Brussels Airport (BRU) at Zaventem has the best public-side beer programme of any European airport, by a wide margin. The Belgian Beer Café in the airside concourse stocks roughly 40 Belgian beers including Trappist (Westmalle, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort), lambic (Cantillon if you're lucky, more usually Mort Subite), and the regional craft rotation. The room treats beer as the discipline Belgians take it for. The Brussels Airlines lounge in the A concourse is the Star Alliance Gold play and runs a respectable wine programme alongside the beer.
The cheat code at BRU is the Sheraton Brussels Airport, attached to the terminal by direct walkway — its restaurant-bar pours Belgian craft beer at non-airport prices and runs a small but credible cocktail programme. The Hilton Garden Inn outside the terminal is a five-minute walk and is generally quieter. If you've got 60 spare minutes pre-airport, the train to Bruxelles-Central takes 20 minutes; Bar du Matin or L'Image de Notre Dame are the right destinations from there.
By terminal, ranked
Plays for Brussels Airport: post-security, pre-security, lounges, and the airport-hotel cheat code.
Better drinking in Brussels proper
Skip the airport entirely. These rooms are worth the cab, even with luggage.
The Friday Pour
Pre-flight drinks, hotel-bar reviews, and the openings we're watching across 200+ cities. Friday mornings, no filler.