WEBSHOP
COVID-19 hit hard on the world economy and also on Oud Beersel. As part of the survival plan, a webshop was created to generate direct sales to consumers as bars and restaurants were closed.
The bottling installation was put into action to fill some special lambic beers to be released in 2021.
MATURATION BARREL ROOM
The first whisky, porto and madeira barrels arrived at Oud Beersel and found a place in the renovated basement. Later on, more barrels were added to this room, to age lambic on barrels to extract special flavors from these barrels.
Also, 2 new fruit tanks of 24 HL each, were installed on ground floor, to produce beers like cherry lambic, schaarbeekse kriek, rhubarb lambic and Green Walnut.
MOVING FORWARD
In the second half of 2019, it was time for new investments for the ground floor of the brewery. Ten new pressure tanks of 10 HL were purchased, mainly with the goal to serve as tanks for infusion lambics and for filling BEER BOX’s.
A semi-automatic bottling machine, rinser and cork and wire hood machine were purchased to start bottling small batches of special lambic beers.
The investements were finalised beginning of 2020, with a new epoxy floor, epoxy walls and a completely refurbished tank room with 4 new stainless steel tanks of 40 HL, replacing the old steel tanks.
SCHAARBEEKSE CHERRY ORCHARD
Oud Beersel was able to purchase in 2016 the agricultural field of 1,71 ha in the back of the brewery. As of 2017, Schaarbeekse cherry trees were installed on the field, in total about 240 trees. The Schaarbeekse cherries were the original cherries used for lambic beers in the past. Oud Beersel wanted to revive this tradition, by producing their own Schaarbeekse cherries.
ATTIC TRANSFORMATION INTO FOEDER ROOM
The roof on top of the brewery building needed renovation as it was raining and snowing inside. After stability studied and reinforcements of the building structure, a new roof and floor transformed the attic into a big foeder room. In total 15 foeders were installed, 5 of 60 HL and 10 of 120 HL. The 30 year old foeders were renovated on site, and after renovations were completed, the foeders were filled for the first time with lambic wort at the end of January 2016.
OPENING OF THE BREWERY SHOP
In 2013 the opportunity arose to purchase the house to the left of the brewery. Besides the building itself, also the ground in the back of the brewery was part of the lot. This gave Oud Beersel room for future projects. The house was transformed into a brewery shop on ground floor, and later on, offices and a tasting room for the brewery visits were installed on the first floor.
After reinforcing foundations, the small room where the brewery shop was held before, turned into a small foeder room with 3 foeders of 38 HL. Above this room, on the first floor, a new barrel room was created as well, to increase stock of lambic on wooden barrels.
FIRST FOEDERS
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.
INVESTMENT IN BARREL CLEANING
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.
OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF OUDE GEUZE AND OUDE KRIEK
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.
OUD BEERSEL BECOMES HORAL MEMBER
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.