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Lambiek Fabriek is a lambic blendery producer that was founded by Jo Panneels and Jozef Van Bosstraeten in 2016, and is located in Sint -Pieters -Leeuw established . The word “Fabriek” in the name stands for their original brew site in the “Fabriekstraat” in 2016Ruisbroek (Sint-Pieters-Leeuw). To date, they have released four bottled products produced The ram skull logo and the round shaped labels were specifically chosen to step away from their the classic (paint stripe) labels on the market and thus to give Lambiek Fabriek its own lambic identity. Another feature that represents Lambiek Fabriek’s identity on the market is brewed onthat all the names of the products in their line-up end by “-site at Belgoo BreweryElle”.

[[File:Lambiek Fabriek + Belgoo Tasting Room 3Jozef and Jo.jpg|Lambiek Fabriek + Belgoo tasting roomJozef Van Bosstraeten & Jo Panneels|thumb|right|Tasting room entrance shared with Belgoo breweryleft]]Lambiek Fabriek is a joint lambic brewing and blending project started by Jo Panneels (blending), and Jozef Van Bosstraeten (brewing & blending)raised the idea of starting their own lambic brewery whilst drinking geuze in a café in the Payottenland. Back in the mid-2000s, Jo Panneels worked in the retail business and Jo Jozef Van Aert (brewing) that officially opened its doors Bosstraeten worked as a company plasterer. Each year the two friends – who have known each other since childhood – went to France to help the winemakers with the grape harvest in 2016 alongside the already established Belgoo brewery in Burgundy region. The winemakers were intrigued when they found out about the lambic project the village two friends wanted to set off, and offered some oak barrels of Ruisbroek in both 400-liter and 220-liter sizes. Lambic wort could relatively easily be sourced around the Sintmid-Pieters-Lieuw municipality2000s, because it was not as hyped as it is nowadays. Though The Lambiek Fabriek officially established itself founders had not grown up in 2016a brewer’s family, but gained their technical beer knowledge by taking professional classes in COOVI Anderlecht, which is a school specialized in the catering industry.  A two stories high garage in the Fabriekstraat in Ruisbroek (Sint-Pieters-Leeuw) was transformed into a warehouse where Jo & Jozef could produce their first experimental lambic blends began nearly 8 years before around 2006 – 2007. Between 2008. Around that timeand 2015, the future Lambiek Fabriek founders purchased some wort, young lambic, and old lambic from : [[Brouwerij_Lindemans|Lindemans]], [[Brouwerij_3_Fonteinen|3 Fonteinen]], Oud Beersel[[Brouwerij_Oud_Beersel]], and [[Hanssens, and they Artisanaal bvba]]. They began to experiment making only kriek lambiek lambic in small 20L 20 and 60L 60 liter carboysfor non-commercial use. While beginning to contemplate the logistics of blending lambic commercially, lambic was at the same time in one of its most popular and rapid upswings in popularity. This made the market for lambic wort from other producers much tighter due to demand at their own breweries and blenderies as well as making any available wort more expensive.

While beginning By 2015, the decision had been made to start a new commercial-sized lambic brewery. Their tasks were quickly defined because the two friends know each other for over 30 years and know how to contemplate work complementary. They agreed on Jozef Van Bosstraeten taking on the logistics role of master brewer, and Jo Panneels as zythologist assisting in blending and responsible for all non-production tasks such as: finance, sales & marketing distribution,... Given the fact that they were not able to purchase wort from the bigger lambic commerciallybrewers at the time, Jo Paneels approached a clean top fermentation brewery in Zuun (Sint-Pieters-Leeuw) to let Lambiek Fabriek brew lambic on-premises. In the beginning of the brewing sessions, the coolship was not present at the same time brewery. Instead, it was located at their original warehouse in one Ruisbroek, approximately 3 kilometers away from the brewery. The first two seasons (2015-2016 and 2016-2017), freshly brewed wort was transported approximately 4.5 kilometers away from the brewery to another warehouse where it was pumped into the coolship to cool overnight. Logistically, this was a strain. To solve the problem of its most popular having spontaneous fermentation alongside a clean brewery, a separate warehouse was chosen on-site to house the barrels and rapid upswings in popularityall of the necessary pumps and hoses. This made Eventually, it was decided that the coolship should be moved to the market brewery for lambic wort from other producers much tighter due logistical reasons, and it was installed under a roof outside of the brewery in the fall of 2017 so as to demand not interfere with the clean fermentation at their own breweries and blenderies as well as making any available wort more expensivethe brewery.

By 2015, the decision had been made to start a new commercial-sized lambic blendery. Given the fact that they were not able to purchase wort from the bigger lambic brewers at the time, Paneels approached Belgoo Brewery (which opened in 2015) in Ruisbroek about the possibility of brewing a traditional lambic recipe on their equipment. Belgoo is a clean top fermentation brewery mostly brewing traditional Belgian ales. Jo Van Aert, brewer at Belgoo, agreed to let Lambiek Fabriek brew lambic on-premises.[[File:Lambiek Fabriek Barrels1barrel room Ruisbroek.jpg|Lambiek Fabriek barrelsFabriek’s barrel room in Ruisbroek|thumb|left]]In the beginning of the brewing of the brewing sessions at Belgoo, the coolship was not present at the brewery. Instead, it was located at another warehouse approximately a kilometer away from the brewery. For two seasons (2015-2016, and 2016-2017), freshly brewed wort was transported approximately 4.5 kilometers away from the brewery to another warehouse where it was pumped into the [[koelschip|koelschipright]] to cool overnight. Logistically, this was a strain. The goal was to eventually have the two operations working side-by-side. To solve the problem of having spontaneous fermentation alongside a clean brewery, a separate warehouse was chosen on-site to house the barrels and all of the necessary pumps and hoses. The warehouse also has a separate bottling line for both 75cl and 37,5cl bottles. Eventually, it was decided that the koelschip should be moved to the brewery for logistical reasons, and it was installed under a roof outside of the brewery in the fall of 2017 so as to not interfere with the clean fermentation at the brewery.

CurrentlyIn 2020, Lambiek Fabriek also joined [[HORAL|HORAL]], a non-profit organization that groups the lambic producers in the Payottenland and Belgoo Brewery work side-the Valley of the Senne. The [[HORAL|HORAL]] Megablend 2021 and 2022 both contain lambic brewed by-side Lambiek Fabriek. A relocation to a new and bigger warehouse became necessary, and Lambiek Fabriek’s main site is once again in Ruisbroek since 2022. The main site serves for storage and bottling, whereas the same location, which was an old beer distributor before its current incarnationgarage warehouse where it all started over a decade ago is still used to store barrels. The fruit and bottles are stored in their warehouse in Lot (Beersel). In 2020For the 2021 – 2022 season, Jozef Van Bosstraeten brewed Lambiek Fabriek also joined 's lambic by making use of other lambic producers' brewing equipment at their brew sites, being: [[Brouwerij_De_Troch|De Troch]], [[Brouwerij_3_Fonteinen|3 Fonteinen]], [[Den_Herberg|Den Herberg]] and [[HORALBrouwerij_Lindemans|HORALLindemans]]. The products in the lineup are all blends from the aforementioned 4 lambic breweries, as well as Lambiek Fabriek's own brewed lambic that was produced at their previous brew site in Zuun.

The lambic brewed which Lambiek Fabriek brews is based on the Belgoo side of the brewery is a traditional lambic recipe that consists of approximately +/- 35% wheat and +/- 65% malted barley and uses aged pellet hops. The brewhouse at Belgoo has a capacity of 24 hectoliters. The stainless steel koelschip coolship that Lambiek Fabriek used in Zuun during the seasons 2016 – 2021 was fabricated locally and is divided into two equal halves of 1,200 liters each; , thus, a full brew at Belgoo will fill filled the koelshipcoolship. The wort is then pumped over to the Lambiek Fabriek side at approximately 95 degrees Celsius and left to cool until it is transferred over to barrels at around 22 to 23 degrees Celsius.  The blendery started off Jo Panneels assists master brewer Jozef Van Bosstraeten with oak barrels of both 400-liter blending, and 220-each bottling contains 5,000 liter sizes, of which approximately 90% of them are of French oak and an 10% are of American oak. In June of 2019, the blendery received 8 Italian foeders with Bottling is done semi-automatically on-site in Ruisbroek at a capacity rate of around 46 to 47 hectoliters each. As of 20191, there are more than 280 total barrels and foeders across two warehouses300 bottles per hour. Many of Putting capsules on the French oak barrels are first-fill barrels coming from bottles is the Burgundy region only manual labor in France where the blendery has a connection to some winemakersbottling process.

The current barrel count as of July 2019 Jozef Van Bosstraeten is not only Lambiek Fabriek’s master brewer, but he is: <br>  8 x 47 HL also a cooper. Lambiek Fabriek finds it important to have an in-house cooper, in order to maintain the barrels and foeders <br>50 x 220L without needing to rely on an external party. Many of the French oak barrels <br>230 x 400L barels <br> Blends are done first-fill barrels coming from the Burgundy region in France where Lambiek Fabriek has a 3connection to some winemakers. In 2022,200 there are about 210 barrels (180 x 400 liter stainless steel blending tank and left to rest for 24 hours before being bottled30 x 220 liter sizes) across the two warehouses, as well as 12 foeders which originate from Italy and Austria. All foeders were between 30 and 40 years old at the time of purchase. Each blend yields approximately 4,000 75cl bottles or The 8smallest foeders have a capacity of 47 hectoliters each,000 37one of 65 hectoliters,5cl bottlesand the 3 biggest foeders can contain 70 hectoliters each.  When touring The geuze is a blend of lambic aged in 400 liter barrels, whereas the blendery, some fruit lambics are a combination of lambic aged in barrels (of different sizes) and foeders. Some barrels are marked with a capital “B” to indicate that they the lambic inside has been made from organic grains. The 100% organic lambic is for instance used in “Natur-Elle” and “Organic & Wild Black-Belle”.

File:Lambiek Fabriek + Belgoo Tasting Room 3entrance.jpg|Entrance in RuisbroekFile:Lambiek Fabriek + Belgoo tasting warehouse Ruisbroek.jpg|Barrel roomin RuisbroekFile:Lambiek Fabriek + Belgoo Tasting Roombarrel room Ruisbroek2.jpg|Lambiek Fabriek + Belgoo tasting Barrel roomin RuisbroekFile:Lambiek Fabriek + Belgoo Tasting Room 2tank in warehouse.jpg|Lambiek Fabriek + Belgoo tasting roomWarehouseFile:Lambiek Fabriek Barrels1foeder.jpg|Lambiek Fabriek barrelsFoederFile:Coolship Lambiek Fabriek Panoramabarrel maintenance.jpg|Barrel maintenanceFile:Lambiek Fabriek coolship (panorama view)fermentation.JPG|FermentationFile:Lambiek Fabriek Foedersfermentation2.jpg|Newly placed Italian foeders, June 2019Fermentation