Cantillon Brewery is a traditional, authentic lambic brewery located in Brussels, Belgium. It makes a full spectrum of sour, very dry, and highly effervescent lambic-style brews including gueuze, faro, and kriek. See faro, gueuze, kriek, and lambic. Brasserie Cantillon Brouwerij was founded in 1900 by Paul Cantillon, himself the son of a brewer, and his wife, Marie Troch. Today the brewery is run by the cantankerous lambic traditionalist Jean-Pierre Van Roy, and his beers are widely revered among lambic enthusiasts. Cantillon is still family owned, and neither the equipment nor the brewing methods have changed much in more than a century. Perhaps the biggest change came in 1999, when the brewery switched entirely to certified- organic brewing, except for its fruit beers, for which there are simply not enough organic cherries and raspberries available. All Cantillon lambics and lambic-derived beers are spontaneously fermented, aged in oak casks, and then blended from different batches and vintages. They are packaged in thick, cork-stoppered, and crown-capped bottles and refermented in the bottle for 1 year before they are released for sale. Because of this artisanal, old- fashioned beer-making process, no two packaged batches are alike, and each has its own character. If kept in a cool and dark environment, Cantillon beers can be laid down for up to 20 years. Half the brewery’s production is in gueuze. Perhaps the brewery’s second most popular beer is its kriek, which it makes only once a year from a truckload of freshly picked sour cherries. These are placed in oak or chestnut casks and immersed in roughly 18-month-old lambic for a secondary fermentation that is initiated by the microbes both in the lambic and on the skins of the fruit. Once enough fruit colors and flavors have been extracted, the beer—now transformed into kriek—is racked off the fruit, which is then immersed a second time in lambic for a second round of secondary fermentation and a weaker extraction of colors and flavors. The two varieties of kriek are blended half and half before bottling. Other brews from the Cantillon Brewery include Rosé de Gambrinus, a framboise (raspberry) lambic, and Fou’ Foune, an apricot lambic. The Grand Cru Bruocsella Cantillon is a select straight lambic that has been aged in oak casks for 3 years, whereas Gueuze Lou Pepe comes from a blend of lambics of the same age (not different ages as in the regular gueuze) from different barrels then refermented with “liqueur d’expédition” as Champagne makers do.

The Lou Pepe Kriek and Framboise are made using twice as much fruit as the regular versions. Vigneronne is a Cantillon fruit lambic made with white grapes, whereas Saint-Lamvinus is made with merlot and cabernet-franc grapes. The brewery’s Iris is the only non-lambic beer. It is brewed from an all-pale ale barley malt mash, spontaneously fermented as a regular lambic, then after 2 years in the barrel, it gets a second fresh hopping 2 weeks before the bottling. See dry hopping.

See also belgium and lambic.