Brussels: December 2023

Lambic beer, despite its rising popularity, remains a somewhat difficult-to-understand niche segment. Having written our guide decoding what it is, how it tastes and how it’s made, the next logical step would be to introduce its best producers – Cantillon and 3 Fonteinen.

Both producers provide guided tours and tastings. For gueuze enthusiasts, 3 Fonteinen’s lambik-o-droom  is a must-visit – a 30-minute commute by train from Brussels. There is simply no better place to taste a well-aged gueuze. For those passing through Brussels and pressed for time, Cantillon presents the best option. Conveniently located, it’s just a short walk from the main station, Gare du Midi.

Cantillon

Founded at the dawn of the 20th century by Paul Cantillon, today Cantillon is the last lambic brewery in Brussels. Initially, the brewery focused on blending lambics to create gueuze. However, in 1939, under the guidance of Paul’s sons, Marcel and Robert, Cantillon began brewing lambics using second-hand equipment. The brewery experienced significant growth after World War II, reaching a peak of half a million litres of lambic in maturation by 1957. Despite this success, Cantillon faced challenges in the 1960s. The beer industry was shifting towards pure yeast beers, which fermented faster and were more profitable, overshadowing lambic’s traditional spontaneous fermentation method. By the end of the 1960s, the future of Cantillon was uncertain, with no immediate successors in the family to take over.

Fortunately, Marcel’s daughter, Claude, along with her husband Jean-Pierre Van Roy, assumed control of the brewery. Jean-Pierre, who learned the brewing craft under Marcel’s tutelage, encountered significant economic challenges during the 1970s and 1980s. To navigate these difficult times, they inaugurated the Brussels Museum for Gueuze beer within the brewery’s premises. This strategic move was crucial in keeping the brewery afloat. The resurgence of Cantillon began in the 1990s, buoyed by international interest and export opportunities. Today, the brewery is managed by the fourth generation, Florian and Magali, with the fifth generation, Simon, Magali’s son, already actively involved.

Their brewing style

While the process of producing lambic is quite specific, brewers and blenders still have ample opportunity to infuse their own style into it. At Cantillon, the foundational lambic recipe consists of 35% raw wheat grain and 65% malted barley. In each batch of 10,000 litres, 24 kilograms of aged hops are used. This is followed by a boiling process lasting three hours, reducing the volume to about 7,500 litres. The aim is to create a lambic with an alcohol content of 5%. However, the range of beers Cantillon offers, all based on lambic, vary in character and final alcohol content depending on the specific brew.

The offering is extensive, including the classic gueuze and kriek, along with fruit lambics featuring a variety of fruits, wine grapes or the prized Schaarbeek cherry (Kriek Lou Pepe). Noteworthy are the cuvée Saint Gilloise, made with fresh hops, and Sang Bleue, macerated with haskap berries. Typically, the more sour lambics, which don’t blend well for gueuze, are reserved for making fruit lambics. To ensure fruit lambic production continues through the winter, Cantillon freezes part of their fruit supply to keep it available for brewing throughout the year.

For the fermentation and élevage, the brewery employs a range of barrel sizes – 225, 228, 300, and 400 litres – primarily acquired from the wine sector. Although larger barrels are available, the limited space at Cantillon restricts their usage. This limitation notably influences their gueuze style, resulting in a more pronounced vanilla flavour from the French oak.

Tasting notes

3 Fonteinen

3 Fonteinen has been a gueuze blender since 1882 with the establishment of an inn in Beersel by Jacobus Vanderlinden and Joanna Brillens. The name, ‘Drie Fonteinen,’ likely originated from the three types of draft beer they served: lambic, faro, and kriek. In 1953, Gaston Debelder and Raymonde Dedoncker took the reins and enhanced the inn’s blending operations. Their tenure marked a significant period of growth, leading to a relocation in 1961 to a larger site on Beersel’s church square, now also accommodating a thriving pub-restaurant.

Gaston and Raymonde’s son, Armand, who had been involved with the family business since his teens, assumed leadership in 1982, taking charge of both the kitchen and the gueuze blendery. Despite the waning popularity of geuze beer beginning to affect the company through the 1990s, Armand’s dedication led him to start brewing his own lambic in 1998, complementing the existing blending operations. A major setback occurred in 2009 when an accident destroyed much of their bottled gueuze stock and nearly drove Armand into bankruptcy. The recovery, spearheaded by assistant brewer Michaël Blancquaert and later aided by Werner Van Obberghen, saw 3 Fonteinen resuming the brewing operations in 2012.

New beginnings and continued legacy (2005-Present)

After Gaston’s death in 2005, the 3 Fonteinen estate was divided, with the restaurant and brewery each taking independent paths under the same name. In 2016, the brewery expanded, moving key operations like the barrel room, bottling, and labelling lines, the warm room, and the administration to a new location in Lot, just a five-minute drive from Beersel. This new site hosts the lambik-o-droom, a bar where patrons can taste most of the 3 Fonteinen cuvées alongside select back vintages, just like they did in the original restaurant. The year 2022 marked the end of an era with Armand’s passing, but the legacy endures with Michael, Werner, and a more silent investor at the helm.

A purist approach to lambic

All brewing continues in Beersel, taking advantage of the cooler night temperatures ideal for cooling down the wort. Despite having the huge warehouse in Lot, the brewery remains small, capping at 4000 litres per batch. Traditionally, 3 Fonteinen has been more renowned for blending different lambic beers than for its own brewing. Indeed, walking through the barrel room, one sees plenty of markings from Boon, Lindemans and Girardin.

Compared to Cantillon, the brewery uses larger barrels and foudres, ranging from 300 to 500 liters, mostly made of old French oak. These barrels typically have a lifespan of 10 to 20 years. The goal is to acquire barrels that are as used as possible, to minimize the influence of their previous contents on the lambic. For identification, barrels are colour-coded: green labels are used for Pilsner barrels, while red labels indicate Barolo or Piedmont barrels. Their standard cuvées of gueuze and kriek are influenced less by the oak than Cantillon’s, which again uses smaller barrels. However, 3 Fonteinen engages in extensive experimentation with different types of wood and oak provenances. Their delicious cuvée Zenne y Frontera is made using single-use Sherry barrels, infusing the lambics with caramelised and oxidized Sherry aromas. Other experiments involve American oak, German oak, acacia or chestnut woods, all available for tasting at their lambik-o-droom.

As a blender, in their production of gueuze they generally blend lambic from other sources. Still, the cuvée Armand & Gaston is an exception, being crafted solely from their own lambic. The brewery’s meticulous approach to brewing, with a focus on using only organic grains, is a point of pride. A helpful tip for recognizing their top-tier cuvées is the bottle colour: regular varieties are in green bottles, whereas the best ones tend to be in brown bottles, offering better protection from light.

For the production of fruit lambic, only fresh and seasonal fruits are utilized. Excluding kriek, a variety of fruits such as grapes and peaches are typically left to macerate in lambic for a period ranging from four to six months. However, raspberries and strawberries undergo a shorter maceration time, not exceeding three months, to prevent bitterness from their small seeds. In contrast, in the case of kriek, the maximum maceration duration can extend to one year. The Schaarbeekskriek, a specific type of small and sour cherry, is notably used in kriek. Unlike some competitors who remove the cherry stones, 3 Fonteinen chooses to leave them intact, believing it enhances the flavour.

Tasting notes