45 years : a never ending trip through brewhouses and wortproduction.

Theo Vervloet

EBC Symposium Wrocław, Poland 18 – 20 September 2016 Impossible start.

• The beginning • Ghent – • Choice of School • School • Changing of era: from Machinery to Bio Chemistry • Petrol Crisis • No Job

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 2 Krombacher Brauerei

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 3 Learning with the eyes. Start seventies.

• No electronics • No computer mainframe ex. (Stella Artois Leuven) • No PC • No cellphone • No I.. Or any other smartphone etc.

• 1 calculator in school • Notebook and pencil.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 4 Calculations

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 5 Finally a Job in Production

• To Lamot Mechelen. Belgian brewery owned by Bass, an Ale PLC needed a good lager. Brewery in Belgium needed to be expanded. It was a complete classic double brewhouse from 1922. • Lautertuns were changed to a central wort collecting system. • The vessels for unmalted raw materials where cut in two and lenghted for dubble capacity. • We had … two incidents

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 6 Lamot 2 • Transformed vessels, • somebody put the stirrer on and the guy was taken by it. A serious accident with broken arm and legs were the result. • When the first brew was made in one brewline, the starch of the maize was not well mixed with water, so it stiffened up like concrete and we had too work one weeks to get the hardened starch out of it. • As a kind of large concrete mixer the vessels were very well suited.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 7 Bass : oldest UK trademark

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 8 Lamot and Bass Pale Ale

• Bass had the real original India Pale Ale • Orders from England ------to brew P.A. in Belgium.

• The P.A. that came from Burton was brewed with the right water and fermented in the Burton Union’s, very aromatic hops, dry hopping etc.

• It was not possible to brew that in the equipment we had. • Capacity was nearly 1,000.000 hl. But nor Bass Pale Ale.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 9 Back to 1975 to 1983

• To another life. Sales manager. • The was a sweetend , • The best sold Belgian special beer. Gueuze Belle Vue etc. • But…

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 10 Michael Jackson

• A certain Michael Jackson, the beer hunter toured in the Netherlands, and discovered Belgium. • He wrote about “the best kept secret”. The Belgian special . • I met the writer in the beginning of his career several times • So I changed again

• and went to Mort Subite near .

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 11 Michael Jackson : the Beer Hunter

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 12 Opening Trappist Brewery Achel (BE)

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 13 Lambic: Beer from the middle ages

• The basic for lambic is: an special brewhouse. You need to use the Turbid mash method • Very simple • Use of untill 60% of unmalted . in then transfer to the copper for a short boil and back on the lautertun to get rid of the overdosis of proteins. Then again boiling and adding old hops. It takes ...... • After that you go into the world of spontaneous fermentation in wood.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 14 Working Brewhouse from 1900.

Cantillon brewery, Brussels

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 15 brewery, Brussels

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 16 TIME RESPECTS WHAT IS MADE WITH TIME

Cantillon brewery, Brussels

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 17 Normal Brewhouse? Not at all.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 18 Unique design. Turbid mash method.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 19 1984 to Affligem Brewery

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 20 Finally a Normal beer?

• 1984 to brewery of Affligem • No lager, only top fermented beers but not enough sales. The owners gave me the advice : do what you want but don’t ask us any money. • The brewhouse looked fine, but was completly manual. in bags, sugar in bags, maize the same and to much different types. • Two brews a day, two days a week. The rest of the week doing nothing.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 21 Rationalisation without money.

• I resume to the brewhouse. It took some time.(10) • Renewing some piping, repairing some pumps. Buying better malt and hops- less suppliers. • Building some recovered inside silos and redlers and elevators. • Changing the brewing method from a sort of mixed decoction method to a simpler infusion. • Fight aeration of the malt flour and mashing in. • Losses in the brewery and extraxt losses in the brewhouse • A nearly impossible task

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 22 Extract losses

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 23 Top fermentation and bottle fermentation

• A real step forward • Second hand material from a bankrupt brewery from Wetzlar.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 24 In the meantime: Pierre Celis

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 25 Wit Beer

• Pierre Celis a milkman from Hoegaarden • Wit Beer revival • Brewing with malt and 40-50 unmalted barley and oatmeal. • Other mashing in schedule • No 100° C in copper. • Wort goes to fermentation at 15-20°C • Top fermenting. • Adding spices. • Etc.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 26 Celis Brewery Austin Texas

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 27 Celis Brewery Austin Texas 1994

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 28 Cooperstown –New York State

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 29 Cooperstown- Brewhouse

50 Bls Now Brewing 35000 bls

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 30 The story of the new brewkettle

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 31 A VISION or a dream in 2002.

• Brewhouse 1864 very well kept.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 32 Brewhouse from Rodenbach

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 33 RODENBACH

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 34 Finally a new brewhouse in Affligem

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 35 We were lucky this time.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 36 EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 37 From 1949 to 2006

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 38 Finally on level after 33 years rs

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 39 Weird but capable PEOPLE.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 40 Two vessels + wortfilter good for 200.000 hl/Y

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 41 A happy team 235.000 hl/Y in 2010. Brewhouse will go to 400.000 hl/y in 2017

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 42 Brewhouse St Feuillien 1883 50 hl.until 2012.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 43 EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 44 15 x 5 m 220.000 hl capacity.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 45 Why a new Brewhouse.

• All reasons are good. • Economic, capacity, labour efficiency and whatsoever…… more important : • Flexibilityfor different beers. • Quality of taste, shelflife etc • And: Modular – to take into account future investments.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 46 And the winner : continue to win Prizes.

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 47 THANK YOU VERY MUCH

EBC Symposium 2016 - Theo Vervloet 48