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J’s sister came to stay and after trying the lambic and gueuze at À La Bécasse on Rue Tabora the previous week, she fancied a visit to the Cantillon Brewery near the Gare du Midi.

Cantillon is the last active brewery in Brussels and it is still a family business, occupying the same building on Rue Gheude. Several products are brewed: lambic, gueuze and a small range of the latter re-fermented with fruit.

Cantillon Brewery

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Gueuze is arguably Cantillon’s best known output. It is a blend of three vintages of lambic, a flat type of beer in which most or all of the sugars are used up during fermentation. The overall taste is sharp and bitter, significantly moreso than other famous brands which tend to be rather softer.

August is the month during which fruit gueuzes are brewed at Cantillon. Just entering the main door, you could smell the fermentation process going on in somewhere in the dark, cavernous interior just like it has throughout the last hundred and odd summers.

Cantillon’s most typical fruit gueuze is kriek made from cherries. Also suitable for fermentation are peaches and, to produce the brewery’s famous Rosé de Gambrinus, raspberries.