With the modernisation of Brussels city to meet the responsibilities of being a capital city for Europe, meant that many older style buildings were either renovated or rebuilt. This brought a decline in the number of breweries, in particular those located in Brussels. The one exception was the Cantillon Brewery. This world re-known brewery creates unique beer – Lambic. Many of their beers are also organic. Rustic red copper vessels, 100 year old and walls of bottles are your set throughout the visit. (Keep an eye out for the Head Brewer).
Location
This quaint brewery is located behind double orange doors along the Rue Gheude Straat in Brussels. It is a good 15minute walk from Brussels Zuid train station. With an empty plot of land opposite, you feel that your somewhat in a time warp, adding to the diverse multicultural businesses located in the area it is very diverse. Unless you have a keen eye for spotting their logo of the happy man drinking and the name Cantillon, the entry to the Brewery could easily be passed. Upon entry you will find yourself lost in an array of barrels, bottling equipment and the smell of …. beer, no, something more special and different to traditional beer.
The Lambic style of brewing is known as traditional Brussels style. Fermentation process occurs naturally. How so you may ask? Well, the use of natural yeasts are all due to the open air along with the sugars of the wort that combine together. This is where the spontaneous fermentation occurs. This form of brewing beer is not that dissimilar to the production of Japanese Sake (Nihon-shu). In addition, when the beer is held in the barrels, this enables the wood to allow beer to exchange gasses with the surrounding air. Used barrels (oak or chestnut) by winemakers store the wort – around 225 to 500 litres. Slowly maturing the wort in barrels lends it to a wine-like flavour. Other Lambic producers tend to use steel vessels which enables them to control the fermentation processes.
The process of brewing is quite labour intensive where the raw materials of Wheat, Malted Barley and Hops are combined into a crushing machine which is located on the 1st floor. They are then transferred into a mashing tun and sugar is then added. Around 1300kg of crushed grains are then mixed in hot water for around 2 hours, raising in temperature from 45C to around 72C where the starch is converted into fermentable sugars and dextrins (saccharification). It is then poured into a tub and then pumped into hob boilers. Around 10,000 litres of water is used extract all the sugars from the cereals. When the filtering process is completed the raw materials remaining (draff) is then collected and then sold off as animal feed. Around 10,000 litres of wort are pumped into 2 boilers and is basically cooked for three to four hours, sterilising the liquid and this leads to evaporation of around 2,500 litres. Aged hops is then added to the wort and the cooking process begins.
It is then left to cool where the wort should reach a temperature of around 18 to 20C. This process takes place at night and is only possible in cold weather which is why the brewing season is from October to April (again- a very similar type of brewing period that Sake Manufacturers do in Japan). The weather plays an important part as this determines the rate of cooling.
After the wort has been placed in the barrels, these are left for a few days for the wild yeats to begin reacting with the sugars in the wort. Initially the fermentation can be quite energetic and visible. It is required to leave the barrels up to 4 days after due to CO2 rising and thus creating the barrels to explode. Throughout this time a whitish foam appears out of the bunghole, where it can leak from 5 to 10 litres of wort per barrel. Slow fermentation takes place 3 – 4 weeks later. Around this time the barrels are hermetically sealed and left for around 3 years. During this time around 20% of the original liquid can be lost, which means a cask can end up only having 320 litres compared to it’s 400 litres to start with.
The use of Fruit in the production of the Fruit beer traditional is either cherries, raspberries, yet Merlot and White grapes are also used apricots.
There are strong ties to nature in the production of Lambic beer at Cantillon. During summer, large number of insects find their way to the casks, being attracted to the last stages of fermentation along with the fresh fruit deliveries. The use of insecticides are harmful to casks, so Mother nature takes care of this. Spiders are excellent predators and indeed weave their magical webs. These are respected and treasured by the Lambic brewer as they help keep away the unnecessary visitors that do come by.
The Tour
The tour throughout the brewery as of 2016 costs individually is 7euro. If you wish to have a guided tour than this is 6euro which includes two samples at the end. Prepare your taste buds, including umami to pop if you have not tried traditional Lambic before. To download Cantillon’s details regarding tours, please click here.
Tips
If you wish to just visit the Brewery with friends and enjoy a bottle or two on a Saturday afternoon, this is also possible. Note – they do not serve any nibbles or food so be prepared to bring your own (highly recommended) as this beer is very drinkable! Cantillon is indeed worth a visit if you wish to try a very special beer. I personally enjoy their Kriek and their Gueuze. Please note that there is a lot of steps throughout so be prepared to do some climbing of stairs throughout the tour. Keep an eye out for stag meets and other such group gatherings as well – the drinking area soon fills up so best to frequent yourself a seat earlier than later.
I recommend to partake in the tour and afterwards enjoy an opportunity to savour the uniqueness of Cantillon’s Lambic beer. Group tours are available. Saturdays do become quite busy and are quite prompt when serving the last beer (no later than ½ hour prior to closing). Please check the website prior to visiting to check their opening/gesloten days as well as their opening hours. There are toilets available, though these are not friendly for those in wheelchair.
Where to find
Cantillon Browerij
Rue Gheude 56 Straat
Brussels
1070
Contact number
Telephone number is: +32 2 521 49 28
Website is: www.cantillon.be
Email address is: info@cantillon.be
