It’s easy for Jo Panneels to remember the day Lambiek Fabriek brewed its first batch of lambic. That was March 22, 2016—the same day as the worst terrorist attack in Belgian history.
Belgium excels at the surreal; just think of René Magritte and the pipe that is not a pipe. But it’s hard to imagine anything more surreal than filling a homemade coolship full of wort for the first time—nervously embarking on a risky venture to become traditional lambic brewers—while absorbing news about suicide bombs that killed thirty-five people on the other side of Brussels.
“It’s like when people say, ‘You remember where you were on 9 / 11,’” says Jo Panneels of Lambiek Fabriek. “Well, we remember.”