Old-World Brewing

This morning I got up way too early to go to the Cantillon Public Brewing Session. I came prepared to learn about making lambic and to do some brewing. As the web-site didn't give much clue as to how this event was structured, it didn't seem illogical to me and I thought there would only be a handful of people there. Especially at 7 in the morning!

When I walked in to the brewery, I was surprised to hear the sound of MANY voices and to see the tasting lounge packed full of people having coffee and croissants. A much different event than I had imagined, but still enjoyable and quite informative. I (and about 15 others) took a tour with the brewer's apprentice. It was great to hear someone speak passionately about the beer they make at this old brewery. They are one of the last breweries who make lambic with the traditional method: all natural ingredients, no chemicals, and no added yeast. The beers are very "wild" tasting; quite sour and full of "country aromas". The beer is fermented by wild yeasts and bacteria from the "micro-climate" inside the brewery. After the beer is inoculated by these micro-organisms, it is pumped into oak barrels where it will ferment and age for 3 years. Most of their beers are a blend of the three-year-old lambic and a one-year-old lambic, sometimes with the addition of fruit. They are "living beers" which are great for cellaring for up to 25 years, as the flavor changes quite a lot over time.

Anyway, I won't bore you to death, but there are a couple of funny little aspects about this place. Because they don't use any chemicals during the entire process (including cleaning the place or getting rid of pests), they have a couple of clever solutions. To get rid of flies, they let all the spiders spin webs wherever they may. To get rid of rodents that come for the grain, they have a cunning and hungry cat that lives in the brewery (they don't feed it cat food). To polish the copper kettles, they use elbow grease only!

Even if you are not at all interested in beer, this is a great place to visit because it is also a "museum". They only brew about once or twice per month between October and April, but it is open almost every day to sell their beer and for self-guided tours of the premises.

--RP--