Maison Leffe — Attraction in Dinant

I checked and double-checked their website to make sure that they would be open, since it's quite a diversion from any main destinations. The website said that the Maison should be open outside its limited hours during the Christmas season. I thought it was safe to assume that "Christmas season" included the week before Christmas, which is when we went. The sign on the outside of the building said the same thing.

It didn't look promising when we got there, but a man pulled in next to our car and went into the building beside the main entrance. When we asked him if it was open, he said yes, just knock. We knock. And knock. And knock some more, all while making eye contact with a man inside the main building. He looked away, ignoring us, and the first man had to come around and open it up to let us in.

Once inside, he got a staff member, some woman who came out with an espresso cup in her hand and a fat wad of bread in her mouth and other hand. Still chewing, she asks us what we want.

"We were wondering if the Maison was open?" "If WHAT is open? We are many things: a brewery, a hotel, a restaurant..." "Pardon, the guided tour for the brewery." "No, it's closed." "So no part of the building is open for us to just see and maybe take a picture?" "No, and I have things to do!"

I dearly wish I could have doused her with the espresso! She said that to us, verbatim. Not a civil "no, I'm sorry for the confusion." I would have been okay if she just said again, "I am sorry, please come back another time." At least she deigned to let us buy something from the gift shop, though she didn't even turn on the lights for us to see the products. She offered to get a new box for my sister instead of the display one, but came back after disappearing into the storage area for ten seconds to say (again, verbatim, and utterly lacking in manners): "The box is very far, so just this (display) one."

I don't know if management reads reviews, but good God this was one of the worst "conversations" I've ever had...

This place was an unexpectedly pleasant experience for our walk in Dinant. For 10 Eur, a person sees beer museum, gets a beer of his choice, and then a present to take home. The museum is interactive, there are stages where videos with different topics are played. I liked that there are smell samples for different flavor components of beer. Like that I had a chance to smell wood, berries, and other things that can be found in flavor profile of Maison Leffe beers. At the end of museum route stand two interactive panels with Maison Leffe beer quiz. You can play the quiz with someone and compare the scores. After the tour you get to a beer truck outside where you present a coupon for a beer of your choice. I liked how chill that pub place outside was. There were multiple types of sitting - both covered and not covered. As both me and my boyfriend were drivers, we wanted to drink one beer at the spot, and take second one with us. This was not possible. Not sure what is the reason, but we accepted that the beer cannot be taken away and we had the second beer in non-alcoholic version. The present to take home is a beer glass with 2 small beers in cans - one non-alcoholic beer, one alcoholic one. As a summary, this is an excellent price-value rate, I had fun and the present is a nice nice reminder and at the same time a nice touch at the end the tour. I strongly recommend the...

A very nice place with amazing interactive video museum and a great view outside.

But it comes with a disappointment if your expectations were high. 4/10 interactive attractions didn't work, either machines didn't pick up the QR code given on the ticket that is necessary to start the presentation, or the english language was just missing. It was missing at the most important part of the presentation - the one that explains the beer making process.

I was expecting to try the beers after the museum, but for the 12.50EUR ticket I only had a choice to order one full beer among the choice of only 4 (which I can basucally get in any Belgian pub), given a piece of cheese and a free gift. A good value, but I hoped to be able to try all beers a little bit, but sadly no. Only choice was among 4 beers and I would have to buy 3 of those at full price. I tried to ask to have all 4 a little bit but waa refused.

So - there is essential no beer tasting unless you want to get wasted by drinking 4 leffes.

Nevertheless worth going for a visit if you are around here due to a nice view and I would give it a 5/5 start as soon as they fix their interactive museum machines and start offering actual beer tasting (like small cups of every beer or be able to get a little bit of each one in same glass or...