Brouwerij Hanssens

In Dworp, Hanssens stands apart as a brewery that became a gueuze blender almost by historical necessity. Bartholomé Hanssens established the Sint-Antonius brewery in the late nineteenth century, but after the First World War stripped it of its copper brewing equipment, the family turned to purchasing wort, maturing lambic, and blending it into gueuze. That change gave Hanssens its enduring identity: a small, family-run house devoted to the patient art of assembling lambic. From Sint-Antonius to Hanssens The heritage record places the brewery’s creation in 1897–1898, when Bartholomé Hanssens converted a farm in Vroenenbosstraat, Dworp, into a brewery and gueuze-blending site. The business was also known as Brouwerij Sint-Antonius. Its origins are linked to the earlier Het Hooghuys brewery, which Hanssens had leased before establishing his own premises. A brewer reshaped by war During the First World War, occupying German forces confiscated the brewery’s copper equipment. Rather than rebuild as a conventional brewery, Hanssens began buying wort, allowing it to mature, and blending the resulting lambic. That practice placed the house among Belgium’s traditional gueuze blenders and remains central to its identity. A family blending tradition Theo Hanssens took over the business in 1929, while the former brewery was converted into a residence in 1931. Jean Hanssens followed in 1974 and continued producing gueuze and kriek during a difficult period for spontaneously fermented beers. In 1997, Sidy Hanssens and her husband John Matthijs took over the family blending business, carrying the tradition into its fourth generation. Hanssens is defined by the transformation of a lost brewing plant into a surviving family tradition of lambic blending. Dworp, Flemish Brabant, Belgium 1897–1898 1888: Bartholomé Hanssens leased the Het Hooghuys brewery in Dworp. 1897–1898: He established the Sint-Antonius brewery and gueuze-blending site on Vroenenbosstraat. 1918: After wartime confiscation of the copper equipment, Hanssens stopped brewing conventionally and turned to purchased wort and lambic blending. 1929: Theo Hanssens took over the business. 1997: Sidy Hanssens and John Matthijs continued the family’s blending business.