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Brouwerij Girardin

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History
One of Francicsus-Alexius’ suriving sons, Jean-Baptiste, took over the farm-brewery business around 1930. Just like today, the Girardin farm grew their own barley and wheat on the grounds of the farm, in addition to beets. Though the wheat could be used immediately, the barley had to be sent away to be malted and then returned. Jean-Baptiste also followed in his father’s footsteps in becoming the mayor of the town in 1938 and remaining in office until 1958. Today, Brouwerij Girardin is well known for supplying lambic wort to many of the other well known blenders in the Pajottenland. This was also the case in the 1950’s when Girardin was turning over wort to other cafés and blenders to make gueuze<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>.
Jean-Baptiste’s son, Louis Girardin, continued his father’s work of both farming and brewing taking over in 1962<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>. Louis, while still a farmer, began to favor the brewing aspect of the Girardin name and set forth modernizing the the brewery in an attempt to stay viable. He replaced old coal burners with oil burners and purchased several malt silos for lage-scale storage on-site eliminating the need for frequent malt deliveries. By the late 1970’s Girardin’s traditional business model of selling wort to beer blenders in wooden barrels began to decline as a number of cafés began to close their doors. Out of necessity, Louis purchased two bottling lines and began producing bottled beer for the first time in the brewery’s history. Starting out with just gueuze, the lineup later expanded to include kriek, framboise, and faro.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>
During the late 1980’s through to the new millenium the brewery continued to invest new equipment and training for Louis' two sons Jan and Paul. Between 1990 and 1993 a new brewing hall with more new-to-the-brewery equipment. Brewing has never ceased at Girardin, even during expansion and renovation, and now includes a lager-style beer called Ulricher. The brewery is currently under its fourth generation of ownership by the Girardin family after the sudden death of Louis Girardin in September of 2000. This generaton, Louis’ daughter Marina along with Jan and Paul joined the business after finishing school. Sadly Jan Girardin, who was the delivery/supply manager for the brewery, passed away in August 2012.
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