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The roots of Brasserie Cantillon stretch back even further than the brewery’s officially recognized founding date of 1900. According to Van den Steen in [[Books#Geuze_.26_Kriek:_The_Secret_of_Lambic_Beer|''Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer'']], the forefather of the Cantillon brewing family was a grain merchant named Auguste whose son, Paul, had no intention of continuing his father’s craft. Auguste then began to search for a business that would suit his son’s brewing hobby. Since starting a brewery was too expensive, Paul made several attempts to take over breweries in the [[The_Language_of_Lambic#The_Town_of_Lembeek|Lembeek]] area. By 1894 Auguste had bought the Vandezande-Van Roy brewery located in Lembeek’s Hondzocht district. <ref name=“GeuzeKriek”>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>
By 1900, Paul Cantillon and his wife Marie Troch began a gueuze blending business in the industrial quarter of Cureghem which was part of the southern Brussels community of Anderlecht. The brewery was located in a very busy area near the Bruxelles-Midi train station, the Mons boulevard, and the canal that ran through the city. Jean-Pierre Van Roy, who wrote the forward to [[Books#La_Gueuze_gourmande|''La Gueuze Gourmande'' ]] calls the period between 1900 and 1937 the ''"première periode de la brasserie"''. During these first thirty-seven years Cantillon never actually brewed a beer. Instead, they bought lambic from a variety of producers in the area to blend and sell on their own considering Cantillon a ''biersteker'' (beer blender) and ''marchand de bières'' (beer merchant). They would house their beers at Gheudestraat 56-58 where the brewery is located today.[[The_Language_of_Lambic#The_Town_of_Lembeek|Lembeek]] area. By 1894 Auguste had bought the Vandezande-Van Roy brewery located in Lembeek’s Hondzocht district. <ref name=“GeuzeKriek”>Jef Van den Steen,
Paul and Marie had four children, two sons named Robert and Marcel, and two daughters named Georgette and Fernande. The early years of Cantillon produced unblended lambic, mars, faro, gueuze, and kriek, and framboise. After the First World War, Paul was ready to expand the business and bring his two sons into the fold. Finally, in 1937 Paul, Robert, and Marcel purchased the Brasserie Nationale du Néblon located in Ouffet which had closed the previous year in 1936. They moved the brewing equipment to its current location and the first batch of Cantillon’s own beer was brewed in 1938 shortly before the brothers were called to mobilize for World War II. [[The_Language_of_Lambic#The_Town_of_Lembeek|Lembeek]] area. By 1894 Auguste had bought the Vandezande-Van Roy brewery located in Lembeek’s Hondzocht district. <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 Second World War, with supplies in demand for the soldiers, it was more difficult to continue to brew beers. The period during the war saw the brewery at a near standstill. The immediate post-war years did not see the same demand and production of beers as the 1930’s had. To make matters worse, a massive heat wave in Belgium destroyed many brewery’s stocks including Cantillon’s. Sometime around 1950 the brewery began to recover and reached an all-time high production in 1955. Paul Cantillon passed away in 1952, while his wife Marie lived until 1958. Starting in 1960 the demand for traditional gueuze and lambic began to decline once again and Marcel sold his share to Robert and left the business. Robert, too, was on his way out of the brewing business when his only daughter, Claude, married Jean-Pierre Van Roy. By 1969-1972 Van Roy had taken the reigns of the brewery.