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.
INSTALLATION OF SMALL BREW HOUSE
Shortly before Wold War II, Egidius started brewing lambic himself, in a small and primitive installation, which he had assembled himself from second-hand parts. Because it was forbidden during the war to use wheat, an indispensable raw material for lambic, grinded and kilned sugar beets were used as a substitute. Together with, as usual, hops and secretly a little wheat, this gave a lower alcoholic beer that, according to son Henri, was still quite drinkable.
FIRST BREWERY TO PRODUCE KRIEK WITH CROWN CAPS
Egidius Vandervelden was the first to use small bottles with crown caps, so-called capsulekes. In the period 1930 - 1940, he already filled kriek on capsule bottles, which he sweetened with sugar (saccharin was prohibited at the time) and pasteurized with the heat of the steam boiler.
OPENING OF THE BIERHUIS
Egidius had two daughters and one son, Henri (° 1926). Because daughters offered good prospects for the café, renovations were carried out in 1934: the farm and cart house made way for the Bierhuis and a Mortier organ was placed in it, a phenomenal investment of 40,000 belgian francs at the time, about the value of the house. The Bierhuis was run by one of the daughters, Marie-Thérèse Vandervelden, until 1988 and afterwards by her son, Danny Draps, till the end of 2002.
BIRTH OF HENRI VANDERVELDEN II
In 1926, Henri Vandervelden II is born, named after his grandfather. Henri will later be the third generation brewmaster of Oud Beersel.
EGIDIUS SET UP HIS OWN BREWERY
The founder had five sons; the eldest, Egidius, married the daughter of Jeromius Hofman, a small farmer and cheese farmer, who also ran a village shop and estaminet. Egidius renovated the farm in 1922 and set up his brewery where he first worked as a brewer.