DE GEUZEN VAN OUD BEERSEL
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.
BERSALIS, BRINGING LIFE TO THE BREW
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.
START OF THE REVIVAL
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.
CLOSURE OF OUD BEERSEL BREWERY AND BIERHUIS
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.
EXTERNAL BOTTLING
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.
DANNY DRAPS TOOK OVER THE REINS
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.
OUD BEERSEL BECOMES FIRST LIVING LAMBIC MUSEUM
Henri was the first to transform his brewery, in 1973, into a “living museum” due to the declining demand for lambic beers: the brewery housed several antique machines, some of which were still in use. After all, he has continued to work in a traditional manner. However, thanks to his studies, he had more insight into the brewing problem, which, he said, made his beers better.
ACQUISITION OF OPEL BLITZ TRUCK
Business flourished, because in 1959 Henri bought himself an Opel Blitz truck to export beer in the region: this old timer has covered 29,000 kilometers and is now used as a publicity car, loaded with empty wooden barrels.
BREWERY NAME CHANGED INTO OUD BEERSEL
Henri expanded the brewing capacity to 50 hl per brew and, inspired by the traditional, he gave the brewery the name “Oud Beersel”, to oppose what he called “New Brussels”.
HENRI VANDERVELDEN TOOK OVER THE REINS
Son Henri studied at the I.N.I.F. (Institut National des Industries de Fermentation) and became a brewing engineer. He did an internship in the breweries “La Chasse Royale”, “Impériale” and “La Marine”, all of which are defunct now, and graduated in 1948. Because the parental company was too small for two men, he went to work in a laboratory. However, when his father died early in 1953, Henri gave up lab work and took over the brewery – blendery.