History & Philosophy

We met in May 2002, at the time of the second edition of the Zinneke parade in Brussels, for which Bernard had created the now famous Zinnebir. We started our professional brewing career towards the end of 2003, building a microbrewery in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, in the former warehouse of the Moriau brewery. We decided to call it the “Sint-Pieter Brouwerij.” After producing for two years, the premises had become too small due to the success. We then decided to move and make our dream of establishing the brewery in our city, Brussels, a reality. To mark the occasion, we named our brewery after the river from which our city was born more than a thousand years ago: Brasserie de la Senne. It took us five years before we could properly settle in the city. Meanwhile, in order to continue production, we rented different breweries, owned by friends, where we could brew our beers ourselves. These migratory years came to a conclusion on December 22, 2010, the date of our first brew 100% made in Brussels!

Ils ont entamé leur carrière de brasseurs professionnels fin 2003, en construisant une microbrasserie à Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, dans l’ancien dépôt de la brasserie Moriau. Ils ont opté pour le nom de « Sint-Pieter Brouwerij ». Après deux ans d’activité, le succès aidant, les lieux sont devenus trop exigus. Ils ont alors décidé de déménager et de réaliser leur rêve : s’établir dans leur ville, Bruxelles. Pour marquer le coup, ils ont donné à leur brasserie le nom de la rivière grâce à laquelle la ville a vu le jour, il y a plus de mille ans d’ici : Brasserie de la Senne.

Il leur a fallu cinq années avant de pouvoir s’installer effectivement dans la Capitale. Entretemps, afin de pouvoir continuer la production, ils ont loué différentes brasseries appartenant à des amis, où ils ont été brasser leurs bières eux-mêmes. Ces années de bohème ont connu leur aboutissement le 22 décembre 2010, date de leur premier brassin 100% bruxellois !

Brussels is the place where we were born and where we live. We love this city. We are very proud to have doubled its number of breweries, as, when we opened, the only other active brewery in Brussels was Cantillon. We brew in the Brussels Region, on 565 Chaussée de Gand, in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, since 22 December 2010. This date has also become the date of our anniversary brew, only brewed once a year – the Brussels Calling. We have designed our production facilities by carefully selecting the technologies in use. For some stages we have purposely opted for simpler technologies in order to preserve all the aromas of our beers. We take pride in being a local brewery; Brussels is our first market, followed by the rest of Belgium. We limit our exports, despite the success we have encountered abroad. We are, however, available in a dozen countries, with a leading presence in the United States, Italy and Japan.

Nous brassons donc en Région Bruxelloise, sur deux sites :

- Au 565 chaussée de Gand, à Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, depuis le 22 décembre 2010. Cette date est d’ailleurs devenue celle de notre brassin anniversaire, brassé une fois l’an – la Brussels Calling. Ce site sera principalement dédié à nos bières barriquées à partir de novembre 2019.

– Sur le site de Tour & Taxis, où nous avons construit une brasserie flambant neuve, depuis novembre 2019.

Nous mettons un point d’honneur à être une brasserie locale : Bruxelles est notre premier marché, la Belgique ensuite, puis l’exportation. Nous sommes cependant présents dans une vingtaine de pays, en tête desquels arrivent les États-Unis et l’Italie.

The brewery would not exist without the team that makes it what it is. We are lucky and honoured to work with great people who share our values. Many thanks are extended to them. We have also been, and still are, surrounded by people with skills that we ourselves do not have and who show unwavering support for our project. They know who they are and they have our eternal gratitude!

Bitterness is the key characteristic of our beers: it is their foundation. We have produced bitter beers since the beginning of our existence – and we are here to brew bitter beers! Our approach was simple: we wanted to brew beers to our liking that we could no longer find on the market. We took on the challenge to bring this flavour – so fundamental in the evolution of human societies but sadly neglected in our modern societies – up to date.

Of course, our beers are not confined only to bitterness, they are always balanced with the aromatic contribution of malt, hops and fermentation.

We produce strong beers, but our great specialty is beers that are light in alcohol. As a typical example, the Taras Boulba (4.5%) is “the” beer for quenching your thirst. We want to show that there is not necessarily a need for alcohol to get flavour. Light beers further allow prolonging the pleasure – and therein lies the reason for the beer’s existence.

Quality and the desire to always do better is our obsession. We will never give in to the lure of profit.

This is first concerning the quality of taste, with beers of character, without any concession to commercialism.

It is also about using superior raw materials, where the quality prevails over price. We strive to maintain a long-term relationship with our producers as well as being as close to them as possible.

Furthermore it is about a quality production process, with particular attention to cleanliness – a key in brewing – and the choice of technology. At certain key stages of production, we have chosen to work with “low intensity technology”, to maintain the richness of taste and texture provided by the raw materials. It is, for example, the lack of filtration that gives a light veil to our beers – it is a sign of their natural character.

Finally we give time to the time: it takes us two months to make a beer, which is considered a very long time to make beers of top fermentation these days… This also explains why we sometimes have stock ruptures of some beers.

Nous avons en outre un département “Qualité”, qui s’occupe journellement de faire toutes les analyses nécessaires. La plupart sont faites dans notre propre laboratoire.

Nous laissons également le temps au temps : il nous faut au minimum 5 semaines pour faire une bière, ce qui est un timing très long pour fabriquer des bières de fermentation haute de nos jours. A aucun moment, le processus naturel de la fabrication n’est artificiellement accéléré. Une quantité énorme de techniques existent cependant pour ce faire, et elles permettent d’augmenter considérablement son profit. Mais nous considérons que ce serait au détriment de la qualité de nos bières et donc refusons leur emploi.

Although there is still a lack of sufficient funds and much remains to be done, we strive, with the means that we have to constantly keep environmental issues in mind. Thus, our chemical cleaning and disinfecting products do minimum harm to the environment (chlorine is even banned from the brewery). Our brewing residues (spent grains, rich in fiber and protein) are recycled naturally by Rudy’s cows, on his farm in Ternat. We use heat pumps and insulate the hot and cold parts with great care. It goes without saying that our waste is fully recycled.

Let’s be frank : our beers are not the easiest to be found in shops. Though, we are available, in Belgium, in drinkmarkets specialised in beer, in beershops, and in some natural food shops.

It’s rather in the best bars of Brussels and elsewhere that you’ll have more chances to find them. Bars, pubs, « cafés » as we say here, are in fact another of our passions. They are indeed an essential pilar of our societies, with many very important social functions. Indeed, it’s in the cafés that you meet people, fall in love, find some comfort, make the revolution – and party ! We are not opposed to drinking beer in your living room, but we strongly believe that the troubled period we are living in make the pubs more useful than ever. It is there that we are hoping to meet you … drinking a good beer !

C’est cependant dans les cafés de Bruxelles et d’ailleurs que vous aurez le plus de chance de trouver nos bières. Les cafés, c’est en effet une autre de nos passions. Ils représentent un lieu de vie fondamental, aux multiples fonctions sociales. C’est dans les cafés qu’on se rencontre, qu’on s’aime, qu’on trouve du réconfort, qu’on refait le monde – et la fête ! Un café, c’est notre société dans un cadre cosy, un lieu d’échange irremplaçable. Nous n’avons rien contre la consommation en privé, mais nous pensons que les temps troublés que nous vivons rendent la fréquentation des cafés plus indispensables que jamais – et c’est là que nous espérons vous croiser, autour … d’une bonne bière !