Hanssens Artisanaal bvba

Website : N/A

Phone: +32 (0)23 80 31 33

Address: Vroenenbosstraat 15 Dworp, 1653

Contents

Overview

Hanssens Artisanaal bvba is a traditional lambic blendery located in Dworp (Tourneppe), Belgium. They offer a range of lambics including Oude Geuze and Oude Kriek, a specialty Scarenbecca Kriek made from Schaerbeekse Cherries, and the only authentic strawberry lambic in Belgium, Oudbeitje. Raspberry and Cassis lambics are available in the United States, and Hanssens has also blended lambic and mead. According to Van Den Steen, Hanssens was the first brewery to use the protected name of Oude Geuze and Oude Kriek on their labeling.

History

In a roundabout way, Hanssens is one of the oldest lambic blenders in Belgium. The way in which Hanssens as we know it today came into existence through a non-lambic brewery known as the Het Hooghuys brewery. This brewery was initially owned by the Van Hemelrijk family and eventually became associated with the Hanssens name after Petrus Van Hemelrijk married Joanna Maria Hanssens in 1837. The oldest son of Petrus and Joanna, Jozef (1861-1890), continued the family brewing tradition until he fell ill in 1888. That same year, Jozef let the his cousin Bartholomé Hanssens, who would later become the mayor of Dworp from the beginning of World War I until 1927, take over the brewery operations on the condition that he would return it back to the Van Hemelrijk when Jozef’s young children were old enough. This lease was to be a 9-year lease to Bartholomé.

A family quarrel came about when Bartholomé did not want to return the popular brewery and he was eventually fired, forcing him to find a new location for his brewery. Professionally, Bartholomé Hanssens was neither a lambic brewer nor lambic blender. He brewed a popular brown table beer known as “Waalschen bruynen” (Walloon Brown). By all accounts his new brewery, Sint-Antonius, broke with Dworp tradition by not producing or blending any lambic. However, during the First World War, Bartholomé’s brewery was stripped of all its copper equipment by the occupying German forces. The loss of all of his brewing equipment forced Bartholomé Hanssens to turn to purchasing and blending of wort. This decision was not completely uniformed at the time, as Dworp was fast becoming the center of the lambic blending world.

Bartholomé’s second marriage resulted in four children (two daughters and two sons). One son, Jozef died young leaving Theo Hanssens (1909 - ? ) as the male successor to the lambic blending business. Theo Hanssens began to learn the lambic blending craft at the age of 14 as his father started to become ill. Not only did he learn with his father, but he also learned with one of the most important lambic breweries in Dworp, Winderickx. Theo took over the business full time when his father passed away in 1928. In 1932, Theo married Rosa Vastiau whose name makes up Hanssens barrel marking today: THV. With so many lambic breweries in the immediate area, Theo used wort from Van Haelen in Beersel (closed in 1957), Van Haelen-Coche in Uccle (closed in 1968), La Fleur d’Or in Brussels (closed in 1969), Timmermans in Itterbeek and Winderickx (closed in 1969). The numerous brewery closures after World War II lead to Hanssens using lambic from Lindemans and Girardin. By 1990 the blend also contained Boon. Today, these three breweries make up all of Hanssens gueuze blends. Theo Hanssens and Rosa Vastiau had one son, Jean, who would eventually learn the trade from his father and move into the business after completing his military service.

After succeeding his father Theo in 1974, Jean Hanssens continued to produce only gueuze and kriek as the lambic market throughout the 1970’s and 80's as the lambic market continued to shrink. Van Den Steen quotes Jean Hanssens to Armand Debelder saying that “de guis is kapot” (geuze is dead). However, in 1993 Hanssens along 3 Fonteinen and Moriau won the OBP trophy which can be seen on 3 Fonteinen labels from the time. Jean Hanssens continued to blend lambic until 1997 when it was apparent that it was time to retire. Jean and his wife Julienne De Wulf had two children, a son Theo and a daughter Sidy. Having not taught his children the art of blending, Jean saw no immediate successor for the name and began to work his way through the final stocks of lambic to be blended with the intention of discontinuing the Hanssens name.

Fortunately for the lambic community Jean’s daughter Sidy and her husband John took interest in continuing the family’s blending business. In 1998 Hanssens Artisinaal bvba as we recognize it today was set up passing the Hanssens name onto the fourth generation. As a very small blendery, neither Sidy nor John make a living from blending lambic as they have regular day jobs. Today, Hanssens is a 100% traditional lambic blendery producing only authentic, unsweetened, and unpasteurized lambics. As of now, there are no immediate successors to the Hanssens name and is still located in Dworp on the same family farm and in the same family farmhouse purchased many years earlier by Bartholomé . Hanssens is also a member of HORAL.

Beers

Geuze

• Mead the Gueuze
• Oude Gueuze

Fruit

• Cassis Frambozen Lambic
• Experimental Blackberry
• Experimental Cassis
• Experimental Raspberry
• Kriekenlambiek
• Oude Kriek
• Oudbeitje Lambic
• Scarenbecca Kriek

Unblended Lambic

• Jonge Lambik
• Lambik op 't Vat

Breweriana

• Coasters
• Glassware
• Signs
• Everything Else