Oud Beersel, which started in 1882, is located in Beersel at 10 km from the Brussels city centre, in the southwest of the capital. It is one of the last remaining authentic lambic blenderies of Belgium and well known for its lambic beer brewed along traditional brewing methods.
Lambic matures up to three years in wooden barrels, whereupon it is blended to make Oude Geuze. Sour cherries undergo fermentation in lambic beer and after a second fermentation in the bottle Oude Kriek is born. This unique brewing process with spontaneous fermentation is possible in Belgium in the Pajottenland region, the Zenne Valley and in Brussels, because of the presence of a specific microflora.
Due to the absence of succession in the family business at the end of 2002, the traditional lambic beers of Oud Beersel were threatened to disappear. Shocked by the loss of this cultural and historical patrimony, the brewery was taken over in 2005 and business was restarted pursuing the principal aim to protect the time-honoured lambic beers, as well as the cultural and historical heritage of Oud Beersel for the coming generations.
Together with his family, Gert is nowadays managing this traditional brewery of lambic beers in a modern way with respect for tradition and the métier. The traditional part of the production process of the lambic beers, in particular the spontaneous fermentation, the maturation of lambic in wooden barrels and the mixture of various lambic casks and vintages constitutes the core business of the company. The production process is completed in close collaboration with excellent partners who manage the industrial equipment. By the synergy between the métier and the industry, Oud Beersel offers authentic products of the highest quality.
Thanks to the success of the special Bersalis beers, i.e. the high fermentation beers of Oud Beersel, investments are continuously made to optimize the production process, to achieve the most demanding quality standards and to extend the infrastructure for the time-honoured lambic beers of Oud Beersel in order to meet the always growing demand.
Nowadays at Oud Beersel, innovation and tradition go hand in hand. Besides the multiple research projects to unravel all secrets from spontaneous fermentation, Oud Beersel is the exclusive supplier of lambic beers on a patented pressure resistant bag-in-box solution and a customised dispenser unit for bars. In combination with the infusion of authentic lambics, Oud Beersel is able to reach a new generation of customers all over the world with a modern version of traditionally made lambics.
Our Timeline History
Until 1988, the Oude Geuze and Oude Kriek from Oud Beersel were bottled manually. Investing in a new filling installation was not possible for a small company like Oud Beersel. That is why bottling was outsourced from then on.
When Henri reached retirement age in 1991, he left the brewery to his cousin Danny Draps, son of his sister who ran the “Bierhuis” until 1988. His own son Hubert was not interested. Danny grew up in the brewery and in the café that he ran with his wife and was assisted by Uncle Henri during his brewing.
Due to the defects of the aluminum brewhouse, Danny decided to outsource half of the lambic production according to the Oud Beersel lambic recipe.
At the end of 2002, Danny decided to stop the brewery and sold the café. The Mortier organ was also sold and the café turned into a flower shop. All beer from the brewery was taken over by the Boon brewery and sold by the 3 Fonteinen brewery.
After 4 generations, Henri Vandervelden saw with sorrow that the family business was being discontinued and at the beginning of 2003 made an appeal of last hope to find a buyer for Oud Beersel.
Gert Christiaens was sitting in Le Zageman, a traditional beer bar in the center of Brussels where they had a nice selection of Oude Geuze and Oude Kriek. Such places were not that common at that time as the traditional lambic beers had lost their popularity decades ago. Gert went there often, accompanied by his friends, to drink his favorite beer, the Oude Geuze of Oud Beersel. That’s where he discovered Oud Beersel closed down.
As Gert could not bring himself to let this part of the Belgian beer heritage be lost, he decided to restart the brewery itself. The restart was preceded by a period of almost 3 years, necessary to gain sufficient experience to restart the brewery. Gert took a course in malting, brewery and fermentation to master the basic techniques. At the same time he brewed with Henri Vandervelden, who gradually transferred his family brewing knowledge and the art of blending lambic to Gert.
The challenge to revive Oud Beersel was quite big for a 25 years old boy, so Gert asked his best friend Roland to join him which he did till their professional ways parted in 2007.
The new company Oud Beersel was founded in July 2005, and the brewery was officially reopened at the end of November of that year with the launch of Bersalis.
Bersalis is the old medieval name of Beersel and this name was chosen for the launch of a blonde triple. The sales of Bersalis Tripel allowed further investment in the traditional lambic production.
Oud Beersel becomes a member of the High Council of Traditional Lambic Beers called HORAL. The mission of HORAL is to promote and protect traditional lambic beers.
Friends founded the association “De Geuzen van Oud Beersel” in January 2007 to promote traditional lambic beers, to develop a museum in the brewery and to lead brewery visits. With the income of the brewery visits, the organization organizes events for its members.
In March 2007, the Oude Geuze and Oude Kriek of Oud Beersel were officially relaunched. The year before, already a small batch was released but it was extremely limited.
Also 4 epoxy coated second hand MEURA beer tanks from the sixties were installed with each a content of 40 HL. This helped Oud Beersel to increase efficiency in blending.
Jos Christiaens, the father of Gert, joined the brewery to help his son out building with the sales and management of the brewery.
Till then, the wooden barrels were cleaned with iron chains scraping the barrel from within while the barrel was rotating on the machine. The new cleaning installation, a high pressure machine that produces warm water connects to a rotating stainless steel cleaning head, better cleaned the barrels and increased the quality of the lambic beers. This also opened up the door to install foeders, big wooden barrels, that could not be cleaned on the previous machine.
The first foeders, big wooden barrels of around 45 HL, were installed in the renovated foeder room on ground floor. Over the next few years, a total of 13 foeders were installed in the first foeder room, all around 40 – 45 HL.