History

1880 Henri Vandervelden Active as fruit picker and worker at the brewery De Kroon in Ukkel/Uccle
1882 Henri Vandervelden Building of the own brewery and the cart shed
1922 Egidius Vandervelden Son Egidius marries the daughter of a farmer and cheese maker
1922 Egidius Vandervelden Egidius transforms the farm and establishes the brewery in that building
1926 Henri Vandervelden II Birth of Henri Vandervelden II
1930 Egidius Vandervelden First brewery with sweetened, pasteurized Kriek in bottles with crown cap
1934 Egidius Vandervelden The farm and the cart shed were converted to a pub which was run by one of the daughters until 1988
1941-1945 Egidius Vandervelden Further development of the own brewing equipment with second hand material
1941-1945 Egidius Vandervelden Since the use of wheat was prohibited during the war, lambic was brewed on the basis of sugar beets and a small part of wheat
1948 Henri Vandervelden II Graduates as brewer at the Institut National des Industries de Fermentation (Ceria)
1953 Egidius Vandervelden Death of Egidius
1953 Henri Vandervelden II Takes over his father’s brewery operations
1954 Henri Vandervelden II Boost of the brewing capacity to 50 hl per brew
1954 Henri Vandervelden II The brewery receives the name Oud Beersel as a reaction against the new city of Brussels.
1959 Henri Vandervelden II Purchase of an Opel Blitz truck
1973 Henri Vandervelden II Equips Oud Beersel as the first living brewery museum of Belgium
1981 Henri Vandervelden II Test Aankoop (consumer organization): Highest rating / No saccharin in the beer
1986 Henri Vandervelden II Foundation of the fraternity Tastegeuze Broederschap
1988 Henri Vandervelden II Due to the high-priced bottling equipment, the bottling is outsourced to the Brewery Boon
1988 Danny Draps Takes over the pub “Het bierhuis” from his mother, situated next to the brewery
1991 Henri Vandervelden II Henri retires
1991 Danny Draps Danny takes over the brewery operations
1991 Danny Draps The wort production is partly outsourced to the Brewery Boon
2002-12-24 Danny Draps The brewery activities and the pub are discontinued
2003-01-31 Henri Vandervelden II Launches a call to find a successor for the brewery
2005-11-25 Gert Christiaens & Roland De Bus Reopening of the Brewery Oud Beersel and launch of the Bersalis beer
2006-01-18 Gert Christiaens & Roland De Bus Oud Beersel joins HORAL (High Council for Artisanal Lambic style beers)
2006-05-25 Gert Christiaens & Roland De Bus The first limited production of Oude Geuze and Oude Kriek is sold
2007-03-16 Gert Christiaens & Roland De Bus Official relaunch of the Oude Geuze and Oude Kriek Oud Beersel
2007-03-19 VZW De Geuzen van Oud Beersel Foundation of the NPO De Geuzen van Oud Beersel (beer minded epicureans)
2007-07-18 Roland De Bus Roland resigns as general manager
2007-07-30 Gert Christiaens Oude Geuze Oud Beersel is voted the World’s Best Gueuze beer by the magazine “Beers of the World”
2007-04-01 Jos Christiaens Jos Christiaens joins as unpaid general manager
2007-10-14 Gert en Jos Christiaens Oud Beersel celebrates its 125th anniversary
2007-11-22 Gert en Jos Christiaens Installation of four mixing tanks for the assemblage of lambic
2008-03-21 Gert en Jos Christiaens Oude Kriek Oud Beersel wins the Gold Medal on Ratebeer
2008-04-19 Gert en Jos Christiaens Oude Geuze Oud Beersel wins Silver at the World Beer Cup 2008
2008-10-30 Gert en Jos Christiaens Investment in a modern barrel cleaning equipment
2009-05-14 Gert en Jos Christiaens Oud Beersel is honoured as laureate of “Ambacht in de Kijker” (craft in the spotlight) by Sabine Laruelle, Minister for SME’s and Independents
2009-06-03 Gert en Jos Christiaens Oud Beersel wins the ‘Ultimate KMO Makeover’ (marketing initiative of Microsoft for SME’s) and strongly invests in renewal
2009-07-09 Gert en Jos Christiaens Launch of the Bersalis Kadet beer
2010-03-31 Gert en Jos Christiaens Oud Beersel increases its capacity by purchasing five wooden barrels of approximately 45 HL per barrel
2010-06-01 Gert en Jos Christiaens First employee joins Oud Beersel as sales representative