Visiting Cantillon Brewery: Brussels’ oldest Lambic Brewery
In 1900, Lambic beers were all the rage. Over 100 breweries were operating around Brussels, which feels like quite a lot when you consider only 626,000 people were living there at the time. (For comparison, the city with the most breweries in America today is Chicago, with 173 breweries and 2,716,000 people).
Cantillon capitalized on the craze, opening up shop in 1900, and managing to remain independent and “in the family” over the past (almost) 120 years. And man do Belgians love Lambic beers: in fact, Lambic was the only beer produced in this part of Belgium up until the mid-19th century. Even into the 1950’s dozens of Lambic breweries remained in Brussels. Today, Cantillon is the last of the originals.
My guess is most people in America are not familiar with Lambic beers- I wasn’t until 2013, when my boyfriend at the time told me we had to wake up extra early to go to Brouwers for Zwanze Day. I didn’t fully understand what this meant until I saw the line to get in to the bar wrapped around the block at 7a. For beer lovers, Zwanze Day (pronounced “zwahnz”) is a big deal, and lucky for us that year, a bar in our Seattle neighborhood was chosen as one of 22 American bars to carry this special sour. Basically, Cantillon releases a special brew which changes every year (in 2013, it was a Abbey-style ale with lambic blended into it), to select bars, to bring lambic fans together around the world. It was really cool to be apart of it at the time, and I knew if I ever made it back to Brussels, Cantillon would be my first stop.
As it turns out, that would literally be true. We went directly from the Airport to Brussels-Midi Station, and walked just a few short blocks to the brewery.
So what makes Lambic beer so special? According to the brewery tour, Lambic is the only style of beer left in the world that continues to be produced using completely natural fermentation. The brewery uses no refrigeration, just how it was in 1900, but since wort needs to be 64–68 degrees Fahrenheit, all brewing is done at night, between October to early April, when it’s naturally cold in Belgium. How cool to think about the connection between nature and the brewery, and how the end result is different year over year, by variables of nature. In fact, I learned on the tour that depending on the weather conditions (temperature, wind, rainfall, whatever), they open and close the shutters on the sides of the vessels to help balance air flow. Makes you appreciate the detailed process, that’s automated in factories by most other beer companies. Speaking of appreciating nature- with all this natural sugars and fruit around, you can imagine that there’s a lot of bugs around. They can’t spray insecticides around while beer is maturing, so they rely heavily on spiders. I learned that cobwebs in a brewery are actually a very good thing- weird!
Another cool thing about Lambic beers is how they use hops. Obviously, hops are needed to make beer- duh. But while brewers generally use hops for their flavor and bitter taste, Lambic breweries also use them as a preservative (remember, this is a recipe from the 1800s!). To obtain sufficinet levels of tannin (a natural preservative), Cantillon uses 2–3x more hops than ordinary breweries. They have to use aged hops (about 3 years old), which have lost some of their bitterness, thus not overpowering the beer.
Another cool aspect of this wild nature-only method of brewing beer is the wild yeasts. And man, yeasts are wild. I kind of forget that they’re living things with DNA and stuff. But, researchers at the University of Leuven studied the organic chemistry of Lambic fermentation, and identified 100 different strains of yeast, 27 strains of acetic acid bacteria, and 38 strains of lactic acid bacteria in just one type of Lambic. Wild. So wild in fact that sometimes the spontaneous fermentation of the wild yeasts with the sugars in the wort can get violent. For 3–4 days, the barrels cannot be sealed because they might literally explode. Yeast straight up party.
After some time, the barrels are sealed and the fermentation will go on for another three years. Man, I can’t imagine being that dedicated to… anything.
Gueuze: Gueuze (pronounced gooz) is created by blending 1-, 2-, and 3-year old Lambics together. The younger beers contribute to the natural sugars required for secondary fermentation in the bottle, while the 3-year-old Lambic provides the taste and refined flavors. A brewer will typically taste 10 barrels to decide which brews will be blended together for his or her Gueuze masterpiece.
Fruit Beers (Kriek, for example): Starting in late July, brewers will add sour cherries, raspberries, and grapes to their Lambics (specifically, the 2-year old Lambics). The fruit soaks for at least 3 months before being bottled- at Cantillon, they use Schaerbeek cherries for their Kriek beer, and soak them for 6 months.
Modern/Commercialized Gueuze and Fruit Beers: One really fascinating thing I learned is how many modern companies “fake it” to try to achieve Lambic beer, by significantly speeding up the fermentation process and adding fake flavorings to the beers to give a fruity taste. Cantillon holds their beer in the highest regard, keeping the natural fermentation process alive, and focusing only on high-quality and organic ingredients every step of the way. For me, it’s really cool to think that I am drinking beer of the same caliber as “back in the day” when all good things took time.
If you want to visit, they’re open everyday EXCEPT Wednesday and Sundays, from from 10:00a to 5:00p. Last entrance is at 4.00p.
It’s a short walk from the Brussels-Midi station. If you decide to visit, leave a comment below!
