Try something new and challenging with old friends? Go for it. It may lead to unexpected & exciting things.

I sat down in my favorite spot in the house last weekend with one of our own brews as a nice refreshment, reading a variety of stories about friends who turned into friends that brew. We were quite excited to get a call ourselves to share a bit of our story for a great series about beer in the Sabato [De Tijd | L’Echo]. https://bit.ly/VDK_in_Sabato Unfortunately, as you can see, I had to be sick on class picture day.

When we started discussing this idea about 10 years ago, maybe longer, either on the corner from our kids’ school over a coffee after dropping them off or around numerous kitchen tables over, you guessed it, some beers. We did all believe that one day this may take us down unexplored avenues.

We came a long way.

A little over 5 years ago, we stirred our beer kettle for the very first time. And here we are, still doing so every month prototyping happily away in “our cellar”.

What did change, of course, is that we outgrew our installation with a capacity about just still fit for self-consumption. We took our time to get it right, and in March of 2020, Brasserie Vandekelder proudly launched their first beers. The day after we made it onto the menu of our first bar, we went into lockdown, but luckily going door to door, also won us new fans. By now, thanks to other brewers letting us use their excess capacity and companies where we can have our beers brewed to our detailed specifications, we have so far commercialized 3 beers, joined forces on a couple of collabs, and have a couple more Vandekelder originals about to hit the market soon. Slow and steady, has been our mantra.

Why you should give something like this a go?

Starting a challenging endeavor like this with friends, who all have "real jobs", we discovered new qualities within each other, developed whole new talents, and grew closer by having to mitigate disputes and find compromises on a level we weren’t familiar with as “just a bunch of friends”. We love musing about our next challenges as a team and mapping out our joint future as a brewery. Front and center right now stands the logical next step of acquiring a larger installation and finding another stake in BRUX to claim our own. It’s been a wild ride, we ain't done, and I can only recommend it.

Taking a broader view.

I am so thrilled to see so many other craft brewers all around us chock-full of a desire to experiment and a drive to create, coupled with the ambition to also go to market and share their brews with a wider audience. This has been crucial in strengthening our beer culture through diversity and revitalizing Belgium as a leading beer nation.

If you are beer-curious go out there and try something new that was crafted with passion and care, and if want to give us a shot, you can find us here [ https://bit.ly/VDKontheroad ]?or DM me. As we say let's get Back To Beer.

Finally, if you also have a different story of friendship to share, I am curious to hear them.