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Hanssens Artisanaal bvba

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History
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 Dwrop, 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 [[Brouwerij Van Haelen|Van Haelen]] in Beersel (closed in 1957), [[Brouwerij Van Haelen-Coche|Van Haelen-Coche]] in Uccle (closed in 1968), [[Brasserie La Fleur d'Or|La Fleur d’Or]] in Brussels (closed in 1969), [[Brouwerij Timmermans|Timmermans]] in Itterbeek and [[Brouwerij Winderickx|Winderickx]] (closed in 1969). The numerous brewery closures after World War II lead to Hanssens using lambic from [[Brouwerij Lindemans|Lindemans]] and [[Brouwerij Girardin|Girardin]]. By 1990 the blend also contained [[Brouwerij Boon|Boon]]<ref name=“GeuzeKriek”>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>. 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,<ref name=“HoralHanssens”>http://www.horal.be/vereniging/hanssens-dworp - Hanssens</ref> 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'')<ref name=“GeuzeKriek”>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>. However, in 1993 Hanssens along 3 Fonteinen and Moriau won the OBP trophy which can be seen on [[Brouwerij_3_Fonteinen|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. Hanssens is still located in Dworp on the same family farm and in the same family farmhouse purchased many years earlier by Bartholomé <ref name=“LambicLand”>Tim Webb, Chris Pollard, Siobhan McGinn, [[Books#LambicLand: A Journey Round the Most Unusual Beers in the World|LambicLand: A Journey Round the Most Unusual Beers in the World]], 2010</ref>. Hanssens is also a member of [[HORAL|HORAL]].
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