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 Brouwerij Alken Maes | |
| Industry | Alcoholic beverage |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | Maes Brewery Cristal-Alken |
| Founded | 1988 |
| Headquarters | |
| Products | Beer |
| Owner | Carlsberg and Heineken |
Alken-Maes is a Belgian brewery created out of the 1988 merger of two small breweries, Maes located at Kontich-Waarloos and Cristal-Alken located at Alken. It was bought by Scottish & Newcastle in 2000, who were taken over by Carlsberg and Heineken in 2007. [1]
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Alken-Maes was created out of the 1988 merger of two small breweries, Maes located at Kontich-Waarloos and Cristal-Alken located at Alken. [2] Both had specialized in pils (Maes was producing Maes pils and Alken Cristal pils) until Maes purchased the Union brewery (based in Jumet) in 1978, which produced Grimbergen beer among others.
After the merger, the group continued to purchase other breweries to expand their offer to a larger panel of beers. In 1989, the new brewery purchased a 50% stake in De Keersmaeker brewery, which specialized in spontaneous fermentation beers such as Mort Subite. In 2000, it bought Ciney and Brugs Witbier, as well as the other 50% of De Keersmaeker.
In the same year, the brewery was bought by British company Scottish & Newcastle, which in turn was bought by the Carlsberg/Heineken consortium in 2007. In 2002, it took over the Louwaege brewery from Kortemark (producing Louwaeges Kriek and high fermentation Hapkin). Alken-Maes has now become the number two on the Belgian market. Its headquarters are in Waarloos.
Mort Subite is the brand name for a number of lambic beers brewed by the Belgian brewery Keersmaeker. The beers take their name from a café in Brussels, À La Mort Subite. [3] Mort subite means "sudden death" in French, but can also be used to refer to the final throw in a dice game. Underground trading once took place within À La Mort Subite – it was named after the speed at which one could lose one's money.
It is explained that the name was derived from the bar's proximity to the law court. In effect, lawyers and clerks would play cards during their lunch break and when the bell rang to resume proceedings, the hand held was subject to sudden death rules to ascertain the winner. This derivation is also listed in the Rough Guide series of books.
Kriek lambic is a style of Belgian beer, made by fermenting lambic with sour Morello cherries. Traditionally "Schaarbeekse krieken" from the area around Brussels are used. As the Schaarbeek type cherries have become more difficult to find, some brewers have replaced these with other varieties of sour cherries, sometimes imported.
Alken is a municipality located in Belgian province of Limburg. The community lies just south of the provincial capital of Hasselt, in the Hesbaye region. Alken has about 11,300 residents, which gives the village a larger population than the nearby small cities of Borgloon and Herk-de-Stad.
Lambic is a type of beer brewed in the Pajottenland region of Belgium southwest of Brussels and in Brussels itself since the 13th century. Types of lambic beer include gueuze, kriek lambic, and framboise. Lambic differs from most other beers in that it is fermented through exposure to wild yeasts and bacteria native to the Zenne valley, as opposed to exposure to carefully cultivated strains of brewer's yeast. This process gives the beer its distinctive flavour: dry, vinous, and cidery, often with a tart aftertaste.
Scottish & Newcastle plc was a brewing company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, which expanded from its home base to become an international business with beer volumes growing almost tenfold.
Brasserie-Brouwerij Cantillon is a small Belgian traditional family brewery based in Anderlecht, Brussels. Cantillon was founded in 1900 and exclusively brews lambic beers.
Belle-Vue Brewery is a brewery founded in 1913 in Molenbeek, Brussels by Philémon Vandenstock from nearby Itterbeek, which lies in a region known for its lambic type of beer. A variety of Belle-Vue lambic and fruit beers are produced in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw.
Grimbergen is the brand name of a variety of Belgian abbey beers. Originally made by Norbertine monks in the Belgian town of Grimbergen, it is now brewed by different breweries in Belgium, France, Poland and Italy.
Beer in Belgium includes pale ales, lambics, Flemish red ales, sour brown ales, strong ales and stouts. In 2018, there were 304 breweries in Belgium, including international companies, such as AB InBev, and traditional breweries, such as Trappist monasteries. On average, Belgians drink 68 litres of beer each year, down from around 200 each year in 1900. Most beers are bought or served in bottles, rather than cans, and almost every beer has its own branded, sometimes uniquely shaped, glass. In 2016, UNESCO inscribed Belgian beer culture on their list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
Maes pils is a Belgian pils brewed by Alken-Maes. The beer was first produced in 1930 for Antwerp's Universal Exposition and called Prima Maezenbier. After Jupiler and Stella Artois, it is the third best-selling pilsner in Belgium.
Gueuze is a type of lambic, a Belgian beer. It is made by blending young (1-year-old) and old lambics, which is bottled for a second fermentation. Because the young lambics are not fully fermented, the blended beer contains fermentable sugars, which allow a second fermentation to occur.
Lindemans Brewery is a Belgian family brewery based in Vlezenbeek, a small town in Flemish Brabant, southwestern Brussels. It produces lambics, a style of Belgian ale that uses raw wheat and wild yeast.
Brettanomyces bruxellensis is a yeast associated with the Senne valley near Brussels, Belgium. Despite its Latin species name, B. bruxellensis is found all over the globe. In the wild, it is often found on the skins of fruit.
The International Brewing Awards, previously known as the Brewing Industry International Awards (BIIA), is a biannual brewing competition with its origins dating to 1886. It is believed to be the oldest international brewing competition in the world.
Jumet is a town of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Charleroi, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
Sour beer is beer which has an intentionally acidic, tart, or sour taste. Sour beer styles include Belgian lambics and Flanders red ale and German Gose and Berliner Weisse.
The Ciney is a Belgian beer native to town of Ciney.
Waarloos is a village and deelgemeente (sub-municipality) of the municipality of Kontich in the province of Antwerp, Belgium. The village is located about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) south of the city of Antwerp.
Van Honsebrouck is a Belgian brewery in Ingelmunster, Belgium. Founded in 1865 as Sint-Jozef Brewery, it was renamed to Brewery Van Honsebrouck in 1953. It is one of two breweries outside of Pajottenland to produce lambic beer.
de Garde Brewing is a brewery based in Tillamook, Oregon. de Garde is one of very few breweries in the United States to use all spontaneous fermentation, in which beer in a coolship takes in wild yeasts from the air; the beer is then aged, sometimes with fruit added, in foeders. In 2016, they won the fifth best brewery in the world award from RateBeer, and were named the best brewer in Oregon.
À la Mort Subite is a café in Brussels, Belgium, at Rue Montagne-aux-Herbes Potagères 7. It is known for its early 20th-century decor and Mort Subite beer, now produced by Heineken subsidiary Alken-Maes. The café was designated a heritage site in 1998.
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