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.