Changes

Henri Vandervelden, who at the time was working for [[Brasserie de la Couronne | Brouwerij De Kroon]] in Uccle during the cold months and as a fruit buyer and picker during the warmer months, started construction of his own brewery with the help of local brick fabricators. His experience at [[Brasserie de la Couronne | Brouwerij De Kroon]], that at the time specialized in producing various lambics, gave him the necessary skills to continue on with his own brewery. When Henri’s son Egidius married Catharina Hofmans, the groundwork was laid to expand the Hofmans’ family farm and turn it into an actual brewery. In 1922 Egidius set out to update and upgrade equipment in order to begin producing beers. In the meantime, Egidius’ younger brother Pierre Vandervelden continued his father’s blending and brewing business until shortly after World War II ended.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>

The brewery that Egidius set up was not initially a lambic brewery, though it produced lambic-esque beers. In many ways, Egidius was the first to establish a non-traditional lambic. By 1930, he was the first to produce a sweetened, pasteurized Kriek in bottles with a crown and a cap.<ref name=OudBeerselHistory> Oud Beersel History (Dutch), http://www.oudbeersel.com/brouwerij/historie/ </ref><ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> Lambic was not produced at Oud Beersel until shortly before World War II started using old second-hand equipment. The production was halted when, at the order of the occupying forces, brewers were not permitted to use wheat in their beers. As a replacement, Egidius began to brew a low-alcohol beer using ground-up and dried sugar beet and some hops.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> Egidius passed away at a young age in 1953 , leaving the brewery to his son Henri Vandervelden II.

Henri II graduated from the Institut National des Industries de Fermentation in 1948 , and already had first hand knowledge of the brewing process when he took over after Egidius’ death. He immediately made a move to expand production capacity to 50 hectoliters (approximately 42bbls); the volume that Oud Beersel would continue to produce until it closed for the first time in 2002. Upon taking over the brewery, Van den Steen writes, Henri II chose the name Oud Beersel to “emphasize the artisanal, traditional character of his brewery and also to distinguish himself from what he refers to as ‘New Brussels’.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> [[File:BrouwerijOudBeersel-12.jpg|thumb|left|Old Oud Beersel bottles on display at the brewery]]With the production of lambic restored at Oud Beersel , Henri II turned the brewery into the first living lambic museum in 1973. In 1981, Oud Beersel won high accolades from the consumer group Test Aankoop for not only producing excellent lambic, but also by being one of the first producers to stop sweetening their lambics with saccharin. <ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> <ref name=OudBeerselHistory> Oud Beersel History (Dutch), http://www.oudbeersel.com/brouwerij/historie/</ref>Henri II continued to produce and bottle Oude Geuze and Oude Kriek by hand until 1988. When it became too difficult to hand-bottle his lambics and not financially beneficial to purchase a new bottling machine, the task was outsourced to [[Brouwerij Boon|Boon]] where it is still carried out today. Henri II reached the point of retirement in 1991. After his son Hubert expressed no interest in continuing the tradition, Oud Beersel was passed on to his nephew Danny Draps. The situation was not ideal for Dany, and the lambic industry as a whole was on the decline. Brewing eventually ceased at Oud Beersel altogether and was outsourced to Boon. By 2002 Danny had found a new job and made the decision to close Oud Beersel for good. Henri Vandervelden II began to search for another successor.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>

Nearly three years later in November of 2005 , a pair of friends, Gert Christiaens & Roland De Bus reopened the brewery and restarted wort production at Boon. Though reopened only as a side project, Oud Beersel continued to grow and Roland De Bus resigned in 2007 leaving the company to Gert Christiaens. Today, Oud Beersel lambic is still brewed at Boon based on specifications from older recipes of the Vandervelden family and then immediately transported to Oud Beersel for barreling. Though the wort is still brewed at Boon, Oud Beersel is blended in-house without the addition of other brewery’s lambic. Today Oud Beersel’s production is up to nearly 1,050 hectoliters, half of which which includes two non-lambic beers.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen,[[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> Oud Beersel became a member of [[HORAL|HORAL]] on January 18, 2006.<ref name=OudBeerselHistory> Oud Beersel History (Dutch), http://www.oudbeersel.com/brouwerij/historie/</ref> <ref name=HoralOudBeersel>HORAL, Oud Beersel (Dutch), http://www.horal.be/vereniging/oud-beersel-beersel</ref> On May 25, 2006 , exactly six months after the official reopening of the brewery, Oud Beersel released a limited test batch of Oude Gueuze and Oude Kriek which paved the way for the 2007 bottling of Oude Gueuze to be voted the world’s best gueuze by the magazine “Beers of the World".<ref name=OudBeerselHistory> Oud Beersel History (Dutch), http://www.oudbeersel.com/brouwerij/historie/</ref>

"Oud Beersel was a nice 250 hl/Yr brewery. I visited the brewery for the first time in 1973. Mr Vandervelden was a geuze-blender and equipped the building with a self-made small brewhouse in 1968. The brewhouse is quite special, as it is equipped with two aluminium tanks, one with a stirrer and heated with direct steam, the other equipped with a lot of perforated pipes, like a small strainmaster. The Lambic had allways always a "green" taste, the unusual mix of lactic acid and the bitterness of nearly fresh hops.

As this was the only Lambicbrewery lambic brewery to produce this style, the closing of "Oud Beersel" was a loss for the world of Lambic.

We are bottling now from time to time the lambics brewed in the "Oud Beersel" style. Tell me, should we stop to produce these beers and loose (only 1.8% of our volume)this special Lambic style ?