Today we both spent 9 Euros for samples of great beer, a tour of the brewery where that great beer is brewed, and possible death or dismemberment.
The tour is self guided. You get a booklet with great info in it, verbal instructions, red signs on the wall guiding you to places that seem like restricted areas, and a send off of, "Enjoy" and then you are on your own. There are absolutely no safety measures in place. This tour relies on common sense.
I realized we were in for a treat when we were asked to wait for the heavy lifting equipment to get out of the way before entering the building.
Our "guide" took our money, gave us our booklet, and gave us a few instructions and then we were basically exploring a working brewery with few barriers guiding us.
We walked by 1000s of crates and stacked bottles again in the halls.
We were informed that we had arrived on the 2nd to last day of production for the season. They were milling the grain while we were touring. Our first stop was the brewing area. The tanks were empty.
This guy mixes hot water with the ground grains to make a mash that will be fermented at a later step.
This was our first, "Is this really the way?" moment. We only knew it was the way by the clear sign on the wall.
We ascended the stairs to what I called the death and or dismemberment room. It's actually just a belt driven mill that you can walk right up to.
I could have gotten a lot closer.
Then we headed up to the barrel room.
The stairs to the platform where you could see the cooling cat had another belt driven wheel spinning very quickly right next to the steps. No loose clothing please!
The open vat where the cooling wort sits and also gets wild yeast from the room.
That wooden roof and those wooden beams have been providing yeast for quite a while. Don't mess with the process if it works.
This is where they infuse some of their beers with fruit. The fruit beers made here aren't crazy sweet like others.
Yep, you are supposed to go this way.
Sometimes you get a bottle of lamcic that has white paint or white dust in it. Now I know why. These bottles just sit here in the climate controlled hallway and stuff falls in them.
The tour ends at the tasting room and bar. Your tour price includes 3 tastings.
Our first taste was the unblended young beer straight from the barrel. I don't think this is sold to the public, it's just for demonstration purposes. It was nice but there wasn't a whole lot going on.
Our 2nd taste was the blended Gueuze. It was delicious. These beers are Lambic Sour beers. The sour comes from the wild yeast. They are more wine like than beer like to a taster that isn't used to these styles of beers.
Our 3rd taste was a Kreik, which is blended with fruit. This one used cherries. It was very good.
We couldn't leave without buying a bottle. We have come all this way. We chose the Ashanti. It's a Wild Fermented Lambic with pepper, black pepper! It was amazing. Here is what Cantillon has to say about it.
" We are pleased to present the newest addition to the Cantillon range, Ashanti Lambic. This is the little sister of Zwanze 2022, the Gorilla Pepper Lambic. Same recipe, same pepper, but slightly more focused on the Lambic character compared to the first blend. The spicy, fruity, and of course peppery notes are still very much present and harmonize superbly with the natural strength of Cantillon Lambic. The beer's name comes from one of the many names for this type of pepper, Ashanti pepper. The pepper was traded at the time by the inhabitants of the neighboring country, the Ashanti Kingdom. This pepper is available at Misao La Maison des Poivres in Brussels. Sandrine, the shop owner, collected the pepper infused in the Lambic and dried it to offer it for sale. "
On the way out we had to wait some more for the heavy lifting equipment to get out of the way.
This was one of the best tours we have been on. A++ would recommend!
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