Brewery
Brewery
The brewery of old
The Wilderen brewery tells us of an early history, taking us all the way back to 1642.
The Wilderen farm was a self-sufficient economic production unit. They built the timber-framed farmhouse with wood from local trees and daubed the walls with clay. Sheep and cattle provided milk, wool and leather. Agriculture and livestock farming provided food...
Big farmhouses like that in Wilderen had their own brew kettles...the draff from these provided feed for oxen...and that’s where the Wilderen Brewery is located now in 2011. Though there was much hard work do be done on the farm, this meant they could also party in style! Especially when fairs were held, sometimes for several days at a time...
The following village tale is well known: Among the invitees was an outsider whose habit it was (before falling into a drunken sleep) to sing ”Een heel klein kanneke, voor een heel klein manneke. Goed volgetapt is gauw uitgelapt!” (A very small can for a very small man. A well-filled tankard is soon drunk down!) Because they brewed their own beer, it wasn’t hard to satisfy this thirsty chap
At that time, the brewery stood where the bakery, the milking parlour and the laundry were later built. Under the present residential building you can still see the bricked-up cellar entrances of the brewery...
The brewery today
Where the ox stalls once stood in the old days, a hyper-modern brewery now stands.
Upon restoration, the building’s old facades were fully reinforced and renovated. The contemporary architectural design makes for an attractive contrast between the monument of the old distillery and the modern brewery building.
You can view and discover the brewery during the guided tours.
The brewing hall
A hyper-modern and fully automated brewing hall of Italian manufacture. The brewing is done in a fully sealed system, together with the milling and transport of the malt to the brew kettle and the removal of the draff after the brewing.
