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Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen

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The inn and café changed hands several times over the years until finally coming into the possession of Jean-Baptiste Denaeyer, the mayor of the town of Beersel. Denaeyer was widely considered to be the best lambic blender in town. At the same time, around the corner, the Debelder family was blending their own lambics at the Drie Bronnen (three springs) café. Without a successor, the original Drie Fonteinen café closed in 1953. In 1961, Gaston Debelder, along with his wife Raymonde, purchased the building and expanded their lambic blending business into the inn. Though Drie Fontenen's current owner Armand (Gaston’s son) refuses to put his lambics in kegs today, the original Drie 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 likely referred to a small wooden cask.<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>
Gaston was eventually convinced to begin bottling his beer regularly. By all accounts, he was very pleased with the results and Drie Fonteinen lambic is only seen in bottles today as well as on hand-pumps at the café. Working with his two sons, Armand and Guido, the inn, café, and lambic blending business continued to be successful, though Drie 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 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]] who still comrpise comprise at least part of 3 Fonteinen's blends 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> 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.
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 1999, 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 in 1999. In the meantime, Armand would save 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 company under which Drie 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.
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