After a good night’s rest and a continental breakfast at Novotel La Tour Noir we arrived at Cantillon at 10.30 AM. This place of worship is just 2 blocks away from the hotel and being a museum and an active brewery at the same time, it is the only place left in the centre of Brussels were the famous lambic beer is made. Paul Cantillon started brewing here in 1900 and the current brewer Jean Pierre Van Roy is married to a Cantillon.

When you step inside this brewery, you came in through a time machine. It is as if time stood still here.

Lambic is a beer of spontaneous fermentation, by definition one of the most complex beer styles in the world. The wort, made of 70% barley malt and 30% wheat, cools down overnight in a large shallow cupper basin where it becomes infected with wild yeast, called Brettanomyces Bruxellensis. The next day, the wort is pumped into large oak barrels where it will ferment for somewhere between six months and three years. Every barrel is different and therefore the brewer-blender will try to make a beer with a consistent taste every season. He will taste every barrel, and blend different lambics together to a geuze lambic (= unflavoured blend).

When he adds cherries it will be called a Kriek Lambic, with raspberries a Framboise Lambic. Cantillon from time to time also adds red grapes from Bordeaux (Saint Lamvinus), white Muscat grapes from Italy (Vigneronne) and apricots (Foufoune). On special demand they will also add candy sugar syrup to Lambic and sell it in small 5 liter barrels to local pubs or restaurants: it is then called Faro. Annual production is small, a mere 1000 Hl , but they are at their maximum and cannot (will not) expand. Demand is so high that there is often a shortage and they could sell everything off to export if they wanted.

After the tasting (for some of us it was a first time for Lambic and you have to know that it is an acquired taste: very acidic) we sat down for a wonderful Breughel buffet of local meat, poultry and cheese dishes and a very tasty dessert buffet.

All this served with the beers of the brewery of course.

The second brewery of the day is also a Lambic producing one, named Brouwerij Boon, in the small village of Lembeek. It is some 15 kilometres away from central Brussels.

The friendly lady that guided us around the brewery took us all the way to the attic to show us the hops and the malts. Boon is one of the largest lambic producers in Belgium and is affiliated to Palm Breweries in Steenhuffel. A very good Oude Geuze is made here and two kinds of krieks, a sweetened one and an Oude (= old fashioned) dry one, as well as a framboise (raspberry).

In a separate brewing installation they also brew a dark strong high fermentation ale called Donkere Duivel van Halle (=dark devil of Halle) We met Frank Boon and he explained us how the barrels had to be maintained. He compared them to little babies that needed daily care. The barrels here are much taller than the ones at Cantillon, they come from French and German wine areas. Afterwards we tasted all the Boon beers at the local outlet “De Kring” in the pittoresque village of Lembeek.

In the late afternoon of that same day we went to the little town of Silly, southwest of Brussels. The Brasserie de Silly, run by the Van der haeghen family for generations, is very active. Lionel, the son that is taken over now, gave us the tour. They brew both pilsner type (Silly Pils) and high fermentation ales. Their best known are Double Enghien, La Divine and Scotch de Silly, recently Pink Killer, and a new abbey style called ‘Abdij Van Vorst’ will conquer the market soon.  They also make a very good wheat beer called Titje.

The old brew house will serve as a museum once it will be fully restored. After the pleasant tour we tasted all the beers in the very cosy tasting room.

Later that night we had dinner in a restaurant called “De Oude Pompe” (=the old pump) in the neighbouring village of Viane. It is located in the old stables of a castle, very authentic; it serves a traditional Belgian cuisine.

After dinner, Gino drove us to Ghent, where we checked in the Sofitel Hotel, right next to the city hall. Regnier invited everyone for a night walk through the fantastic medieval city centre and we all ended up in the “Waterhuis aan de Bierkant” for a nightcap.

Day III