Cantillon Brewery (Brussels, Belgium)

Cantillon Brewery produces traditional lambic beer at its location in Brussels. Stop in for a self-guided tour and tasting.

Looking up at brick exterior of Cantillon Brewery, with black metal cutout sign featuring silhouette of man drinking a beer.

Cantillon Brewery is a great place to visit to get a feel for one of Belgium's most quintessential beers: lambic.

We love a brewery tour, so when heard about Cantillon, we knew we had to go! It was part of our unofficial, self-selected Brussels food tour.

A True Lambic Brewery

Cantillon is the last traditional lambic brewery in Brussels. (Other lambic breweries still exist in the area, but don’t use the traditional lengthy brewing process.)

If you’re a fan of sour beers and are in the area, this is a must stop.

Display featuring wheat, barley and hops used at Cantillon Brewery. — Display of Lambic's Raw Ingredients

Lambic is a type of Belgian beer that’s spontaneously fermented with wild yeast instead of with cultivated yeast. It's one of the oldest styles of beer there is, and is only made in this region of Belgium. Why? Because of the unique type of airborne yeast found here!

Glass of lambic beer with thick layer of foam.

For a broader overview of local brewing history, check out the Belgian Beer World Experience, closer to the city center.

Options for Visiting

Cantillon is not open every day. Check the website for open hours. Guided tours are only on Saturdays, and advance booking is required, but you can come other days and do a self-guided tour. (That’s what we did.)

Sign listing tour prices at Cantillon Brewery.

We arrived and paid, got a brief explanation, and then started our self-guided tour.

There are lots of stairs to climb, so this is probably not the best idea for those with mobility issues.

Metal staircase rising above wooden beer vat.

Open area with wooden floor and staircases leading up to platform.

The Cantillon Brewery Self-Guided Tour

The red numbers on the wall match the numbers in the booklet.

Open pamphlet describing brewing process at Cantillon.

The booklet walks you through the brewing tanks, the fermenting tanks and the bottling area.

One of the first things you see is the mashing tun, which mixes the crushed grains with hot water in a process that allows the sugars to be extracted.

Wooden vat used in beer brewing. — Mashing Tun

The wort (the sugar-infused liquid produced in the first step) is pumped into boilers for the next stage, where hops are added and much of the water is cooked off.

Large metal tank for brewing. — Hop Boiler

The cooked wort is transferred into a cooling vessel. In this room it gets "inoculated" by wild yeast, a thing that's only possible in cold weather. (Because we visited in summer, there was no brewing in process.)

Finally, the wort is moved into wooden barrels (usually ones that have already been used in wine production). It's here that the spontaneous fermentation really kicks off.

Fermentation starts off very quickly, but after a few weeks is stable enough to allow the barrels to be sealed up until the brewer determines the beer is ready.

It will then be bottled and stored for a secondary fermentation.

Although the brewing wasn't happening during our visit, we did get to see a group of employees prepping fruit for an upcoming beer.

Group of employees preparing fruit for upcoming beer brew.

The tour ended at the upstairs bar with three tastings. One of them was a two-year old kriek, a lambic made with sour cherries. Other fruited varieties may use raspberries, grapes, or apricots.

Two glasses of lambic beer next to green bottle with Cantillon Brewery label.

Bartender pouring beer into glass at Cantillon Brewery.

Gueuze is another of Cantillon's standard offerings. It's a blend of different ages of lambic.

Two glasses of beer samples at Cantillon Brewery.

The bar had other beers you could sample, most of which are only available in full bottles. (Since part of the aging process takes place in the bottle, this makes sense.)

Dozens of beer bottles laid horizontally with bottoms facing out, alternated with one row with bottle caps facing out.

There’s also beer to purchase downstairs. (Some beers listed in the bar area are not available for purchase to take home, and are only for drinking on site.)

List of types of beer and prices at Cantillon Brewery.

We liked our Cantillon tastings so much that we purchased a few bottles to take home.

If we’re ever back in Brussels, I’d definitely return to try some of the specialty beers in the bar area!

This was an awesome beer experience and I highly recommend it, especially if you enjoy sour beers.

Wooden sign bearing the French words "le temps ne respecte pas ce qui se fait sans lui," or "time does not respect what is done without it." — *"Time does not respect what is made without it"*

Looking to sample some of the international cuisine available in Brussels? Head to Wolf Food Market! And for a delicious Belgian meal, we recommend Rotisse.