Brewer Jean Van Roy and family celebrated Cantillon’s 125th anniversary 15 November 2025 with their annual open brew day, where early risers can see the start of the process at 7am with a croissant and coffee while Jean and Fabien, his son, do the work on the brewing. The rest of the family are off greeting the many they know and the rest throughout the day.
In between bouts of activity you can run up stairs to the bar, where Berto presides, avoiding the regular rush of beer tours, and drink some of the great gueuze and lambics they produce. You might spot regular Dave Atkins at the only ‘reserved’ table.
Lambic baskets adorn tables as you drink through the list. Afterwards you can finish the afternoon at nearby Brasserie de l’Ermitage. The day goes like this, according to Cantillon’s schedule:
- From 7:00 to 9:00 AM: Brewing
- From 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM: Filtration and hopping
- From 12:00 to 3:00 PM: Wort boiling
- Around 3:30 PM: Pumping the wort onto the cooling tank
- From 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM: Traditional barrel cleaning
Below are a series of images taken at 2022 and 2024 open days.
Cantillon, located near Brussels’ Gare Du Midi, was founded in 1900 by Paul Cantillon and his wife, Marie Troch, then on to their daughter Claude and son-in-law, Jean-Pierre Van Roy, and then on to Jean Van Roy. Read the history at Lambic.info.
