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== Overview ==
[[File:3FonteinenBrouwerij-2.jpg|thumb|left|Entrance to the 3 Fonteinen Brewery in Beersel]]
3 Fonteinen is a lambic brewery and blendery located in Beersel, and Lot Belgium. As of 2019, Armand Debelder is officially retired from the brewery due to severe illness and no longer holds a financial stake though he still regarded as the father of the 3 Fonteinen family. 3 Fonteinen is currently headed by Werner Van Obberghen and Micahaël Blanquaert after a nearly 6 year transition. Previously Armand took over the brewing and blending operations of the business from his father Gaston. There is also a cafe attached to the original brewery in Beersel, which is overseen by Armand's brother, Guido and nephew Thomas though it is considered a completely separate entity. In addition to lambics, 3 Fonteinen also produces several other non-lambic beers in small quantities including a blonde, lager, and porter.
The inn and café changed hands several times over the years until finally coming into the possession of Jean-Baptiste Denaeyer Vanderlinden, son of Jacobus, who also became the mayor of the town of Beersel. Vanderlindend was widely considered to be the best lambic blender in the town. In 1953, Gaston Debelder, along with his wife Raymonde, purchased the building and named the business “3 Fonteinen”. In Dutch, the name 3 Fonteinen means three fountains and originally referred to the hand pumps that were used to serve the three types of beer: lambic, faro, and kriek. In 1961 the Debelder family bought property on the Beersel church square. The building was demolished, but the warehouse underneath was preserved. Though Armand (Gaston’s son) refused to put his lambics in kegs today, the original 3 Fonteinen lambics were indeed kegged. In [[Books#Wild_Brews:_Culture_and_Craftsmanship_in_the_Belgian_Tradition|''Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition'']], Sparrow notes that when Gaston and Raymonde took over the brewery, bottled beer was still a niche product. Before the war, “there was only lambic that you bought from brewers. The kegs that were kept in café cellars had to be emptied within 14 days. If the beer was not sold, it was tapped into bottles.” It is important to remember that at this point, the use of the term keg still referred to a small wooden cask rather than the modern, industrial steel kegs.<ref name=WildBrews>Jeff Sparrow, [[Books#Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition|Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition]], 2005</ref>
[[File:Gaston and Armand Debelder.jpg|thumb|left|Gaston and Armand Debelder]]
Gaston was eventually convinced to begin bottling his beer regularly. By all accounts, he was very pleased with the results. The bottles were being stored underneath the building in the caveaus (hand-dug by Gaston), where bottling operations took place as well. The bar experienced vast popularity in the 60s and 70s. Working with his two sons, Armand and Guido, the inn, café, and lambic blending business continued to be successful, though 3 Fonteinen continued to experience the same ups and downs that every lambic brewery experienced in the last half of the twentieth century. Gaston eventually handed the business over to his two sons full-time in 1982. Armand became the head blender (and eventually brewer), while his brother Guido managed the café and restaurant. According to Van den Steen, by the 1990s the lack of popularity in popularity of lambic had reduced the number of lambic brewers available on the wholesale market to just three: [[Brouwerij Girardin|Girardin]], [[Brouwerij Lindemans|Lindemans]], and [[Brouwerij Boon|Boon]].<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> Though Girardin is no longer used by 3 Fonteinen, at least part of 3 Fonteinen's blends may contain lambic whose wort originated at Boon or Lindemans. Though lambic and geuze beers lacked the widespread popularity of other beers, Armand’s [[3_Fonteinen_Oude_Geuze|Oude Geuze]] blend won the OBP (Objective Beer Tasters) award in 1993. From then on, the outlook for Belgium's lambic tradition began looking up.
[[File:3 Fonteinen First Lambic Brew.jpg|thumb|right|3 Fonteinen's first brew, December 1998]]
In 1997, Armand became a founding member of [[HORAL|HORAL]], the High Council of Artisanal Lambic Beers, which strives for the protection of traditional lambic beers.<ref name=Horal3F>Horal, - 3 Fonteinen, http://www.horal.be/vereniging/3-fonteinen-beersel</ref> Until 1998, 3 Fonteinen was strictly a blendery. In 1998, Armand leased a computerized brewing system and had it installed, becoming the first new lambic brewery in decades, with his first batch brewed on December 16, 1998. In the meantime, Armand would save saved up for his own installation. As this was the first new lambic brewery to be seen in Belgium for nearly eighty years<ref name=LambicLand>Tim Webb, Chris Pollard, Siobhan McGinn, [[Books#LambicLand: A Journey Round the Most Unusual Beers in the World|LambicLand: A Journey Round the Most Unusual Beers in the World]], 2010</ref>, many banks were unwilling to fund Armand’s venture to buy the necessary equipment. To help facilitate the purchase, Armand and his brother split the business, with Guido taking the restaurant café and Armand forming AD Bieren bvba, the corporate entity under which 3 Fonteinen beers are brewed.<ref name=LambicLand>Tim Webb, Chris Pollard, Siobhan McGinn, [[Books#LambicLand: A Journey Round the Most Unusual Beers in the World|LambicLand: A Journey Round the Most Unusual Beers in the World]], 2010</ref> Brewing his own lambic, Armand was now able to fully manage his own product.
In the 1999-2000 season, Armand began to make preparations to begin foreign exports. In 2006, 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze and Oude Kriek received recognition and protection as a traditional Flemish regional product.<ref name=Horal3F>Horal, - 3 Fonteinen, http://www.horal.be/vereniging/3-fonteinen-beersel</ref> As the lambic revival picked up in the early 2000s, 3 Fonteinen continued to be one of the most prolific and traditional producers.