Brewery Summary
Leroy Breweries is the holding company for two classic Belgian breweries, Brouwerij Van Eecke and Het Sas. Together they share a rich brewing history that dates back to 1572. Located in the hop-growing region in West Flanders, they brew Belgium’s most celebrated hoppy beer, Poperings Hommel Bier. Originally brewed for the tri-annual hop festival in Poperinge, this beer is a salute to the farmers and inhabitants of a stretch of land that has prevailed through two world wars. There is only one Hommel Bier and it can never be replicated.
The History
This independent family brewery traces its origins back to 1629, when, for the first time, a document mentioned the local castle was adjacent to a brewery. Indeed, at that time, the noble family living in the castle secured the right to call themselves the “Earls of Watou”.
During the French Revolution the plundering French troops burned the castle and the brewery. The noble family escaped the guillotine by running off to England. Only the brewery was rebuilt by a local farmer in the same year of the destruction, under the slogan “Revolt all you want, but we still need beer here.” The brewery was named “In de Gouden Leeuw” (In the Golden Lion), which is a wordplay in French. Many country inns in France are named “Au Lion d’Or” (in the Golden Lion), but the pronunciation is exactly the same as “au lit on dort” (in the bed one sleeps). The brewery in Watou had of course also its own pub, and offered room for travelers. Not understanding the French wordplay, the local farmer called his establishment in Dutch the “Gouden Leeuw”, as he must have seen so many such names in France, but ruined the wordplay at the same time.
Through marriage the Van Eecke family became the masters of the brewery in 1862, where they brewed top fermenting country ales. The brewery had only a local significance until well after WW II. With the revival of the authentic local ales in combination with TV and modern marketing in the 1960’s, the beautiful delicious beers of the brewery became a hot commodity in bars and fine restaurants all around Belgium and Northern France.
The village of Watou is well known in artistic Europe for three major events during the summer: a Poetry festival, a Contemporary Art Exhibition in open air, and a festival of Gregorian Music. Watou is also one of the three remaining cities/villages in Belgium with three breweries. Indeed, besides Br. Van Eecke, Watou is also home of the two independent family breweries St. Bernard and De Bie. Br. Van Eecke finds its water in its own well under the brewery. The actual layer of water starts to give problems at certain times in the year, thus new and deeper drilling up to 1800 feet is planned. The malts are bought in Northern France (the border is only 5 minutes away), and the hops are bought locally. Indeed, Watou is part of the city of Poperinge, the last remaining area in Belgium where hops is cultivated on the local farms, and has been for centuries. The brewery uses only their own yeast-strings, cultivated in their own laboratory. The same yeast is only used for seven generations. Then they start with newly cultivated yeasts from the original.
Hommel is the local word for hops. Hops was the main industry for Poperinge until well into the 1950’s. The school year only started in October in Poperinge, because everybody, including the children, were needed to harvest the hops.
Poperings Hommel Ale is the most famous and best selling beer of the brewery. The demand is at times so large, that the production can’t follow. It was based on the request of the city council of Poperinge in 1981 for a special beer for the local hops-festival. Br Van Eecke repositioned and reformulated one of its beers to create the Poperings Hommel Ale. The Hommel Ale is so unique that it has gained a large international customer base. Its best characteristic is the high bitterness, created by the use of very high quantities of the local hops. The re-fermentation in the bottle adds an extra dimension to the beer, and you, the consumer, discovers a very round mouth-feel, a full bodied and flowery aroma, with an alcohol strength of 7.5 %.
The brewing is very classic: after heating the water and the malt in the mashtun, the sweet liquid is filtered through an over one-hundred-year-old plate-filter. In the next vessel the wort is boiled for 90 minutes, and it is during this process that hops and spices are added. Then the liquid is filtered again, cooled down to fermentation temperature, and stored in large fermentation tanks.
In 2017 the brewery name was changed to Leroy Breweries to honor the Leroy family.