Changes

In early 1950, Van Honsebrouck began distributing [[Brasserie_Belle_Vue | Belle Vue]] and observed the increasing demand for the beer.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> In 1953, Luc Van Honsebrouck, the son of Paul, went to brewery school and completeed completed apprenticeships in Wallonia and Germany. He then took over the brewery and renamed it Brewery Van Honsebrouck. By 1955, Luc Van Honsebrouck decided to stop brewing lagers and focus on his own Oud Bruin recipe which was named Bacchus. In 1958, the brewery began buying wort from [[Brasserie_Van_Haelen-Coche | Van Haelen Fréres]] in Uccle to produce what they called a gueuze and later a kriek.<ref name=GeuzeFaroEtKriek>Raymond Buren, [[Books#Gueuze.2C_Faro_et_Kriek|Gueuze, Faro, et Kriek]], 1992</ref>

Wort was transferred into oak foeders that held Bacchus and blended with a house-brewed wort. This eventually inoculated the yeast culture into the foeders which lead to in-house production of spontaneously fermented ale after their wort supplier ceased production. In an attempt to replicate the environment in the Pajottendland the brewery experimented with trucking their wort into the region for cooling. The experiment was ultimately unsuccessful, and all spontaneous fermentation is done in-house today.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> In 1969 Van Honsebrouck became the second largest "gueuze" producer in Belgium behind Belle-Vue using 700,000 kg of malt. [http://www.vanhonsebrouck.be/en/brouwerij/geschiedenis# Brewery History]</ref>

When Van Honesbrouck began making what they view as lambic around 1958 they were indeed bringing in wort from a ''bona fide '' lambic producer in the Pajottenlandand maturing it in their own barrels. Capitalizing on the popularity of [[Sweetened_Lambic|sweetened lambic]], Luc Van Honsebrouck saw a business opportunity. What he did not see, according to Raymond Buren, was the uniqueness of the product to the Senne Valley. Buren quotes Van Honsebrouck: "The Senne, he says, is the sewer of Brussels." Van Honsebrouck goes on to wonder who created the geographic border typically recognized by lambic producers anyhow. : "Kobbegem isn’t in the Pajottenland”, he notes (refering to [[Brasserie_Mort_Subite|Mort Subite]]). “My gueuze conforms to the taste of the times, it’s refreshing and sells well in France, it’s from that perspective that I’ve named it St. Louis.”<ref name=GeuzeFaroEtKriek>Raymond Buren, [[Books#Gueuze.2C_Faro_et_Kriek|Gueuze, Faro, et Kriek]], 1992</ref>

Presently, the Van Honsebrouck brewery uses a coolship to spontaneously ferment their Saint Louis line of beers and uses aged hopswhile continuing to sweeten their fruited versions.<ref name=HonseBrewing> Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck, [http://www.vanhonsebrouck.be/en/brouwproces Brewing Process]</ref>