Hanssens Artisanal
Beginning in the late 19th century, Hanssens Artisanaal in Dworp, Belgium spent its first several decades brewing and blending (mostly) lambic style beers. Due to the seizure of the brewery by German occupying forces during WWI, owner Bartholome Hanssens was no longer able to sustain production as a lambic brewery, so he refocused attention on lambic blending. He purchased wort – the beer’s sweet unfermented precursor – from other Senne River breweries, matured each acquisition individually, then painstakingly blended the resulting lambics together, and barrel aged the blend.
Today, Hanssens remains a traditional lambic blendery, producing only authentic, unsweetened, and unpasteurized lambics under a fourth generation of the Hanssens family.
Author: Caroline Porsiel
