CASTLE

1811 – Once upon a time in Werken

The history of the brewery begins with Amandus Vanhonsebrouck. The founder of the Vanhonsebrouck brewing dynasty was mayor of Werken. He also had his own farm with a dairy, brewery and distillery. When he died unexpectedly in 1865, his son Emile – one of his ten children – succeeded him as brewer and mayor.

1900 – Birth of the Sint-Jozef brewery

In 1863, Emile married Louise De Poorter. The young couple settled on the family farm in Werken. However, the current does not pass between Louise and her mother-in-law. This is why the young couple decided to leave Werken to launch their own brewery elsewhere. In 1900, he moved to a small farm in Ingelmunster, Louise's birthplace. This is how the Sint-Jozef brewery was born.

1922 – After World War I

Mother of five children, Louise also successfully manages the brewery. Her husband, Emile, is less gifted for this role. As Emile approaches eighty, Louise decides to entrust the brewery to their son Paul. With his brother Ernest, he managed to keep the family business afloat despite the devastation inflicted by the First World War.

1930 – Expansion of the brewery

Ambitious, the two brothers succeeded in expanding the brewery with a new four-story building. They now have a malt house, a barley storage loft and water tanks. The ground floor becomes a warehouse, where fifteen casks of 180 to 250 hectoliters are installed. These innovations were accompanied by the launch of an old sour brown beer which quickly gained popularity.

1939 – Pay in beer

Nine years later, a new brewing room, a tank room and a bottling room complete the transformations. The brothers pay half of the work in cash and the other half in beer (at the time this was still possible).

1945 – Pils and exports

After the Second World War, the brothers also specialized in the export and brewing of pilsners. This reorientation, which cost a lot of money and effort, does not bring a lot of money into the fund. The two brothers nevertheless manage to stay afloat.

1953 – Luc at the controls

When Paul, still relatively young, becomes seriously ill, a successor must be found to take over the business. Ernest and his wife having remained childless, it is one of Paul's seven children who must succeed him. His eldest son, Luc, decided to study brewing in Wuppertal, Germany, where he learned the tricks of the trade. After his studies and his internship at the Wicküler-Kupperbrauerei, he is ready to take up the torch.

1956 – And Bacchus was

Luc quickly realizes that the small family brewery of Sint Jozef is no match for the large pilsner breweries. He decides to concentrate on the Old Brune, baptized Bacchus. A year later, he completely stopped producing pilsners and changed the name of the brewery to Vanhonsebrouck.

1957 – Lambic in the Lys valley

Luc very quickly had the idea of ​​creating a second special beer: gueuze. At the time, this style of beer was only brewed in the Senne valley. Luc buys lambic must from Van Haelen Frères in Uccle. In Ingelmunster, the must is transferred into the tuns where the Bacchus ages. Luc inoculates the yeast culture from one barrel to another, and thus succeeds, with a relatively small quantity of purchased must, in producing enough lambic for the production of his own geuze and kriek. In 1958 the St-Louis Gueuze and Kriek beers were officially launched.

1971 – Lambic must in West Flanders

St-Louis beers are a great success. Especially when it turns out that the mash purchased from Van Haelen ended up creating a real biotope in the Ingelmunster brewery over the years. From now on, the Brussels lambic must has become superfluous. St-Louis thus becomes a beer 100% from West Flanders.

1978 – Start of the Gueuzes War

A few years later, Vanhonsebrouck began offering geuze on tap and thus became the second largest producer of Belgian geuze. A thorn in the side of its competitor, the Belle-Vue brewery in Brussels. The latter, the market leader, sees itself obliged to follow. From 1978, the competition between Belle-Vue and St-Louis was also played out on the football pitches, Belle-Vue adorning the jerseys of Anderlecht and St-Louis those of the rival club, Club Brugge. The gueuzes war lasted a long time, but sales continued to increase.