Brewing in Belgium dates back at least to the age of the first crusades in the 12th century. Under the Catholic church's permission, local French and Flemish abbeys brewed and distributed beer as a fund raising method. The relatively low-alcohol beer of that time was preferred as a sanitary option to available drinking water. In nowadays, the Belgians drink on average 84 litres of beer each year, which is not much, considering that Czechs, for example, drink about 150 litres.
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