Delete, Protect, administrator
8,485
edits
Changes
→History
In the 1970’s Erik’s father, André De Keersmaeker, began working with Vossen family, including Albert Vossen, whose family owned the famous Belgian café [[A_La_Mort_Subite|A La Mort Subite]] and was blending their own lambic at the cafe at the time to begin producing lambic under the Mort Subite name as a separate brand. The success of the Mort Subite brand under the De Keersmaeker brewery also led to the family acquiring Brouwerij Eylenbosch in 1989, before the Alken-Maes group ultimately bought up all of the family’s shares in the lambic industry. Though the De Keersmaeker family had both the Eylenbosch as well as the Mort Subite names in their brand portfolio, Alken-Maes had no interest in buying two lambic brand names, and only chose Mort Subite. Erik De Keersmaeker maintained the Eylenbosch brand name and the historical brew site in Schepdaal.
Though the revived Eylenbosch in Kobbegem will not be using the iconic brewery building in Schepdaal, which has been remodeled into flats, there remains approximately 300 square meters of space with plans to house up to ten 45hl foeders. Well water from the original Eylenbosch source has also been secured for future brewing operations further serving to reconnect the new Eylenbosch with its historical roots.In addition to storage at the former Eylenbosch, there are also barrels stored at De Troch and in on a farm in Zellik called “Hof van Piemont”. This 18th century farm is a bio an organic fruit plant farm for over 75 years, and the farmer (who is a nephew of the De Keersmaeker family) mostly harvests apples and pears.
To help finance the revival of the iconic Eylenbosch brand, a crowdfunding project was launched from October 24, 2019 until May 31, 2020. Eylenbosch produced a non-lambic beer called ‘Patience for Eylenbosch’ prior to 2021. Participants of the crowdfunding received Eylenbosch beers and merchandising in return for their investment. The first lambic beers which were launched in January 2021 are Kriek and Geuze. Future brewing plans include other fruit lambics such as: Cassis, Peche and Framboos. The Eylenbosch beers are sold in Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium. Delhaize has an exclusivity on the market to sell the Eylenbosch beer range in their stores.