Richard Ootjers, Owner of Station 1280 and Thom Morrell are about to start up Antwerp’s first craft brewery in the centre of the city.

They plan to launch Uncharted Brew Co. in Antwerp’s Oudaan area at the Winkelcentrum, a small shopping centre known locally as the “beehive” for its hexagonal pattern and which sits at the base of Antwerp’s police headquarters.

That’s where Station 1280 moved to from the city’s central railway station in October 2020. The bottle shop and taproom had outgrown the cramped quarters at Antwerpen-Centraal, Ootjers said in an interview with the Beer Idiots.

At Oudaan, Ootjers now has more space, and a terrace where drinkers can hang out and perhaps even listen to some music in the open area.

And then there is the idea for the brewery in the space next door. He joined up with Morrell, who homebrews as BRWBRD, to create Uncharted Brew Co.