Our history
It was to occupy (and refresh) the peasants in the winter that we began our brewing activity. With time and success, our agricultural activities decreased as our brewery developed.
As Darwin said, functions create organs.
Today, we are once again expanding our brewery to share the love of our beers beyond our borders.
Indeed, we are convinced that the characteristics of our beers, which are so unique, are a great asset in a world where there is so much uniformity.
6 generations of lambic brewers
'Hof ter Kwade Wegen' may be an ominous name - it literally means 'the farm of the bad roads'...
Yet it is at this old Vlezenbeek farm that a beautiful brewing history has been written since 1822.
Indeed, that was the year that Joos Frans Lindemans promised fidelity to Françoise Josine Vandersmissen, the sought-after daughter of Maria Anna Van Dorselaer and Petrus Jacobus Vandersmissen, the owners of the farm.
Joos Frans loved life on the farm, but he wanted to show he could do something else as well. In the evening, with his hands still aching from having ploughed the land, he would work at brewing lambic. During the winter months, the seventy-five hectares of his farmland and meadows had little work to offer the many working men and women. So they joined him in the brewery. That is how what was originally a hobby quickly became the farm's main activity.
Since 1822, six generations of pioneers have succeeded each other at 'Hof ter Kwade Wegen', first as farmer-brewers, then - starting in the second half of the 1950s - as just brewers. Under the influence of these six generations of Lindemans, our brewery has become one of the leading producers of lambic in the region and in the world. This is our story.
Joos Frans marries Françoise Josine Vandersmissen, herself the daughter of a brewer. They settle at 'Hof ter Kwade Wegen'. During this first year of operations, 360 barrels of beer are brewed, equivalent to 500 hectolitres. The brewing facilities consist of two vats, a mixing tray and two cooling trays.
Together, Joos Frans and Françoise Josine have eleven children, three of whom die in infancy, two of whom become priests and three of whom remain unmarried.
The company is described as “a brewery equipped with two boiling tanks, one of 400 hectolitres and 20 litres, the other of 21 hectolitres and 40 litres, two tanks of 25 and 21 hectolitres and two cooling trays in good condition. The brewery produces 20-30 brews.”
In addition to his farming and brewing activities, Joos Frans becomes mayor of Vlezenbeek.
Joos Frans 'Duke' takes over the family farm.
Duke has the farmhouse and the old brewhouse, which still exist today, built. At the time, the farm extends over more than 75 hectares of farmland and meadows. In the winter, the workers and farm girls could work in the brewery when there was less work to be done on the farm. The brewery produces lambic and faro. Fruit beers were not yet in the equation.
Theofiel, the youngest of 9 children, succeeds his father as head of the farm-brewery.
The agricultural activities are gradually reduced as the brewery continues to develop.
Theofiel passes the torch to one of his four children, Emiel.
During the war, the brewery only produces one brew per month.
When Emiel-Jozef Lindemans dies, the agricultural activities (30 hectares) come to a final end. While René and Nestor complete their studies, a brewer named Triphon Antoons is hired.
The brothers brew the first kriek according to the traditional method (maturation in oak barrels and second fermentation process in the bottle). Until 1973, the brewery uses Schaerbeek sour cherries. Since that variety of cherry becomes increasingly rare, the brothers switch to Scandinavian sour cherries.
Exports to France start; beverage wholesale activities start.
The Lindemans brothers innovate by producing a pasteurised kriek from cherry pulp and juice.
The Lindemans brothers once again innovate by marketing kriek in barrels
The export market is developed. 70% of production goes abroad. The 4 main markets are the United States, France, Switzerland and Germany.
Construction of the new brewhouse. At this time, the brewery has 1,200 barrels with a capacity of 600 litres in which lambic ferments and matures.
Due to the growing brewing activities and the lack of storage space, the beverage vending activities come to an end.
The brewery signs a contract with a leading Belgian retailer, Delhaize.
The cousins Dirk and Geert (6th generation) take over the daily management of the brewery. Faithful to tradition and armed with a healthy vision of the future, they make the family brewery prosper. Together, they ensure the authentic nature and flavour of this unique know-how.
Exports to China begin.
Work begins to expand the brewery. The goal is to double the storage space for the maturation of lambic in order to meet the growing demand, domestic and especially international. This extra space for the fermentation and maturation of lambic was many years coming.
