Brouwerij Het Anker

Commercial Brewery in Mechelen, Antwerp, Belgium 🇧🇪
Owned by Brouwerij Huyghe
Associated with 2 Venues

Established in 1872

Contact
Guido Gezellenlaan 49, Mechelen, 2800, Belgium
Subsidiaries
Brouwerij Het Anker owns 1 brewery:
Description
Brewery Het Anker is one of the oldest breweries in Belgium (1471). In its current form the brewery exists since 1872 when the Van Breedam family bought the brewery and built a modern brewery with a steam boiler. Nowadays it is still a family brewery that has been brewing beer in the Groot Begijnhof in Mechelen for 5 generations. Over the years, Het Anker grew into an internationally acclaimed brewery. The old recipes are still the basis of the brewing process and a variety of hops and herbs flavor the beers.

The brewhouse consists of three kettles from 1946 and a wort filter from 2014. The kettles are made of red copper and are “hammered” by hand into the existing shapes. The capacity is 3000 kg deposit. In the past, brews of 250 to 300 hl of lager were produced with this. Today we brew 110 hl per brew since the current beers are of a much higher density.

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8
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8

10/1/2026. Bottle at ITFC Beer share. From Worldwide Alcohol, Chelmsford. Jaargang 2015, carefully aged in the cellar for many years up to its bb date. Really developed well. Dried fruits, toffee, biscuit, sweet malts, bready, brioche. Taste is quite sweet, rich, warming, a little boozy. Full bodied, smooth, soft carbonation. Liked this.

Tried from Bottle on 10 Jan 2026 at 20:43

gave a cheers!

8.3
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Tried from Bottle on 10 Jan 2026 at 20:42


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8.3
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

Mørk rødbrun klar med beige skum. Lukter mørk sirup og sjokolade. Fyldig. Søt. Smaker mørk sirup, belgisk gjær, noe kaffe og toffee. Middels lang.

Tried on 10 Jan 2026 at 16:40


7.4
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5

Ik vond nog een doosje met oude notities, dus die ga ik maar eens inkloppen. Kleur is helder roodbruin en het heeft een flinke beige kraag. Geuren van rood fruit, bessen, suiker/zoetheid. Retronasaal is het zoetig, toffee, bessen. Smaak is vrij zoet en iets fruitzurig. Stevig alcoholgevoel. Medium body. Afdronk is warmend, iets samentrekkend, iets bitterig en kruidig.

Tried from Bottle on 04 Jan 2026 at 18:57


7.6
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Large bottle. Hazy, bright golden pastel. Nose is honey, spices, lemon and orange. Sweet flavors of whisky, with caramel and vanilla plus peaches, apricot and a spicy, woody finish. Very silky and smooth body. Maybe not worth the asking price but nice.

Tried on 30 Dec 2025 at 00:57


7.9
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Deep brown with murky tendencies. But malts, dark fruits, oak, whisky, booze, spice, caramel. Medium bodied. Big beer with this one. Woof. Full on.

Tried from Bottle on 27 Dec 2025 at 18:17


7.1
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5

The eleventh Indulgence in Anker's ancient Gouden Carolus series, now in the hands of Huyghe, reprises the concept of the original one, which I fondly recall having tasted in 'avant-première' at the Horeca Expo in Ghent at the time, by applying the infusion idea - now being done to death by other brewers in Belgium especially - to the tripel, thus creating a blonde counterpart to the original dark one. Thick and frothy, egg-white, fluffy, medium thick head, slowly breaking in the middle and leaving thick lacing, over an initially clear warm 'old golden' robe with fine sparkling, turning misty later on. Aroma of pan-fried red apple, freshly cut sweet apple peel, apricot, halfripe banana, peppery (but non-peaty) whisky indeed, dried field flowers, chamomile tea, green pear, clove, dry biscuit, white bread and an odd hint of sweet cooked tiger prawns somewhere. Crisp, fruity onset, sweetish with strong apple ester and almost equally strong - but tolerable - banana ester, laced with hints of ripe pear, apricot and pineapple; finely tingling carb, slick yet full mouthfeel. Slight minerality continuing through a very lightly caramelised but clean and smooth white-bready and somewhat honeyish pale malt sweet core - the sweetness of residual sugars remaining relatively restrained, though, certainly not cloying - especially when the whisky comes in, palpable as a prickly, peppery effect on the tongue, warming and boozy and bringing an extra layer of vaguely caramelly sweetishness, even a touch of vanilla. Retronasally - and this must be linked to the whisky, produced by the brewery itself by the way - this weird but not unpleasant touch of cooked freshwater shrimp returns briefly and vaguely. Meanwhile the booze manages to avoid harsh astringency and 'hotness', so even if I would (as always) prefer the much more expensive and time-consuming process of whisky barrel ageing over a simple infusion, it can be stated that in this case, the whole has remained quite drinkable and palatable, even enjoyable. It better be, of course: that 'historical' first, dark version was the very beer that sparked that entire annyoing liquor infusing trend in this country and still does it better than most of its epigones. I would not say that this blonde one equals the original, but it passes, even if it remains to be seen how Huyghe will treat this brand now that they own it - Gouden Carolus having been, during most of its recent history, far superior over anything Huyghe has ever released in the same time frame in my humble opinion...

Tried on 14 Dec 2025 at 00:45


7.5

Tried from Bottle on 30 Nov 2025 at 15:51


6.6
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Medium, if dense white head over finely carbonated darker golden beer, clear. Grainy, boozy, hints at vanilla, even diary, and quite some cocos. But mainly boozy nose. Cocos, especially retronasal. Vanilla, raw alcohol, boozy. Peach. Very sweet in general. Alcoholburn, fiery, and oily-slick. Good carbonation. "Infused" is making it cheap, easy. Barrel lagering gives complexity and depth.

Tried from Bottle on 30 Nov 2025 at 10:31