Brugse Zot

De Halve Maan has been in the hands of the Maes family since 1856, with six generations running the operation. It holds the distinction of being the only family brewery still active in the Bruges city centre. The Brugse Zot brand was launched in 2005 following a complete renovation of the brewery site. The name draws on a local legend: Emperor Maximilian of Austria reportedly called the people of Bruges fools after they held him captive, and the city adopted the nickname as a point of civic pride.

The brewery launched its first alcohol-free beer in 2018, claiming at the time that it was the first AF specialty beer with genuine flavour to come out of Belgium. The AF beer is brewed from the same recipe as the core Brugse Zot Blond, using four malts and two aromatic hop varieties, with no artificial flavourings. To remove the alcohol while preserving the beer's character, De Halve Maan uses a cold filtration process: the alcohol is separated from the finished beer using a filtration method that avoids applying heat, protecting the malt and hop profile that high-temperature de-alcoholisation methods can damage. The AF range is positioned as a lifestyle beer for fitness-focused and active drinkers.

De Halve Maan is also noted for a 2016 infrastructure project: the completion of a 3.2-kilometre underground pipeline connecting the city-centre brewery to its bottling facility on the outskirts of Bruges, a solution driven by the practical impossibility of running heavy tankers through the medieval street network. The AF range is available through mainstream supermarkets and specialist alcohol-free retailers.