There was some free time in the morning so that we could do some shopping first, since we were expected at no earlier than 11.30 AM at the Cantillon lambic brewery. This place is only 5 minutes away from the hotel and the last lambic brewery in the city centre. All the other ones are in the countryside around the capital, on the side of the river Senne. Cantillon is over 100 years old and visiting this place is like stepping in a time capsule. You just don’t expect to find a place like this in the middle of a modern city with over 1 million inhabitants.

Brewing A Lambic:

Lambic beers that are brewed here are of spontanuous fermentation, on of the oldest styles in the world. When it is being brewed, no yeast is added . The mash consists of 2/3 of malted barley and 1/3 of unmalted wheat. The brewing season is in the winter months, from late October till early April, because the wort has to cool down from boiling temperature to 20° Celsius overnight. This cannot happen  in summer.
During that night the wort is infected by wild yeast bacilles, “Brettanomyces” as they are called. The next morning the wort is pumped into tall woodens casks and the fermentation starts immediately. As the wort becomes beer, “Lambic” as they call it, it will stay in the vats for a period anywhere between 6 months to 3 years. The lambic is later blended into “Geuze” by the brewer, using different barrels with different ages. This assures a constant taste and is a true art. There are not many people in the world left that are skillful at the art of lambic blending.

After this very interesting tour of the brewery, we tasted the geuze, the kriek ( lambic with cherries), the framboise ( raspberry) They occasionally do a “faro” too, this is a geuze blended with some candysugar. The tiny barrels of faro have to be consumed within a matter of days and therefore are destined only to local pubs. The family Van Roy also blends lambic with white muscat grapes, apricots and red grapes from the Bordeaux area.

After this wonderfull visit we drove to the small village of Beersel, also famous for its lambic breweries since it houses two of them. We visited the one of Drie Fonteinen ( = Three Fountains) but we first had lunch in the restaurant which is part of it.
We ate rabbit with geuze, a true local dish, drank the excellent lambic and also the kriek on draught. Some left the table a little bit earlier because the wanted to visit the medieval castle of Beersel, a fortress destined to defend Brussels when they were sieged. The rest of the group drank coffee and then went on the brewery tour.

Armand Debelder  ( his brother Guido runs the restaurant) has only recently taken up the brewing of lambic beer. Before he was a blender, like his father and his grandfather. This means that they bought the lambic from another local producer, like Frank Boon or Lindemans and made their own blend , occasionally adding local cherries and raspberries.
The new brewerey is small sized but modern. Armand still is a blender too, because his production is too small to meet up with demand.
The bigger oak kegs rest in a cellar a couple of blocks away, the smaller ones we saw lying in the small cellar under the brewhouse.The smell of oak and lambic is mermerizing and distinctive. Open a bottle of Drie Fonteinen, smell the nose and you’ll feel like standing in that cellar again!!
They have opened a new tasting room , which is actually a small café on the front of the building, street side. It’s open to the public on Friday afternoons and on Saturdays.
We tasted the geuze and the faro, as well as the bottled rare Kriek and a vintage geuze ( = aged geuze of exceptionnal quality)

Brasserie de Silly

The next brewery on the program was Brasserie de Silly, in the little town bearing the same name. It is located in the province of Hainaut, west of Brussels. This famil- owned brewery has been producing high quality beers for several generations and currently a new one is taking over. We were given the tour by Lionel Vanderhaeghen , the son of  Didier.
We saw a very modern and clean brewery, with a state of the art stainless steel brewhouse. Here classic beers like the Titje ( wheatbeer), are made.Recently has joined the rich assortment.

After a very nice tasting in the specially equipped room, where we were warmly wellcomed by the family, we bought Tshirts and beers and headed to the local restaurant les 9 Tilleuls, named after a very old Lindenbaum. When  one of the giant branches of the three threatened to break off, they repaired the split with cement and bricks!!
We had a very nice dinner there, Of course accompanied by all the beers of Sillly.

Later that night we drove to the town of Ypres in Flanders, where we checked in the hotel Novotel. We stayed there for 3 nights and we attended the famous Hops Festival of Poperinge, which takes place only every 3 years!!

Day III