Brouwerij Dikke Jan

Brouwerij Dikke Jan is a small Belgian beer venture built around an unusually direct path from home-scale experimentation to commercial brewing. After studying artisan brewing, Pol Meerschman spent a year developing recipes with a compact Braümeister kettle before moving production to Brouwerij Deca in Woesten. The result is a focused family of beers, including a 7% Tripel, a hoppy 5.5% Blond, a dark Bruin and a cherry beer. From experiment to brewery The Dikke Jan story begins with brewing practice rather than an inherited industrial brewery. Following an artisan-brewing course, Pol Meerschman and collaborators experimented for about a year with a small Braümeister brew kettle. Brouwerij Deca records that Dikke Jan beers have been brewed at its brewery since early 2015, when the project moved from small trials to larger-volume production. A compact but varied range The range is deliberately broad in style. Dikke Jan Tripel is a blond, 7% ale made with three malt varieties and three hop varieties. Dikke Jan Blond is a 5.5% top-fermented beer based on pilsner malt and a flake of corn, while Dikke Jan Bruin reaches 8.5% and uses roasted malt alongside wheat malt and corn. The lineup also includes a 6% cherry beer whose tartness comes from real cherries. Dikke Jan’s defining character is a hands-on brewing project that grew from compact experimental batches into a varied West Flemish beer range. Waregem/Desselgem, West Flanders, Belgium; production is carried out at Brouwerij Deca in Woesten. 2015 2015: After artisan-brewing training and a year of small-scale experimentation, Dikke Jan production began at Brouwerij Deca in larger volumes.