Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen

The three fountain gueuzerie

The story goes back to 1883, when Jacobus Vanderlinden built an inn in the village of Beersel, a commune on the outskirts of Brussels. It is said that the inn had three porcelain beer pumps to serve lambic, kriek and faro, which gave the place its name.

In 1953, the business was taken over by the De Belder family, when Gaston bought it and continued to develop the beer business of the time. At that time, Drie Fonteinen bought mash from other brewers in the region, such as Girardin, Boon or Lindemans, and assembled it to produce gueuzes.

In 1999, Armand De Belder, who had been in charge since the early 1980s, started to transform the gueuzerie into a brewery, brewing their own spontaneously fermenting beers for the first time, while continuing to purchase wort from other brewers. The necessary equipment is bought from the Piedboeuf brewery, while the barrels come mainly from Italy and are all "second-hand".

Today 3 Fonteinen still works with four different brewers to create their blends, including the famous Oude Gueuze, while the Armand and Gaston cuvée is only made from their own beers. Approximately 75% of the production is brewed on site and the remaining 25% is purchased, for an annual production of approximately 3,500 hl.

The brewery is very active in researching the cereals needed for its production, and works with Belgian farmers and growers to replant old or extinct varieties. Indeed, less than 4% of the beers brewed in Belgium today are made with original Belgian varieties, which are too often replaced by modified or processed cereals.

Another area of development is hybrids between beers and wines, blends with Muscat Bleu, Dornfelder, etc. an explosion of fruit and freshness. To be continued!