My wife and I were in Brussels about two weeks ago, touring through Europe. We stopped in for a brewery tour of Cantillon, and we walked in a couple of moments late...
There was a kind old man at a small table in the front of the brewery, and he asked my wife and I if we were a part of "that group", referencing what looked like a small throng of college students walking into the brewery away from the table. I stated, "No, sorry. I was wondering if it would be possible to have a tour, even though we are late." He smiled warmly, and he sold us two tickets, logged us in his book, and told us to wait in a small bar/sampling area. He handed us a small informational pamphlet in English, and I poured through it in the sampling area.
After a short while, a nice lady gave us the initial portion of our tour, taking us to the mash tun. She made a great introduction to the brewery, and send us on our self-guided tour. The brewery is in basically a three floor converted barn of sorts, and I can describe the equipment in fair detail. It was awesome, but that is not the point of this post-
I just wanted to say that after my tour was over, I got back to the man at the ticket table. It was Mr. Van Roy himself, humbly selling tickets. The lady at the start of the tour was one of his daughters. I related to him that I brewed, but in vastly smaller quantities (though, commercially, the Cantillon production [and equipment] struck me as closer to homebrewer scale than any other brewery tour that I have ever done). He lit up, and started to show me some old, manual bottling system, which he said he used to PERSONALLY bottle Cantillon Gueuze until 1981 (Cantillon has since switched to a small automated bottling conveyor, which is the most modern part of their entire process. He even invited me to attend a brewing session at the brewery during the winter when they do them.
Either way, Mr. Van Roy is a wonderful, human, and humble man who loves his simple brewery, and loves when others can appreciate what he is actually doing there. -I don't know what high school or college age kids hope to get out of it, unless they want to take a short walk through a barn for a free glass of beer (a shame that they may not understand what they are seeing).
I have toured a number of breweries, distilleries, wineries, and champagne cellars, and I must admit- the Cantillon brewery tour was my overall favorite, and the greatest inspiration to me among them as a homebrewer.
Mr Van Roy is a great person, and if you are EVER in Brussels, I cannot recommend the Cantillon brewery tour enough. Absolutely wonderful.
...Maybe a bit off topic, but I just love it when good people are doing well while having a good time and making a great product.
