Cantillon Brewery

Updated on Nov 25, 2023

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Industry Alcoholic beverage Owner Jean-Pierre van Roy Founded 1900		Products Beer Headquarters Anderlecht, Belgium Number of locations 1

Founder Paul Cantillon Marie Troch Website http://www.cantillon.be Similar Musée bruxellois de la gue, Delirium Café, Zenne, Huisbrouwerij De Halve Maan, Grand Place Profiles Facebook

Brasserie cantillon brewery tour 2015

Brasserie-Brouwerij Cantillon (or Cantillon Brewery) is a small Belgian traditional family brewery based in Anderlecht, Brussels and founded in 1900. They exclusively brew lambic beers.

Brewery cantillon 2009

Overview

The brewery was founded in 1900 by Paul Cantillon, whose father was a brewer as well, and his wife, Marie Troch. As of 2011, the owner is Jean-Pierre van Roy, fourth-generation brewer at Cantillon. Since its foundation the only major change has been a shift to organic ingredients in 1999. Cantillon was one of more than one hundred operating breweries in Brussels at its foundation, and was the only one to remain operational through the 2000s. In 2014, van Roy announced that the brewery would be acquiring more maturation space, effectively doubling production by 2016-17.

Beers

In the traditional lambic style, beers, with a mash bill of 2/3 malted barley and 1/3 unmalted wheat, are spontaneously fermented in open topped attic mounted vats, aged in oak or chestnut, blended (from different batches and ages), bottled, and then bottle conditioned for a year. Half of the brewery's production is gueuze; once a year a batch of kriek is made. For fruit-flavored beers, empty casks are filled with various fruits and macerated for three months to dissolve the fruits; young lambic is added to supply sugar for fermentation.

Blåbær - bilberry (made every year for a bottle shop in Denmark)

Cuvée Saint Gilloise - This is not a traditional ’gueuze, in that it is made from only two-year-old lambic, not from a blend of old and young beers. It is also dry-hopped in the cask for three weeks with fresh Styrian Golding hops. Re-fermentation in the bottle is achieved with the addition of a small amount of candi sugar.

Fou' Foune - apricot

Grand Cru Bruocsella - unblended lambic aged for three years, and refermented with liqueur d'expedition

Gueuze

Iris - 100% pale barley malt beer with half fresh hops aged for two years and then dry-hopped with Hallertau hops

Kriek - lambic made with cherries

Lou Pepe Gueuze - blended from beers of the same age, thus not a strictly authentic gueuze

Lou Pepe Kriek - with more fruit (cherries)

Lou Pepe Framboise - with more fruit (Raspberries)

Mamouche - elderflower

Rosé de Gambrinus - framboise

Saint Lamvinus - Merlot and Cabernet Franc grapes

Soleil de Minuit - cloudberry (made in 1999 and in 2013)

Vigneronne - Muscat grapes

Gueuze Museum

The brewery also houses the Gueuze Museum. Patricia Schultz listed the brewery and its museum in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die.

References

Cantillon Brewery Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA