Brewing in Belgium is old. A brewery and malthouse of the 3rd and 4th centuries AD was excavated at Ronchinne, and gruit, the herb mix that flavoured beer before hops, is first mentioned in 974, when the bishop of Liege was granted the right to sell it at Fosses-la-Ville. From the 14th century hops replaced gruit, after the example of beers imported from northern Germany and Holland, and towns developed beers of their own for export: the white beer of Leuven and Hoegaarden, the caves of Lier and the uitzet of Ghent. The city register of Leuven records an excise on the Den Hoorn brewery in 1366, the date that Stella Artois still prints on its label. The abbeys brewed mostly for themselves and their guests, and most were closed under Joseph II and then by the French regime of 1795-1799. It is often said that Gambrinus, the legendary king of beer, was John I, Duke of Brabant (about 1252-1294), an honorary member of the Brussels brewers' guild, but no source confirms it.

Lambic, the spontaneously fermented beer of the Zenne valley and the Pajottenland, is first named in 1794, and its producers numbered more than 300 in 1900. Duvel Moortgat dates from 1871. The Trappists began to brew in 1838 and Westmalle's dubbel followed in 1856; Chimay put a brown beer on the market in the late 19th century, and Westmalle's tripel was developed in the 1930s. Belgium counted 3,223 breweries in 1900 and only 106 in 1993. Brouwerij Artois first brewed Stella Artois in October 1925 and sold it from January 1926 as a Christmas beer; exports to Europe began in 1930. In the early 1970s Moortgat bottled the Danish Tuborg, which kept the company afloat while it built the distribution for Duvel. The white beer disappeared in the 1950s when Tomsin, the last brewery of Hoegaarden, closed, and Pierre Celis revived it in the 1960s.

The industry then consolidated. Artois of Leuven and Piedboeuf of Jupille merged in 1987 (some pages say 1988) as Interbrew, which took over Labatt in Canada, Bass and Whitbread in Britain and Beck's in Germany, joined Brazil's AmBev as InBev in 2004, became Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2008 and added Bosteels (Kwak, Tripel Karmeliet) in 2016. Alken-Maes was formed in 1988 from Maes and Cristal-Alken, went to Scottish & Newcastle in 2000 and then to Heineken. Duvel Moortgat, listed on Euronext Brussels since June 1999, bought Achouffe in 2006, Liefmans in 2008 and De Koninck in 2010. Leffe, Grimbergen, Affligem and Maredsous became abbey beers brewed by these groups under licence. The International Trappist Association was founded in 1997; five Belgian breweries (Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle, Westvleteren) carry its label and Achel has lost it. Belgian beer culture entered the UNESCO list of intangible heritage on 30 November 2016. From 1990 to 2013 specialty beers rose from 10% to 30% of the market and the number of different beers from 750 to over 1,600.

Belgian Brewers counted 411 breweries in 2024 and 395 at the end of 2025. In 2025 home consumption fell 3.2% to just under 6.2 million hectolitres, exports fell 4.8% to about 14.2 million (also quoted as 14.4 million) and beers under 0.5% ABV grew by 32%. AB InBev announced in 2025 that it would stop brewing Belle-Vue Gueuze. In 2026 the owner of Brouwerij Haacht (Primus, Super 8, Tongerlo) put the group up for sale: the sales papers went to buyers in June, and on 16 July more than five interested parties, Heineken and Duvel Moortgat among them, were still in the process, with no final agreement.