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The roots of Brasserie Cantillon stretch back even further than the brewery’s officially recognized founding date of 1900. According to Van den Steen in [[Books#Geuze_.26_Kriek:_The_Secret_of_Lambic_Beer|''Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer'']], the forefather of the Cantillon brewing family was a grain merchant named Auguste whose son, Paul, had no intention of continuing his father’s craft. Auguste then began to search for a business that would suit his son’s brewing hobby. Since starting a brewery was too expensive, Paul made several attempts to take over breweries in the [[The_Language_of_Lambic#The_Town_of_Lembeek|Lembeek]] area. By 1894, Auguste had bought the Vandezande-Van Roy brewery located in Lembeek’s Hondzocht district.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>
By 1900, Paul Cantillon and his wife Marie Troch began a gueuze blending business in the industrial quarter of Cureghem which was part of the southern Brussels community of Anderlecht. The brewery was located in a very busy area near the Bruxelles-Midi train station, the Mons boulevard, and the canal that ran through the city. Jean-Pierre Van Roy, who wrote the forward to [[Books#La_Gueuze_gourmande|''La Gueuze Gourmande'']], calls the period between 1900 and 1937 the ''"première periode de la brasserie."''. During these first thirty-seven years, Cantillon never actually brewed a beer. Instead, they bought lambic from a variety of producers in the area to blend and sell on their own, considering Cantillon a ''biersteker'' (beer blender) and ''marchand de bières'' (beer merchant). They would house their beers at Gheudestraat 56-58, where the brewery is located today.<ref name=“LaGueuzeGourmande”>Nicole Darchambeau, [[Books#La Gueuze gourmande|La Gueuze gourmande]], 2006</ref>
[[File:BrasserieCantillon-12.jpg|thumb|left|Boiler]]
Paul and Marie had four children, two sons named Robert and Marcel, and two daughters named Georgette and Fernande. The early years of Cantillon produced unblended lambic, mars, faro, gueuze, kriek, and framboise. After the First World War, Paul was ready to expand the business and bring his two sons into the fold. In 1937, Paul, Robert, and Marcel purchased the Brasserie Nationale du Néblon, located in Ouffet, which had closed the previous year in 1936. They moved the brewing equipment to its current location and the first batch of Cantillon’s own beer was brewed in 1938 shortly before the brothers were called to mobilize for World War II.<ref name=GeuzeKriek />