Brouwerij Cnudde

In Eine, part of Oudenaarde in East Flanders, Brouwerij Cnudde has kept a distinctly local brewing identity alive since 1919. The family brewery is closely tied to the village and remains known for brown beer, especially its Flemish oud bruin tradition. Its surviving character lies in continuity: a small-scale operation, a preserved brewery site, and generations of Cnuddes maintaining a regional beer culture rather than chasing a broad portfolio. A brewery taken into the Cnudde family On June 21, 1919, Alphonsius Cnudde bought the former Meheus soapworks and brewery in Eine. His son Omer became the second Cnudde generation, followed by Louis, who trained as a brewing engineer. In 1993, Louis’s sons Lieven, Steven, and Pieter established Cnudde bvba and continued brewing. The brewery’s own history page records the involvement of a fifth generation from 2010. Einse brown beer Cnudde’s principal beer is a brown beer in the Flemish oud bruin style, also locally called Kerkhofbier because its brewing water comes from a well beneath the brewery courtyard, near the cemetery. The brewery describes a traditional process involving malt, hop extract, candied sugar, top fermentation, and at least two months of cold maturation. Its kriek beer is a variant of the brown beer, refermented with north cherries. A preserved brewing landmark The brewery stands at Fabrieksstraat 8 in Eine. Belgium’s official heritage inventory describes the complex as a nineteenth-century soapworks converted into a steam-powered brewery around 1880, later expanded in the 1890s and renewed around 1950. The site remains a recognized piece of built heritage, giving Cnudde’s brewing story a physical continuity as well as a family one. Cnudde is defined by the stubbornly local character of its Flemish brown-beer tradition, carried through a family brewery and its historic Eine home. Eine, Oudenaarde, East Flanders, Belgium 1919 1880: The earlier Meheus brewery was converted from a soapworks into a steam-powered brewery. 1919: Alphonsius Cnudde bought the Meheus brewery in Eine. 1944: After Omer Cnudde’s death, his son Louis began the path that led to his becoming a brewing engineer. 1993: Lieven, Steven, and Pieter Cnudde formed Cnudde bvba and continued the brewery. 2010: The fifth generation—Lander, Inger, and Charlotte—became involved.