A History of Brussels Beer in 50 Objects // #1: Cantillon Coolship
Celebrating its fourth birthday, Brussels Beer City launches a new weekly series on Brussels beer history as told by artefacts from 12 centuries of brewing and drinking.
How do you weave together 12 centuries of cultural, economic, geographic, demographic, culinary, and industrial history into a digestible narrative? You could follow Fernand Braudel, committing to a decades-long, rigorously academic treatise on the longue durée of Brussels' social, economic, and political history.
The amateur historian pressed for time and resources might be better taking inspiration from a less baroque source. Something like “A History Of The World In 100 Objects”, the project launched in 2010 by the BBC and the British Museum. From stone axes to solar powered lamps, they told the story of human history through artefacts from the museum’s collection. The project received criticism for its perceived lack of self-reflection on the origin of several objects, but as a way of explaining the history of Brussels beer, it is an idea ripe for plagiarism by the part-time beer writer.
Enter “A History Of Brussels In 50 Objects”. Starting today, an article will appear each Friday until Brussels Beer City’s fifth birthday in July 2022. Each object will tell a different aspect of Brussels’ interconnected beer and urban histories - from the city’s early medieval founding, its emergence as an economic, political and ecclesiastical centre, tumultuous centuries of war and occupation, and its rise, fall, and rise again as an industrial, economic, and brewing powerhouse.
Like the BBC’s series, this a history, not the history, because the objects I’ve selected bend towards my particular historical interests. It will also reflect some recency bias. The 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries will feature prominently because more artefacts from these eras exist, and because these were the most consequential periods of Brussels beer history.
Unlike the British Museum, I’m interpreting “object” more loosely. There will be bottles, drinking vessels, and brewing equipment. But there will also be books, plays, blueprints, film, buildings, and objects from the natural world. The only criterion is they must say something about Brussels’ beer traditions - making it, selling it, drinking it, celebrating it.
For narrative coherence, objects occupy vaguely-defined categories. Brewery Life tells the changing story of how beer was made. Pub Life explores Brussels’ café culture. City Life takes in the city’s wider social, geographic, economic and political contexts. And Farm Life represents the influence of agriculture on Brussels beer, and how that relationship has changed over the centuries.
“A History of Brussels Beer In 50 Objects” would not have been possible without the cooperation and support of the following people and institutions, to whom I am hugely indebted: Thierry Van Linthoudt, Jean Van Roy, Marieke De Baerdemaeker at the Museum van de Stad Brussel, Savinien Peeters of La Fonderie, Luís Bekaert of Lovulum, Antoine Pierson of Malt Attacks, Jean Goovaerts, Annelies Tollet, the Centrum Agrarische Geschiedenis, and many others.
And with that, time to introduce Object #1
#1 - Brasserie Cantillon’s Coolship
1937
Brewery Life
It is not particularly old. Nor is it particularly impressive. But Brasserie Cantillon’s coolship is living history. As the vessel where Lambic’s alchemical brewing magic begins, it symbolises Brussels’ unique centuries-long brewing tradition. And as Brussels’ last active coolship, it binds that heritage to the city’s modern beer scene.
Five metres squared, 30 centimetres deep, and housed in an attic room, the coolship was built out of salvaged spare brewery parts and installed when Cantillon started brewing in 1937. It is essential to the mythology of brewing Lambic, Brussels’ indigenous beer style. Piping hot “wort”, the sugary liquid produced by a lengthy brewing process is pumped into the coolship, where it is left overnight for two reasons. First, the wort cools down gradually to 20℃ thanks to the cool nighttime air. But it is coolship’s second function that helps make Lambic Lambic.
For fermentation, Lambic is inoculated not with yeast added by a brewer, but spontaneously by yeast and bacteria in the air and living on the walls and the wooden beams of the coolship room. This microflora makes its way into the wort as it rests overnight, before it is siphoned into barrels to begin fermentation. It was a view long-held by the region’s brewers that Lambic brewing was only possible here because of the Zenne valley’s unique microbiome.
Cantillon is the great survivor; it was the only one of its 20th century Brussels contemporaries that survived the obliteration of traditional Lambic brewing by the advent of industrialisation. It did so by becoming living history, surviving the 1970s and 1980s by becoming a working museum. Under Jean-Pierre Van Roy’s stewardship Cantillon emerged in the 1990s and 2000s to ride the cresting wave of interest in Belgian beer to financial stability. Then came an explosion of interest in the complex and tart flavours of their beers, as a global subculture of Lambic aficionados emerged to journey to Cantillon’s Anderlecht home.
Buoyed by this popularity, Jean-Pierre’s son Jean began pushing beyond Lambic’s traditions to experiment with new fruit blends and exploring new flavours discovered through his connections with French and Italian viticulture. When a slew of breweries opened in the 2010s, Van Roy became a supportive elder statesman to a new generation of uncertain brewers seeking advice, access to raw materials, and a sense of community. Yvan De Baets of Brasserie de la Senne clocked in some time at Cantillon as did Joel Galy before opening his Brasserie de la Mule. Cantillon’s influence on the contemporary beer scene is inescapable - in the adherence to a certain ascetic “way of doing things”, in the emphasis on quality raw materials, in the respect for - and willingness to occasionally transgress - tradition.
The beers aren’t to everyone’s tastes. And Cantillon has received criticism for antediluvian beer labels and ill-considered entertainment choices. But it remains a foundational part of Brussels’ beer community. The brewery, and its coolship, represents the twin forces of continuity and adaptability that have been a hallmark of Brussels beer through the centuries.