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Brouwerij Oud Beersel

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Nearly three years later in November of 2005 a pair of friends, Gert Christiaens & Roland De Bus reopened the brewery and restarted wort production at Boon. Though reopened only as a side project, Oud Beersel continued to grow and Roland De Bus resigned in 2007 leaving the company to Gert Christiaens and his wife Jos. Today, Oud Beersel lambic is still brewed at Boon based on specifications from older recipes of the Vandervelden family and then immediately transported to Oud Beersel for barreling. Though the wort is still brewed at Boon, Oud Beersel is blended in-house without the addition of other brewery’s lambic. Today Oud Beersel’s production is up to nearly 1,050 hectoliters, half of which which includes two non-lambic beers.<ref name=“GeuzeKriek”>Jef Van den Steen,[[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> Oud Beersel became a member of [[HORAL|HORAL]] on January 18, 2006.<ref name=“OudBeerselHistory”> Oud Beersel History (Dutch), http://www.oudbeersel.com/brouwerij/historie/</ref> <ref name=“HoralOudBeersel”>HORAL, Oud Beersel (Dutch), http://www.horal.be/vereniging/oud-beersel-beersel</ref> On May 25, 2006 , exactly six months after the official reopening of the brewery, Oud Beersel released a limited test batch of Oude Gueuze and Oude Kriek which paved the way for the 2007 bottling of Oude Gueuze to be voted the world’s best gueuze by the magazine “Beers of the World".<ref name=“OudBeerselHistory”> Oud Beersel History (Dutch), http://www.oudbeersel.com/brouwerij/historie/</ref>
===Boon's involvement in Oud Beersel===
The following was posted by Frank Boon, owner of [[Brouwerij_Boon|Brouwerij Boon]], on 10/23/2004 on the [http://www.babblebelt.com/bbb_classic/readarc.html?id=1098553776#null Burgundian Babble Belt (BBB)] with regards to his involvement with Oud Beersel throughout the years. Though much has changed since this was posted, it is still an interesting snapshot of the small community of lambic brewers and blenders.
 
"Oud Beersel was a nice 250 hl/Yr brewery. I visited the brewery for the first time in 1973. Mr Vandervelden was a geuze-blender and equipped the building with a self-made small brewhouse in 1968. The brewhouse is quite special, as it is equipped with two aluminium tanks, one with a stirrer and heated with direct steam, the other equipped with a lot of perforated pipes, like a small strainmaster. The Lambic had allways a "green" taste, the unusual mix of lactic acid and the bitterness of nearly fresh hops.
 
As this was the only Lambicbrewery to produce this style, the closing of "Oud Beersel" was a loss for the world of Lambic.
 
So, when I was asked by Mr Vandervelden and Danny Draps to help them in the supply of malt and hops, I did it. I supplied spare parts for the brewery, etc.. When in 1996 the 1938 bottling machine crashed, they asked me to bottle the beer for them. All the "Oud Beersel" bottles with a champagne-cork and a wire were bottled at Boon Brewery. Since 1997 I supplied cherries and when in a to warm summer the Oud Beersel Lambic was to acid, we blended mostly with 1/3 Boon Lambic and 2/3 of Oud Beersel. This is not so strange: all Geuzestekers blend different Lambics to obtain a well balanced Geuze. For this purpose, I brewed every year 2 or 4 Lambicbrews in the "Oud Beersel" style. I was surprised that 2002 November 26 Danny closed the brewery ànd the café. I had a blend of 240 HL ready for bottling at my brewery. In Beersel there was a stock of 300 HL. Danny asked me to buy the rest of his beer to blend it in Oude Geuze Boon, wich I could not accept. I made an agreement with him, bought the rest of the lambic with the labels and the brand. This way, it was possible to bottle all the remaining beer under the "Oud Beersel" label. An agreement was made with "Drie Fonteinen" to supply the locals. I brewed 4 more brews in the "Oud Beersel" style to blend with their old stock. This Lambic is fermenting in wooden "Foudres" at 3Fonteinen.
 
What will be the future of "Oud Beersel" ?
 
The Brewery is for sale at € 575.000, someone interested ? The guy that buys the brewery can get the brand as a gift.
 
We are bottling now from time to time the lambics brewed in the "Oud Beersel" style. Tell me, should we stop to produce these beers and loose (only 1.8% of our volume)this special Lambic style ?
 
I did the maximum I could to help the "Oud Beersel" brewery to survive, I supply Lambicwort, cherries, etc to the Geuzeblenders. If this is concerned "not done", I better stop to do so. Tell me what all of you think about this.
 
Kind Regards, Frank Boon"
 
===Timeline===
The following timeline is presented on [http://www.oudbeersel.com/en/brewery/history/ Oud Beersel's] official website in Dutch, French, and English. It is reproduced here to exhibit the long history of the brewery and the Vandervelden family. The website is an excellent resource not only for the brewery's written history, but also for its photographic history.
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