Trades Day in Belgium

On Sunday hundreds of traditional trades' people opened their doors all over Belgium to display their passion and handicrafts. Chocolate makers, furniture makers, sculptors, hat makers, stylist, photographers, jewelers and brewers held open house.

Trade's Day in Belgium was sponsored by various business organisations in Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels as well as national organisations. Under the slogan 'They have golden hands, hundreds of crafts and trades people showed their wares to the general public.

Video Interview

One of the popular places of interest was the Flemish Brabant Brewery Oud Beersel. It was a family business for 150 years, spanning five generations. The brewer now is Gert Christiaens who studied to be an economist. Five years ago he heard that the brewery had shut down. Driven by his love of the traditional 'lambic' beer, he took up contact with the last brewer, decided to take a crash course in beer brewing, and took over brewing the beer according to the old traditional method. There were sceptics, but the brewery is doing great business now and receives visitors from all over the world, including people from the United States and Japan. For more information visit the brewery's website here.

Brasserie Cantillon Beer Festival

The Cantillon Brewery and Gueuze Museum is opening its doors on Saturday November 10th for its annual Public Brewing Session.
From 6h30 to 17h, the Master brewer, his family and friends invite you to this 19th Century brewery for a brewing fair where you can experience the various steps in the traditional production of Lambic and Gueuze beers, using original equipment and techniques.
The brewery tries to use biodynamic and organic ingredients wherever possible and is committed to traditional practices, thus producing excellent non-commercial beers.
The programme for the Public Brewing Session on 10 November is as follows:
6.30 to 9.00 Brewing process
9 to 13.00 Filtration and hopping
12.00 to 15.00 Cooking
15.30 Pumping of wort into the cooling tun
6.30 to 12.00 Barrel cleaning "ancient method"
Guided tours every 2 hours as from 7.00 Croissants and coffee until 8.30, free of charge. Cantillon is located at 56 rue Gheude,
Anderlecht, Brussels (close to Gare Du Midi)
WEBSITE