From the early hours of the morning, a group of visitors entered a cavernous building in Brussels to take a closer look at craft beers brewed using a centuries-old method, before tasting the result, meandering among copper barrels and oak barrels.

Since its founding in 1900 in Anderlecht, the working-class district of the Belgian capital, Brasserie Cantillon has been producing primitive “lambic” beers based on local traditions.

What makes lambics special is that, unlike cultured brewer’s yeast, they begin with a process known as spontaneous fermentation through exposure to wild yeasts, particularly those native to Belgium’s Zenne valley.

The result, which is aged in wooden barrels for months or years and allows a secondary fermentation to occur as the beer’s sugar turns into carbon dioxide, is a distinctive dry beer that leaves a slightly sour taste in the mouth.

Cantillon’s specialty is an even more niche type of beer, with around 20 brewers in Belgium, known as “gueuze”, a blend of lambics from different vintages and whose fruity varieties include kriek, or cherry in Flemish.

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In the late 1970s, the brewery decided to distinguish itself, amidst a growing interest in craft beers and microbreweries, by transforming its operations into a museum that today attracts more than 30,000 visitors a year.

On this November morning, tourists from Italy, France, Japan and Britain stood shoulder to shoulder at what was billed as the last working lambic brewery in Brussels, watching its workers practice their craft.

‘Long lost’

The tourists were joined by two interns from Quebec, Canada, including Isabelle Gignac, a beer professional in her thirties who works at a microbrewery on the coast of the Gaspe Peninsula.

His boss sent him to Cantillon for five weeks to bring back some of his technical knowledge.

“What makes the difference between the beers brewed here is how long they are aged and what barrels they use,” he said.

Morello cherry, haskap, elderflower: The brewery uses a wide palette of fruit flavors for its aerated beers and adds them during the secondary fermentation stage.

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“Lambic is the closest thing to the primitive beer brewed before Louis Pasteur and microbiologists discovered how yeast worked in the second half of the 19th century,” explained Jean-Pierre Van Roy, one of Cantillon’s co-owners.

Compared to the 6.5 million hectolitres of beer consumed in Belgium last year, Cantillon’s production is just a drop; An average of 2,500 hectoliters (55.00 imperial gallons) is produced annually. Two-thirds of this is sold abroad.

Along with her husband Claude Cantillon, the grandson of the brewery’s founder Paul Cantillon, the couple remain the majority shareholders of the family business, while their day-to-day business is run by their three children.

John Gallagher, an Irish academic living in Leeds in northern England, inherited his taste for Belgian brewing from a well-traveled uncle.

“These are beers of ‘terroir’ origin,” he said approvingly, sipping a red fruit varietal, using the French term that denotes the particular mix of soils, climates and cultures that fuels a product’s character.

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“That’s what gives them such a reputation with beer lovers,” Gallagher said. “Traditional methods have long been lost in England.”

Source: AFP