3 Fonteinen is a Belgian brewery, specialized in geuze and kriek. The brewery is situated in Beersel, near Brussels and produces classic versions of both kriek and geuze.
Contents |
3 Fonteinen was founded in about 1887 as a café and geuzestekerij, a place where geuze is produced by blending old and new lambics, acquired from other breweries. The enterprise was bought by Gaston De Belder in 1953, who expanded it with a restaurant and left it to his sons Armand and Guido in 1982. In 1998, a brewery installation was bought. Apart from using its own lambic, 3 Fonteinen uses lambic made by Boon, Girardin and Lindemans for its geuze. 3 Fonteinen is one of the few remaining geuzestekerijen. The Mijol Club, a literary club, founded by Herman Teirlinck, used to convene in the café.
In May 2009, a faulty thermostat caused the brewery's storage rooms to warm up to 50 degrees Celsius. As a result, 3000 bottles of beer exploded, and another 100,000 had to be emptied by hand to at least save the bottles. As a last resort, Armand De Belder distilled the overheated geuze and made an eau de vie which he called "Armand's Spirit": by December, half of the eau de vie had been sold, garnering enough revenue to allow the brewery to continue operations.[1]