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→From Framboise Lambic to Rosé de Gambrinus
==From Framboise Lambic to Rosé de Gambrinus==
The history of raspberry lambic at Brasserie Cantillon dates back to as far as 1909 when inventory taken by Paul Cantillon “indicates that the cellar contain[ed] more raspberry beer than kriek”.<ref name=GrummelslinkseJune> Van Roy, Jean-Pierre. (2016a). Grummelinkse – June 2016. Musée Bruxellois de la Gueuze. Brussels, BE.</ref> Fruited beers disappeared from the brewery’s lineup during World War I, but during the 1920s Kriek was produced again and raspberry lambic reappeared for a short time in the 1930s. Shortly after World War II, as lambic became less popular and many breweries turned to sweetening their beers, the tradition of making raspberry lambic at Cantillon disappeared. However, in 1973 Jean-Pierre decided to begin producing the beer again when a friend of the brewery, Willy Gigounon, showed up at the brewery with 150k 150 kg of raspberries.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the brewery sourced raspberries from within the Pajottenland from a farm near the small village of Liederkerke. Harvested in July, the farmer would hire a group of students to come to the farm and pick the berries to fill buckets full of 20 kilograms at a time. Jean-Pierre notes that the farmer would “weigh them to nearest gram”<ref name=GrummelslinkseJune> Van Roy, Jean-Pierre. (2016a). Grummelinkse – June 2016. Musée Bruxellois de la Gueuze. Brussels, BE.</ref> and that due to Belgium’s rainy summer climate, the buckets would also be filled with quite a bit of water.
[[File:Label Cantillon Zwanze 2016.jpg|right|300px|thumb|A re-make of the old Cantillon Framboise label for Zwanze 2016]]
As tends to be the case with raspberries and beer, it can become quite sour and it was relatively weather dependent as to weather whether the harvest was acidic or sweet. Jean-Pierre recalls that “customers would be very critical when the raspberries used were of lower quality”.<ref name=GrummelslinkseJune> Van Roy, Jean-Pierre. (2016a). Grummelinkse – June 2016. Musée Bruxellois de la Gueuze. Brussels, BE.</ref> That is not to say, however, that the beer was unpopular. Van Roy recalls a time when over 600 bottles of raspberry lambic were opened over three days at the Francs-Bourgeois festival.<ref name=GrummelslinkseJune> Van Roy, Jean-Pierre. (2016a). Grummelinkse – June 2016. Musée Bruxellois de la Gueuze. Brussels, BE.</ref>
The approximate timeframe for the addition of vanilla is unknown (roughly the 1980s) but it is credited to a friend of the brewery named Guy Derdelinckx. According to Van Roy, “one day Guy suggested I try a new aperitif, whereupon he reached into the refrigerator and took out a bottle of raspberry lambic containing a pod of vanilla. When I tasted it I was pleasantly surprised because it turned out that the vanilla flavor really offset the beer’s excessive tartness. Guy had had a stroke of genius and thanks to him I was able to naturally soften the somewhat rough character of certain vintages”.<ref name=GrummelslinkseJune> Van Roy, Jean-Pierre. (2016a). Grummelinkse – June 2016. Musée Bruxellois de la Gueuze. Brussels, BE.</ref> From that point forward, the brewery used a small amount of vanilla extract in each batch.
The history of the famous label for Rosé de Gambrinus dates back to 1980 when Jean-Pierre Van Roy suggested to Belgian watercolorist Albert Borret that “he get together a few artists and organise an exhibition at the brewery to celebrate the second anniversary of the Brussels Gueuze Museum”.<ref name=GrummelslinkseSeptember> Van Roy, Jean-Pierre. (2016a). Grummelinkse – September 2016. Musée Bruxellois de la Gueuze. Brussels, BE.</ref> A total of eight painters and two sculptors attended this exhibition, two of whom were Raymond Goffin and Raymond Coumans who were close friends. Because of the brewery’s financial situation at the time and because the museum society was not as well established as it is today, both Goffin and Coumans offered to produce three drawings each to be put up for sale by the museum society.
[[File:Label-Cantillon-RoseDeGambrinus375-2.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Artwork by Raymond Coumans]]
The friendship struck up among the brewery and Coumans would eventually lead to Coumans inspiring the name of the beer and producing its famous label. In 1985, Jean-Pierre was in the cellars of Cantillon drawing Framboise Lambic from the barrels to be put into the bottling tank. Coumans entered the cellar and was “marveling at the colour of the raspberry lambic coming out of the barrel”<ref name=GrummelslinkseSeptember> Van Roy, Jean-Pierre. (2016a). Grummelinkse – September 2016. Musée Bruxellois de la Gueuze. Brussels, BE.</ref> and into the copper buckets.
:: - “Jean-Pierre, this beer has the clour of onion skin. You have to call it “Rosé’”, he told me.<br>
:: - “But RyamondRaymond, that’s a name used for wine!”<br>
Then, in a very formal manner he said, “it will be called Rosé de Gambrinus and I’ll make the label for you.”<ref name=GrummelslinkseSeptember> Van Roy, Jean-Pierre. (2016a). Grummelinkse – September 2016. Musée Bruxellois de la Gueuze. Brussels, BE.</ref>