Lambic Stroll

Since you’ve decided to visit the Brussels Gueuze Museum, we’d like to invite you for a stroll through the Brussels of today and yesteryear. Your walk will take you from the historical town centre right to the Cantillon Brewery, which houses the Museum.

Open the door of the 56 rue Gheude.
What is Cantillon ? A time machine. You’ll leave modern civilization... goodbye to the noise, goodbye to the world...

"But where are we ?", you may ask yourself.
Well, you are in a family brewery where Lambic, Gueuze, Faro and Kriek are made and where nothing has changed since 1900 when it was founded. The Van Roy-Cantillon family welcomes you and invites you to discover a fabulous world. Beers, tools and brewing process are still the same as in the beginning.

Red copper kettles, barrels, some of them more than 100 years old, and walls of bottles constitute the scenery for your visit.

Maybe you’ll be lucky to see the brewing or the bottling, maybe you ’ll see how barrels are cleaned or how fruit beers are made in summer.

In any case, you’ll be able to taste a real traditional Gueuze-Lambic and if you would like to know more about the Kriek or the Framboise, just ask the brewer.

The non-profit organisation Brussels Gueuze Museum was founded in 1978. It was established at the initiative of Jean-Pierre Van Roy, with the help of a few friends. Back then, the master brewer’s objective was simply to save Cantillon Brewery from bankruptcy.

In order to understand the situation it must be borne in mind that, at that time, spontaneous-fermentation beers and their derived products, which are very much sought out and appreciated nowadays, were considered old fashioned. As such, the idea was to safeguard and promote a brewing tradition which had had its heyday at the beginning of the 20th century.

The resources put into place to make this happen were cultural in nature, i.e. guided tours, exhibitions and public brewing sessions, while also taking advantage of the installations and legacy equipment still being used for production purposes. Cantillon brewery became a working museum, and it’s thanks to the Brussels Gueuze Museum that it made a name for itself far beyond Belgium.

Today, not only is the brewery’s production unable to keep up with demand, it has become a successful international tourist attraction. Finally, when you look at history you can see that the unexpected happens...

"In the past I almost had to break down doors to sell my beer, and now people are besieging Cantillon Brewery just to buy a bottle." (Jean-Pierre Van Roy)

You can become a member of the Brussels Gueuze Museum by sending your request to museum@cantillon.be. Members receive the Grummelinkske quarterly newsletter, written by Jean-Pierre Van Roy and translated into Dutch, English and Italian by friends of the Museum.