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== Overview ==
[[File:BrouwerijOudBeersel-17.jpg|thumb|left|Part of the barrel cellar at Oud Beersel]]Oud Beersel is a traditional lambic brewery whose wort is produced at [[Brouwerij Boon|Boon]] and barreled and blended at the brewery's location in Beersel. They produce a traditional Oude Gueuze, Oude Kriek, and Framboise in addition to releasing their lambiek in 10 liter boxes. Oud Beersel also releases a tripel called Bersalis and a Belgian-style pale ale called Kadet.
== History ==
The story of Oud Beersel dates back to 1882 in the town of Beersel in Flemish Brabant. According to Van den Steen, Jeromius Hofmans was running a village shop with a café next door that served house-blended lambics by the liter.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> Henri Vandervelden, who founded his own brewery, had a son named Egidius who married Hofmans’ daughter thus marrying the café and the brewery under the Vandervelden name for the next four generations until 2002.
[[File:BrouwerijOudBeersel-19.jpg|thumb|right|Oud Beersel barrelhead hanging in the brewery]]
Henri Vandervelden, who at the time was working for 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 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>
== Beers ==
[[File:BrouwerijOudBeersel-1.jpg|thumb|right|Beer tank on display at Oud Beersel]]
=== Geuze ===
* [[Oud Beersel Bzart Oude Geuze]]
== Photos ==
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