Brouwerij Zwaan9

Brouwerij Zwaan9 is a Roeselare beer project built around family memory rather than a grand industrial brewery story. Its beers revive names and traditions connected to the Soete family, while the brewing itself is carried out with partner breweries. The clearest example is Onze Louis, a spelt tripel that reconnects a present-day beer with Louis Adriaan Van Ballaer, remembered locally as “Lode Bréjer.” A Roeselare brewery with a family compass Brouwerij Zwaan9 is associated with Gaaipersstraat 6 in Roeselare and is represented by Bert, Karolien and Antoon Soete. Available records describe the beers as brewed at other breweries rather than at a dedicated Zwaan9 brewhouse. This makes Zwaan9 distinctive as a brewing identity and family-led beer project, with production entrusted to brewing partners. Onze Louis: an inherited name, newly brewed Onze Louis honours Louis Adriaan Van Ballaer, Bert Soete’s great-grandfather, who was known in the region as Lode Bréjer. The original historical recipe was not recovered, so the modern beer is a recreation rather than a direct archival reproduction. Its documented recipe includes barley malt, wheat and spelt, with aromatic hops and neutral yeast; the beer is described elsewhere as a 7.5% Belgian spelt tripel with bottle refermentation. More family portraits in beer The same family thread continues in Onze Angèle, a brown Belgian dubbel made as a tribute to Angèle Van Ballaer, the brewers’ grandmother. That beer is brewed at Brouwerij Maenhout in Oostnieuwkerke, while Onze Louis has also been brewed at De Meester, De Feniks and Maenhout at different stages. Zwaan9’s identity therefore rests on names, continuity and collaboration rather than on one fixed brewing location. Zwaan9 turns family remembrance into collaborative Belgian beer, with spelt and inherited names at the heart of its story. Roeselare, West Flanders, Belgium