Brouwerij Omer Vander Ghinste (Bockor)

← West Flanders

Website: http://www.omervanderghinste.be

Phone: +32 (0)56 23 51 71

Address: Kwabrugstraat 5, B-8510 Bellegem

Overview

Brouwerij Omer Vander Ghinste is a brewer of spontaneously as well as traditionally fermented beers, located in West Flanders. In 1970, the brewery began buying lambic wort from Heyvaert to age and package as their own products under the Jacobins name. Since 1981 they have been brewing their own spontaneously fermented beers.

History

Brouwerij Omer Vander Ghinste was founded in May of 1892 when Remi Vander Ghinste bought the brewery for his son Omer. The building itself housed a brewery as early as 1869 according to records. Initially, Vander Ghinste brewed a brown ale typical of the West Flanders region at the time. Remi's son, Omer Remi, ran the brewery until turning it over to his son (also named Omer Remi) in 1952.

In 1963 Omer Vander Ghinste III and his brother Pierre took over the operation of the brewery. With the popularity of sweetened commercial lambic growing, Omer III opted to bring Van Honsebrouck beers into the province to supply to his various bars and customers. However, by 1970 Omer III was ready to produce his own version.

The brewery is currently in its fourth generation of family ownership under Omer Jean Vander Ghinste.

Omer Vander Ghinste Definition of Lambic

Following the success of Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck's introduction of the Saint Louis line in 1958, Vander Ghinste followed suit in 1970 producing a filtered and sweetened product, Gueuze Lambic Jacobins. Bockor purchased lambic wort from Heyvaert in Asse until 1981, when the brewery ceased production. It was aged in various barrels and foeders of 200, 120, and 65 hectoliters before being packaged and sold. After that, they began to brew their own spontaneously fermented beer with a koelschip having been installed in 1929 for their own products. According to Van den Steen, Vander Ghinste uses 33% wheat and 67% malted barley for their brews.

Buren quotes Omer Jean Vander Ghinste, the fourth generation owner of the brewery in 1992 as saying that the Bellegem region, the “Leiestreek” also has its lambic, and that he got the confirmation of a professor from Ghent, Monsieur Baetsle, who said: “the idea that lambic originated in the Senne valley is, above all, historic. In the current commercial sense, we must examine if these microorganisms that trigger spontaneous fermentation come from the Senne or from elsewhere… Besides, a 100% artisanal gueuze isn’t part of our times anymore, that beer is too sour." Additionally, the professor seems to advocate a “judicious cutting of the spontaneously fermented acidic beer with a young beer" to make it more palatable.

The name Jacobins refers to a a famous monastery, the hospice Saint Jacques, built in 1218 to house traveling pilgrims. The connection to Vander Ghinste is that the owner during World War I briefly stayed at Rue des Jacobins in Paris, and therefore got the name for his beers. During the French Revolution, revolutionaries met on this street in October 1789 when the government was moved to Paris.

Beers

• Gueuze Jacobins
• Kriek Jacobins
• Kriek Max
• Framboise Max
• Passion Max
• Rosé Max

References

← West Flanders