Concocters Without Borders
MONDAY MAY 13, 2024
Gueuzerie Tilquin
Bio-engineer and geneticist Pierre Tilquin studied brewing science before becoming an apprentice at Huyghe, 3 Fonteinen and Cantillon. In 2009 he founded his Gueuzerie Tilquin at Bierghes, in the Senne Valley; it became the only such producer operating in the French-speaking southern-Belgian region of Wallonia. Tilquin is the sole blender allowed to utilize wort from Boon, Lindemans, Girardin and Cantillon in his one, two and three-year-old lambics, and is the first member of the High Council for Artisanal Lambic Beers to be located outside of the historical region of Flanders.
BRASSERIE AU BARON
The Au Baron café was once one of fifty in the tiny French village of Gussignies, near the Belgian border. By 1973, when it was bought by Alain Bailleux, it was the last survivor. In 1989 Alain and his father, a former brewer, installed a tiny brew house next to the kitchen, where they experimental with revivalist farmhouse ales. Today the brewery, only slightly expanded, is in the hands of Alain’s son Xavier, who specializes in French bières de garde that show a strong affinity with the refreshing saisons of the very near neighbors just across the border.
BRASSERIE de BLAUGIES
Wife-and-husband team Marie-Noelle Pourtois and Pierre-Alex Carlier were schoolteachers when they began garage-brewing in 1987. While much of their early product was drunk by themselves or used for home-cooking, the couple’s rugged and hearty farmhouse ales gradually developed a following, and their young sons eventually joined the family business, one as a brewer and one as a chef for the attached restaurant. Wider availability and international recognition later allowed Brasserie de Blaugies to build an impressive, state-of-the-art brew house on the farm’s grounds.
mons
Mons is the capital of Belgium’s Hainaut province. It was an important walled city dating back to the 1100s, and much later became a center of industry. It was the site of major battles in WW I, and today is a key university town and commercial hub. The center of the old town is dominated by its main square Grand Place, which is paved in the historical manner of the region and whose many cafes and restaurants are the focus of local nightlife. The old city center is pedestrian-only, and Mons was the co-European Capital of Culture in 2015, along with Czech beer capital Plzen.
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