap to build and it protects almost nothing. The FPS rule is about checking the customer when alcohol is sold or handed over, so the useful moment for verification is the order and the delivery, not the front page.

Do not hide the whole site behind the gate

A hard gate that blocks every page also blocks search engine crawlers unless it is set up carefully, and it keeps visitors from tour information, the brewery story and the contact page, none of which is alcohol advertising. A softer approach, with a dismissible notice and age confirmation at the point of purchase, serves both the law and your search visibility. Our technical SEO work tests that crawlers can still reach every page.

Your website, social channels and newsletters count as advertising channels. The FPS Public Health explains that, under agreements signed by the sectors involved, advertising for alcoholic drinks may not target people under 18, may not present alcohol as a symbol of maturity or success, may not suggest that alcohol improves sporting or social performance, and may not show anyone drinking and driving. Advertising is also banned in digital media, including website content, apps and social media, that is aimed specifically at a minor audience. Complaints can go to the Jury for Ethical Practices in advertising.

The rules are about to become formal law. VAD, the Flemish expertise centre on alcohol and drugs, reported on 21 April 2026 that the Council of Ministers approved on 27 March 2026 a draft royal decree on alcohol advertising. At the time of writing the text was still before the Council of State for advice, and the new rules apply one year after publication. According to VAD, the draft would:

• ban alcohol advertising in media aimed at minors, including streaming platforms and influencers followed mainly by minors;
• ban giving away free alcohol, for example with a magazine or a subscription, while still allowing free alcohol with the purchase of alcoholic drinks (such as "2 + 1 free") and at tastings and events;
• require the message "alcohol damages your health" on all alcohol advertising, clearly visible in a contrasting colour and covering at least 5 % of the advertising surface;
• exempt labels and packaging, decorative and everyday objects such as glasses, non-alcoholic products carrying the brand, and sponsorship of events or competitions from the health message.

Because the decree is not final, do not rebuild your site around it yet. Do make sure that banner templates, newsletter layouts and social post graphics leave room for a visible text line, so that adding it later is a template change rather than a redesign.

Export questions on a brewery site usually come in two forms: a consumer in Germany who wants a gift pack, and an importer who wants pallets. They are handled very differently, and the website should tell them apart.

The European Commission explains that the EU sets minimum excise rates for beer, wine, intermediate products and spirits, that each member state may set higher rates, and that reduced rates are allowed for small breweries. Independent small producers are certified under Commission Implementing Regulation 2021/2266. The practical point for a webshop is who pays the duty and where.

Your Europe distinguishes the situations. When you sell to another business, the goods can travel under duty suspension and the duty is paid at the destination by the registered recipient. When you sell to a consumer in another EU country, you still need to pay excise duties in the country of destination, and you can ask for a refund from the authorities of the country where the products were first released for consumption.

What this means for the shop

• Do not simply open "worldwide shipping". Offer delivery in Belgium by default and add another country only when you have settled how excise and local registration will work there.
• Keep business and consumer routes apart. Provide a separate trade enquiry form with fields for the importer's excise number, destination and volume.
• Verify excise numbers. The European system SEED lets you check whether a partner's excise authorisation number is valid and which products it covers.
• Show prices clearly. Belgian consumer prices carry 21 % VAT, the standard rate listed in the EU VAT rate table; prices for other countries depend on how the sale is set up and should be agreed with your accountant before launch.

Our multilingual website projects usually include a market selector so that a visitor from outside Belgium sees what you can actually ship to them, rather than a checkout that fails at the last step.

For many Belgian breweries the visitor experience earns more per head than the bottle. A good tour booking page answers six questions without a phone call: when, how long, in which languages, how many people per group, what it costs, and what happens if the guest cannot come.

That last answer is worth a closer look. Your Europe lists the exceptions to the 14-day cooling-off period for online purchases, and these include concert tickets, hotel bookings and catering services for specific dates. Whether a particular brewery tour counts as such a dated leisure service depends on the contract, so do not assume either way. State your cancellation and rebooking terms in plain words before payment, and let your adviser review the wording. Whatever the legal position, clear terms reduce disputes.

Practical features that earn their keep:

1. A live calendar with the remaining places per slot and a clear group-size limit.
2. Language options per tour, with Dutch, French, English and German as separate time slots rather than a note in the description.
3. A statement of the age rules for the tasting: beer from 16, products with added spirits only from 18, so that families with teenagers know what to expect.
4. Accessibility details: steps, lifts and the temperature in the brewhouse.
5. A confirmation email with address, parking, public transport and what to bring, plus a reminder two days before.
6. Gift vouchers with a visible validity period and a way to redeem them online.

Pair the booking page with a well-kept Google Business Profile so the opening hours, tour slots and photos match on both. See our Google Business Profile service for the checklist we use.

The FPS Economy points out that every Belgian business with a website or social media page has to display certain information, even if it sells nothing online. According to its newsroom guide, you must give your name, address, contact details including an email address, enterprise number, VAT number if you are subject to VAT, and, where relevant, your supervisory authority, regulated profession or code of conduct. If you also sell products online, much more is required, such as the total price, the main characteristics and conditions, and the payment method.

Put this information in the footer and on a dedicated legal page, and keep it identical across the Dutch, French, English and German versions. For a brewery that also holds an excise authorisation, it is sensible to list the licence reference in the trade section of the site, but check with your adviser which details are appropriate to show.

Cookies, newsletters and visitor data

Brewery sites collect personal data in several places: orders, booking forms, newsletters and trade enquiries. Each should explain why the data is collected and for how long it is kept. The date of birth collected for the age check should be used for that purpose and not for unrelated marketing. Our GDPR-compliant website service builds the consent and privacy pages around those forms.

1. Each product page shows its minimum age: 16+ for beer, 18+ for products with added spirits or distillates.
2. Age is confirmed at checkout and checked at delivery or collection.
3. The home page uses a light notice, not a gate that blocks search engines and visitors from the tour pages.
4. Banner, newsletter and social templates have room for a health message line, in case the draft royal decree is adopted.
5. No free alcohol is given away without a purchase of alcoholic drinks, outside tastings and events.
6. No content targets under-18s, and no social posts are boosted to teenage audiences.
7. Shipping outside Belgium is switched on only per country, after excise and registration questions are resolved.
8. A separate trade enquiry form asks for the importer's excise number and destination.
9. Tour booking shows capacity, languages, price and cancellation terms before payment.
10. Legal information (name, address, email, enterprise number, VAT number) is on every language version.
11. Prices for Belgian consumers show 21 % VAT.
12. Privacy notice covers the date of birth collected for age checks.

A simple brochure site for a small brewery can start from EUR 300 excl. VAT (see our pricing); a webshop with tour booking and several languages is quoted after a short scoping call via request a quote.

• FOD Volksgezondheid – Alcohol: risico's en regels (minimum age, 2024 restrictions, fines, advertising)
• VAD – Wetgeving voor alcoholmarketing wordt strenger (21 April 2026)
• European Commission – Excise duties on alcohol (Directive 92/83/EEC, small breweries, Regulation 2021/2266)
• Your Europe – Paying excise duties: who pays and when
• Your Europe – Returns and cooling-off period, with exceptions for dated services
• FOD Economie – Deze info moet u zeker vermelden op uw bedrijfswebsite
• Your Europe – VAT rates applied in EU member countries