Changes

Jean-Baptiste’s son, Louis Girardin, continued his father’s work of both farming and brewing taking over in 1962<ref name=WildBrews>Jeff Sparrow, [[Books#Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition|Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition]], 2005</ref>. Louis, while still a farmer, began to favor the brewing aspect of the Girardin name and set forth modernizing the brewery in an attempt to stay viable. He replaced old coal burners with oil burners and purchased several malt silos for lage-scale storage on-site eliminating the need for frequent malt deliveries. By the late 1970’s , Girardin’s traditional business model of selling wort to beer blenders in wooden barrels began to decline as a number of cafés began to close their doors. Out of necessity, Louis purchased two bottling lines and began producing bottled beer for the first time in the brewery’s history. Starting out with just gueuze, the lineup later expanded to include kriek, framboise, and faro.<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 late 1980’s up through to the new millenium millennium, the brewery continued to invest in new equipment and training for Louis' two sons Jan and Paul. Between 1990 and 1993 , a new brewing hall with more new-to-the-brewery equipment. Brewing has never ceased at Girardin, even during expansion and renovation, and now includes a lager-style beer called Ulricher. The brewery is currently under its fourth generation of ownership by the Girardin family after the sudden death of Louis Girardin in September of 2000. This generatongeneration, Louis’ daughter Marina along with Jan and Paul joined the business after finishing school. Sadly Jan Girardin, who was the delivery/supply manager for the brewery, passed away in August , 2012.

With the resurgence of lambic culture in Belgium, Brouwerj Girardin has been able to get back to it's roots, by bottling and distributing their beer as well as supplying wort to other blenders. They are a main supplier of wort to lambic blenders , including [[Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen|3 Fonteinen]], [[De_Cam_Geuzestekerij|De Cam]], and [[Hanssens_Artisanaal_bvba|Hannsens]] as well as many private consumers and experimental blenders , including [[Neill and Ross|Neill and Ross]] who blended Girardin lambic with blackberries to produce [[Shot in the Dark|Shot in the Dark]]. Armand Debelder of 3 Fonteinen has been quoted as referring to Girardin as the ''Chateau d’Yquem'' of lambic produces producers, considering it to have some of the greatest “lasting properties” of lambics available for blending.<ref name=WildBrews>Jeff Sparrow, [[Books#Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition|Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition]], 2005</ref>. The brewery joined [[HORAL]] in 2004<ref name=HoralGirardin)>Horal - Girardin (Dutch), http://www.horal.be/vereniging</ref>, of which Armand is a founding member. The future seems to be bright for the brewery. A potential fifth generation, three daughters and one son all born to Paul Girardin<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>, may someday carry on the Girardin name in the lambic world.