In a bid to stop the city's roads being clogged up with beer lorries, Bruges is to re-route its beer underground, through 3km of pipeline capable of carrying 6,000 litres per hour.

In addition to being a Willy Wonkian approach to beer transport and enabling the use of the quite wonderful measurement of litres per hour with regards to beer, the system will allow for around 500 tankers to be taken off the road.

Inevitably there are some fears that people will try to tap off the pipeline, but its creators are confident the beer will be secure.

Belgian beer being poured (Picture: Getty)

"This is stronger than a steel pipe. It’s really very strong. So we are quite confident that no leaks or illegal tapping points will be there," brewery owner Xavier Vanneste told EuroNews.

The pipe will stretch from De Halve Maan brewery to a bottling plant 4km away, with beer travelling at about 15 to 20km/h and reaching the plant in as little as 10 minutes.

There are many beers named after Bruges, though the only breweries remaining along with De Halve Maan are Brugse Zot and Brugse Straffe Hendrik.