Changes

The brewing history of Timmermans dates back to 1692 when a couple acquired a farm next to the Church of Sint-Pieter in the town of Itterbeek west of Brussels. Though it is unclear what kind of beers were being brewed there at the time (some records state that it was ‘brown beer’), the site of the brewery has remained in the same location ever since. The early iterations of Timmermans brewery had their own coolship as early as the 18th century as well has its own hop garden and area for hop drying.<ref name=“GeuzeKriek”GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen,[[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref><ref name=“HoralTimmermans”>http://www.horal.be/vereniging/timmermans-itterbeek - Timmermans, Dutch</ref>

The Timmermans name became associated with the brewery in 1911 when Gerard Frans Timmermans married the youngest daughter of Paul Josef Walravens, the owner of the brewery (then called Het Molleken). At the same time, Paul Walravens sold the brewery to his daughter and son-in-law for the 23,672 Belgian francs. As was seemingly common in the era, Frans Timmermans also became the mayor of Itterbeek fro m1929 to 1955.<ref name=“GeuzeKriek”GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen,[[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>

Frans had only one daughter, Germaine, who married Paul van Custem. After the death of Frans Timmermans in 1959, Paul passed the brewery on to his son Raoul after renaming it to Brouwerij Timmermans. Several years later, Raoul’s younger brouther Jacques was brought into the business after studying brewing. Together, they created a popular draught kriek sometime between 1960 and 1963 that was sold in cafés in the area. At the time, Timmermans was also experimenting with grapes and lambic, though the project was eventually abandoned due to the fact that grapes did not provide much flavor to the lambic.<ref name=“GeuzeKriek”GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen,[[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>

Still, Raoul and Jacques van Custem turned Timmermans into one of the largest lambic breweries in Belgium by supplying lambic to other brewers and blenders who used it for their own versions of geuze and kriek. As Timmermans expanded its footprint in brewing, they also became a distributor of sorts for a short period of time. In looking to expand the brewery even further, the brothers partnered with Rizla, a large cigarette rolling paper company in Belgium. Rizla bought 50% of the company plus one share, and thus Michel Painblanc took over the company. Raoul van Custem slowly withdrew from the brewery.<ref name=“GeuzeKriek”GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen,[[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>

In 1993 Rizla sold its majority stake in Timmermans to John Martin nv who still owns the brewey today. John Martin nv ,had previously tried to acquire the Eylenbosch brewery and was in the market for a lambic brewery. By 1995 John Martin shopped the production of 75cl bottles and moved everything into 25cl and 33cl cans and bottles. In 2004 Jacques van Custem officially retired, leaving the brewery to be led exclusively by John Martin nv; though he and his son Frédéric still serve in advisory roles.<ref name=“GeuzeKriek”GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen,[[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> <ref name=“HoralTimmermans”HoralTimmermans>http://www.horal.be/vereniging/timmermans-itterbeek - Timmermans, Dutch</ref>

Though Timmermans has steadily produced a line of sweetened lambic, their canning program is slowly coming to an end. The brewery has recently started to return to its roots by reintroducing an Oude Geuze in 2009 followed by an Oude Kriek in 20010 using sour cherries from Sint-Truiden. Timmermans is also a member of [[HORAL|HORAL]], guaranteeing that its production methods meet the European Union standards for lambic and geuze.<ref name=“GeuzeKriek”GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen,[[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref><ref name=“HoralTimmermans”HoralTimmermans>http://www.horal.be/vereniging/timmermans-itterbeek - Timmermans, Dutch</ref>