The name requires a moment. La Guillotine — named in remembrance of the French Revolution, the instrument that ended a great many things very suddenly — is not the kind of label a cautious brewery puts on a beer. Brouwerij Huyghe in Melle chose it for a Belgian strong golden ale at 8.5% ABV that pours pale gold and looks, at first glance, like something lighter than it is. The parallel is deliberate: a bright appearance concealing a strength that announces itself only after the first glass has done its work. If you are Belgian and living in Tokyo, the La Guillotine is the Huyghe beer that sits alongside Delirium Tremens in character and sits apart from it in style — the same brewery, a different kind of confidence.
Melle’s strong golden ale with a pointed name
Brouwerij Huyghe was founded in 1989 in Melle, East Flanders, and produces a range that spans the pink-elephant theatrics of Delirium Tremens through the accessible Floris fruit wheats to the La Guillotine — a beer that relies on the quality of what is in the bottle rather than anything elaborate on the outside. The name is the statement; the beer is the follow-through.
The style is a Belgian strong golden ale, and La Guillotine sits in the same category as Duvel — pale, hop-accented, spicy yeast character from Belgian high-temperature fermentation, dry warming finish. The pour is pale gold, deceptively light for its 8.5% ABV, and the aroma carries spicy yeast notes alongside citrus and herbal hops that give the beer its structure. The finish is dry and warming, the alcohol present but not aggressive — folded into the hop and yeast character rather than sitting on top of it. It is a beer that earns its name through restraint as much as through strength: the danger is in the drinkability, not the initial impression.
How La Guillotine Beer is drunk at home
Santé! / Op uw gezondheid! (sahn-TAY / op-uw geh-ZONT-hayt) — French and Flemish respectively, both meaning “to your health.” With a beer named for a French Revolutionary instrument and produced in Flemish East Flanders, both languages have a legitimate claim on the toast.
In Belgium, the La Guillotine belongs to the evening more than the early afternoon — a beer opened once the Sunday family lunch has moved past its main courses and into the slower, more conversational part of the day. Moules-frites is a natural companion in the earlier part of the meal: the herbal hop note in the La Guillotine sits well alongside the brine of steamed mussels, and the dry finish cuts through the salt of the fries cleanly. Belgian fries with mayonnaise are present regardless, and the dry, warming character of the beer handles their fat without difficulty. Stoofvlees, the slow-braised beef stew with its caramelised sauce, can carry a strong golden ale — the hop bitterness and the spice providing the counterweight the stew’s sweetness needs.
Belgian beer festivals are where La Guillotine tends to find new audiences — people who approach the pale gold bottle expecting something lighter and revise their expectations after the first sip. It is a beer that has been making that introduction since 1989.
How to drink it in Japan
La Guillotine is a year-round beer in Japan but finds its clearest setting in autumn and early winter — September through December — when the temperature drops enough that a warming finish at 8.5% arrives as a feature rather than a management problem. It is also the beer to open when the occasion calls for a strong golden ale and the table has already worked through the lighter options.
At 7-Eleven, try it alongside spicy tteok-bokki rice cakes from the hot section — the heat of the spice and the herbal, citrus hop character of the La Guillotine create the same dynamic as a strongly hopped beer alongside bold food, each sharpening the other rather than competing. For a composed pairing at home, serve it with grilled mackerel — saba shioyaki, the salt-grilled fish with its rich oil and clean flesh — where the dry, hop-edged finish of the beer cuts through the fat of the fish in the same way a dry white wine would, the spicy yeast note adding aromatic complexity that a neutral lager cannot provide. It is a pairing that crosses the cultural distance through flavour logic rather than recipe similarity.
At a Belgian beer bar in Tokyo, a strong golden ale of this calibre can run ¥1,100 or more for a 330ml pour. By the case from Omori Mart — 330ml × 24 bottles — the per-bottle cost is considerably lower, and the case covers the season.
Get La Guillotine Beer delivered in Japan
La Guillotine Beer is available from Omori Mart in a 330ml × 24 bottle case, delivered nationwide across Japan.
- Free shipping on orders over ¥15,000
- Pay at FamilyMart, 7-Eleven, or Lawson — or by bank transfer or card
- Nationwide delivery to any address in Japan
Rakuten and Amazon Japan do not carry this label. Omori Mart is where Belgians in Japan find the full range of East Flanders brewing — including the beer that tells you exactly what it is in the name.
[Shop La Guillotine Beer →]
https://omorimart.com/product/la-guillotine-beer-330ml-x-24-bottles/
Santé in Melle, where Brouwerij Huyghe named a beer after a Revolution and filled it with something deceptively smooth in 1989, and kanpai at a Tokyo table in October — pale gold, 8.5%, and the finish arrives exactly when it chooses to.
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