Cantillon

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For the first anniversary of our blog — today —  we wanted something special. And what would be more special than the mekka for the beer tourist, the Cantillon brewery? Only open five days a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday) and just until five o’clock in the afternoon, and very busy at times, you’ll have to plan your visit to the brewery-cum-museum carefully. However, an impressive list of Cantillon beers, some of which you thought would be long lost, will be your reward!

Before you all head over to the Cantillon brewery to stock up on those beers: only the more common ones are for sale to take away, just check the website to see which ones are currently available. The beers are sold at the brewery for very reasonable prices, so they are very accessible for all beer lovers. You might have seen bottles of special Cantillon brews for sale at extortionate prices in the past, and the passionate brewers’ family really hated this, so they just stopped selling anything too special or rare to the general public.

No worries thought, this only concerns the beer to take away. On the premises — since there are no taps, you can hardly call it a taproom — you can still drink some great beers you’ll have a hard time finding anywhere else: Zwanzes of years ago, lambics, gueuzes and fruit beers of many different vintages, or — on the other hand — very young lambics and half-products you’ll never find in a shop.

If you’ve never been to the brewery, by all means, do the self-guided tour (€ 7, tasting included) first. At some point around the turn of the century, Cantillon was the only real brewery left in the Brussels region, making it the oldest brewery of Brussels now, and you can see the history here. Almost where nothing has changed since 1900, when it was founded by the Van Roy-Cantillon family. If you intend to come back, just become a member of the Brussels Gueuze Museum (€ 10 per annum): they’ll appreciate the contribution, you’ll be kept in the loop, and get a nice discount in the shop.

One thing that has changed considerably, is the tasting room. It is now a lot more cosy than it was a couple of years ago, with wooden benches, barrels as tables, and a real wood burning stove. On a Saturday you’ll probably have to wait quite a while to find a place to sit, though, but at the window overlooking the bottle corking and capping installation, there’s some room to put your bottle and glasses as well.

In the shop you can buy some cheese made with gueuze, but none of it — or any other food — is served in the tasting room. Apparently as a brewery — not licensed as an actual bar — they can only serve what they produce on the premises. That’s quite a pity, since having at least a snack with all those sour beers would make the decision to order another bottle a bit easier…

    

tl;dr

Beers

  • No beers on draught
  • Drink Cantillon beers you will not be able to find anywhere else
  • Buy some of the Cantillon headliners to take home, depending on availability

Bites

  • None, for legal reasons
  • You can buy some cheese to take home, though

 

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What have people been drinking here recently?