Two-year-old lambic in which fresh HallertauMittelfrüh hops have been soaked.
A perfect balance is struck between the lambic’s natural acidity and the Hallertau hops’ refined bitterness.
In order to preserve the subtlety of the hops, the lambics selected for Cuvée Saint-Gilloise are elegant and refined such that the balance between acidity and bitterness is not disturbed. Since there is no blending with young lambic as for gueuze, and no addition of fructose as for fruit beers, secondary fermentation of Cuvée Saint-Gilloise in the bottle is brought about by adding liquid sucrose. Like all the beers produced at Cantillon Brewery Cuvée Saint-Gilloise will keep for a very long time in a good cellar, but also like all hopped beers it is best drunk when young so as to be able to fully enjoy the floral aspect of the hops.
The Van Roy family is a big fan of Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, a legendary football (soccer) club in Brussels that was the most popular and successful team in Belgium up until the 1960s. Despite the fact that the club hasn’t been in first division for several decades it continues to have quite a following in Brussels and we are now at the fifth generation of Van Roys attending matches at the old Marïen stadium.
In 2004, the club’s management asked us to create a special beer to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the club winning its first Belgian championship. Cuvée 1904 was duly created, and was followed by Cuvée des Champions to celebrate the club’s status when it was promoted to second division during the 2004/2005 championships. Since then, seeing as the club doesn’t quite always perform like a champion, it was decided to change the name for a third and final time to Cuvée Saint-Gilloise.