Troubadour (The Musketeers) Alcohol-Free Beers
One Troubadour beer in our directory: Troubadour Zestra, a 0.3% Belgian blond.
Troubadour is the beer brand of The Musketeers, a brewery founded in 1999 by four brewing engineers, which calls itself independent and brews in a converted brickworks in Sint-Gillis-Waas, East Flanders. Its one alcohol-free beer is Troubadour Zestra, a 0.3% blond.
- Company: Brouwerij The Musketeers, Reepstraat 208, Sint-Gillis-Waas (we found no company-register entry)
- Founded: 1999, by four brewing engineers; Stefaan Soetemans and Kristof De Roo still lead it, it says
- Owner: Independent, it says; we found no parent group
- Brewery: A converted brickworks, bought in 2016 and brewing since 2019, with a 60-hectolitre brewhouse
- Size: 8,000 hectolitres a year, more than 3 million bottles, sold in 15 countries, it says
- Alcohol-free: Troubadour Zestra, 0.3%, in bottles and, in Belgium, on draught
- Where to buy: The Alcohol Free Co and Dry Drinker
Who are The Musketeers?
The brewery says it was founded in 1999 by four brewing engineers, and its first brews were developed in the kitchen of Kristof’s mother. Two of them, Stefaan Soetemans and Kristof De Roo, are still at the helm; the Belga news agency called Soetemans its founder and managing director in 2024. Its early home base was Ursel, in Aalter, where Kristof lives, the brewery says; it doesn’t say where its beers were brewed before 2019.
It sells its beers as Troubadour. After Troubadour Blond won the World Beer Cup in 2010, Ursel was suddenly world-famous, the brewery says. It also says Troubadour Magma won the Zythos consumer trophy in 2010, and Antigoon silver at the Brussels Beer Challenge in 2014. We haven’t confirmed any of these awards.
The brewery in Sint-Gillis-Waas
In 2016 the brewers bought an old brickworks in Sint-Gillis-Waas, it says, and converted it into a brewery with an atmospheric brewery café. Four fermentation tanks went in through the roof on 6 February 2019, the brewery says, and it moved in that May, according to the trade directory food.be. Its brew hall makes 60 hectolitres a batch, or small batches of 20, it says.
What The Musketeers brews, and how big it is
The Troubadour range includes Blond, Imperial Stout, Magma, Magma NEIPA, Obscura and Westkust, alongside its Belgian Legends (Antigoon and Jack’s Precious), Bucketlist, Abbey (Boudelo), collaboration and barrel-aged series. “The Musketeers currently brews 8,000 hectoliters per year, accounting for more than 3 million bottles”, and Troubadour is sold in 15 countries, it says.
In March 2026 RetailDetail reported that The Musketeers is acquiring the West Flanders brewery BOM (Belgian Original Maltbakery and Brewery), and its Triporteur beers, which would then be brewed and distributed only from Sint-Gillis-Waas. “This acquisition is a unique opportunity to bring two strong beer stories together”, the founders told RetailDetail.
Is The Musketeers independent?
It calls itself a Belgian independent brewery, and food.be uses the same description. We found no parent group. We couldn’t read the Belgian company register, so its shareholders aren’t confirmed; on the brewery’s own description and what we found, we list it as independent.
Troubadour Zestra, the alcohol-free beer
Troubadour Zestra is 0.3% on its label, a blond of 10 EBC and 35 IBU. The brewery says the name refers to zest, the peel of citrus fruit. It calls the beer “a stubborn, alcohol-free, bright blonde beer that retains its character”. It doesn’t say how it keeps the alcohol down, only that brewing an alcohol-free beer with character was a challenge.
It’s been in bottles since about autumn 2023, and since early October 2024 it’s been on draught too, launched at the Antwerp pub Mombasa and poured in some fifteen venues in Flanders and Brussels, Belga reported. For the draught version the brewery used advanced brewing techniques, and keeps it stable by adding a natural extract; it didn’t say more, Belga reported. The brewery says Zestra is in selected bars and restaurants, specialist drinks shops and Carrefour supermarkets.
The brewery doesn’t publish ingredients or calories. The Dutch shop Alcoholvrij Bierhuis lists water, barley malt, fruit, hops, lactose and yeast; that’s why we don’t call it vegan. We found no awards for Zestra.
How Zestra compares
Alcohol-free Belgian blonds in our directory. Calories as published; checked 31 October 2026. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.
The Troubadour beer in our directory
Checked 31 October 2026. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.
Where to buy Troubadour Zestra
On 31 October 2026 The Alcohol Free Co had six for £21.14 and single bottles at £3.70, and Dry Drinker six for £21.14 (affiliate links). The brewery has no web shop; it sells its beers at the brewery café. More in our guide to the best Belgian alcohol-free beer.
Facts checked against The Musketeers’ own website, food.be, Belga (via DH), RetailDetail, Alcoholvrij Bierhuis, The Alcohol Free Co and Dry Drinker, 31 October 2026.
Troubadour (The Musketeers) Beers in Our Directory
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