Brasserie Cantillon
Microbrewery
in Anderlecht,
Brussels Capital Region,
Belgium 🇧🇪
Associated Venue: Brasserie Cantillon
Established in 1900
Cantillon ? That’s the time machine. You’ll leave the modern civilization, goodbye to the noise, goodbye to the world.
"But where are we ?", you will ask yourself.
Well, you are in a family brewery where Lambic, Gueuze, Faro and Kriek are made and where nothing has changed since 1900 when it was founded. The Van Roy-Cantillon family welcomes you and invites you to discover a fabulous world. Beers, tools and brewing process are still the same as in the beginning.
Red copper containers, barrels, some of them more than 100 years old, and walls of bottles constitute the scenery for your visit.
Maybe you’ll be lucky to see the brewing or the bottling, maybe you ’ll see how barrels are cleaned or how fruit beers are made in summer. Maybe you’ll be lucky to see the brewing or the bottling, maybe you ’ll see how barrels are cleaned or how fruit beers are made in summer.
Anyway, you’ll be able to taste a real traditional Gueuze-Lambic and if you would like to know more about the Kriek or the Framboise, just ask the brewer.
omhper (44378) reviewed Lou Pepe Kriek from Brasserie Cantillon 22 years ago
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 10 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 8.5
2000 version sampled draught at Akkurat, Stockholm, Sweden.
Deep red. Acidic aroma rich on black cherries. Less sour and softer than their ordinary kriek. Very flavourful and tart where the Scharbeekse cherries bring vinous qualities, like tannines. It's remarkably complex and has a slightly woody finish. Mindblowingly fantastic brew!
Sloefmans (15338) reviewed Loerik (1996) from Brasserie Cantillon 22 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
(Cuvée J.F. Vonck) The problem with "loerik" is that it never stays completely "loerik". And it is neither unblended lambic, neither gueuze. "Loerik" (=lazy-bones) a blending of lambics, meant to become gueuze, but for some reason refusing to re-ferment. And thus remaining a blend of lambics. Sooner or later there is some refermentation. This one is rather aged, but still pretty flat. Completely clear-gold. Slim, yellowish head, immediately gone. Very slow pearling. Lumps of yeast pried loose at the end - ought to be poured all at once. Nose of green grapes, raisins, sulphur, decaying wood, mushrooms, lemon, lactic. A bit fleshy taste, lactic - but not in the mouthfeel - something remindful of malt, but changed into something else, cookie-ish. Very flat until the aftertaste, where it seems to liven up, acquiring an outspoken lemony character. Tumultuous mixture of organic acids, going into bitterish-tannine adstringency. It still retains its old lambic character, but gone into something more refined.
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
The aroma is powerful acidic, sweet and slightly sour. The color is an unclear orange and it has no head. The flavor is very sour, a bit acidic, prickling but at the same time flat. It ends on a acidic dryness with no metallic notes as other gueuzes. An OK gueuze - without being great.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
Rerate: Orange colour, almost no head, very cloudy. Quite lacing. Citrus aroma. A complex sour flavour, with fruit-sparkles. Quite long finish. Fizzy Carbonation. I just love this kind of gueuzes.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9.5
45-50 deg in a tumbler. Cork indicates a 1997 bottling, sampled May 2003. Identical appearance to the gueuze, cloudy yellow gold, with a better creamier head, with nice lacing too. Beer seeped through the cork, leaving some ugliness under the crown, although I don't believe the beer became contaminated or oxidized. Only a sourness, of course expected for style, could indicate contamination, but despite a surprising intensity, I don't believe its beyond normal levels. No cork flavors were in evidence. Mild aroma that only hints at raspberries. Some funkiness I found missing in the un-fruited gueuze, maybe from fruit or seed, or from wild yeast variability. Sweet and sour, and quite pungent on the palate. Raspberries evident, but quite restrained, providing some contrast to the pungent tartness and earthy funkiness. Pretty nice. Semi-dry finish, but the intense sweet and sours linger and carry over into the finish, or I would say its drier. Good carbonation keeps it moving. Still nearly cloying because its just so intense. Not as drinkable as the best, but still a top notch example of a style I'm getting more and more to enjoy.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9.5
45-50 deg in a tumbler. Cork indicates 2001 bottling, sampled May 2003. Light bit of yeast sediment provides a mild cloudiness in this golden yellow beer, with a small foamy white head of modest lacing. Pungent aroma of sour fruit (cherries mainly), some malt. Some light fruit (peach) but not very distinguished. Notably tart flavor, with some astringency in the finish and mild chest warming. Fruitiness less apparent in the mouth than in the nose. Could use a tad more carbonation, becomes borderline cloying, losing the refreshing edge this beer should have. Another nice lambic in my recent round of samplings of the style, but not as complex as the best ones I've found so far. Perhaps its relative youth hinders further complexity.
diabel (1874) reviewed Kriek from Brasserie Cantillon 22 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Very hig standard kriek. it has a red colour like blood. It has a cherry-aroma. The flavour is as the commercial description says very complex. At first it is a little bit sweet, a little bit sour. But it ends very sour. When you speak of a kriek-bier, you definitely have to speak about this Cantillon Kriek.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Bottled. Deep red with aroma of red berries. Woody and vinous, and unusually sweet for a Cantillon. Still tart and complex with a citric acid finish with some bitterness, seemingly from the stones (or do you say seeds?) in the grape.
Extra rating 1: St Lamvinus 2002 Merlot. Light red. Woody, vinous character, balanced acidity. Juicy, sparkling and very dry with pleasant grape stone bitterness (9/4/7/4/16).
Extra rating 2: St Lamvinus 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep clear red. Fruity vinousaroma. Citric with notes of barnyard and juicy aromatic grapes. Sweeter than the Merlot variety. Complex and intense. (9/4/8/5/16)
omhper (44378) reviewed Lou Pepe Framboise from Brasserie Cantillon 22 years ago
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 10 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 8
'00 version sampled draught at Akkurat, Stockholm, Sweden in April 2003.
Clear red and hazy. Acidic nose with fresh raspberries. The normal Cantillon sourness is here balanced by a welth of sweet, fresh raspberries. Complex and lightly woody with citric acid finish.
Sloefmans (15338) reviewed Faro from Brasserie Cantillon 22 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Hazy gold - apricot colour. Slight head, transparant-white. Nose of raisins, grape, sugar, benzene, sulphur. Taste gives raisins again, sweet muscat wine, sugary retronasal. Slick, oily mouthfeel; thick bodied because of the syrup. Nice balance between the sweetness and the lambic tartness. If I have to drink sweet beer, I want this.
Brewery Stats
| Score | 7.72 |
| Beers | 167 |
| Ticks | 9713 |
Top Reviewers (Not including batches)
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djd07 | 118 |
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mart | 105 |
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Kraddel | 100 |
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bier4der | 97 |
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Werckmeister | 96 |
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Alengrin | 95 |
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mcberko | 91 |
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Maakun | 91 |
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Sebletitje | 84 |