4 of the Most Interesting Breweries Around the World

There are more than 19,000 breweries around the world today. All these breweries try to stand out by setting up shop in unexpected places, offering guests beer baths, or selling stouts made with bull testicles, among other ways.

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If you are a beer lover planning to visit a brewery soon, you may be wondering what breweries to consider. If that sounds like you, worry not, as this article highlights five of the most interesting breweries around the world that you will be excited to visit.

1. Starkenberger Brewery, Tarrenz, Austria

The Starkenberger Brewery must appear on your bucket list if you have ever fantasized about swimming in a beer pool. Housed in a quaint, 700-year-old castle in Austria, the brewery offers a beer-centered experience complete with beer history, culture, and trivia.

But the fascinating elements of the castle are its seven beer-filled baths. Each of the thirteen-foot pools holds about 42,000 pints of different brews that are said to offer a range of health benefits. Guests can even order glasses of freshly-brewed beer to enjoy in the pool.

2. Church Brew Works, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Considering that there are over nine thousand breweries in the US, it is only natural that some will reside in bizarre places. You can find a brewery at the former Kennedy School and others at repurposed fire stations that cook up double IPAs.

Pittsburg’s Church Brew Works, nested in a former Roman Catholic Church, is one of these weird breweries. Save for the pews that have been converted into tables, the architectural nuances of the 120-year-old church remain intact. Stained glass windows depicting an episode in the life of Jesus are still there, and a wide aisle leads to the altar, where beer-brewing tanks sit.

3. Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren, Vleteren, Belgium

Every beer lover has probably wondered what it takes to make the world’s best beer. As it turns out, the answers are with the reclusive Trappist monks of St Sixtus abbey in the Flemish farmlands of Belgium.

Although the monks started brewing beer in 1839, it wasn’t until 1931 that they started selling it to the public. Centuries of well-preserved tradition paid off in the mid-2000s when RateBeer.com named one of their quadruple-style 12 stouts the best beer in the world.

Unfortunately, the monks still brew only a few thousand gallons of beer a year, so supplies are scarce. You can only buy a case at a time, and you have to pick it up at the brewery in Vleteren, Belgium.