Cantillon Is Founded in Brussels

In 1900, Paul Cantillon and Marie Troch established a Lambic blending business in Anderlecht, Brussels. Rather than brewing its own wort, the company initially purchased Lambic from other producers, matured it in wooden barrels, and blended or processed it into beers including Gueuze, Kriek, Faro, and Mars. This distinction is important: Cantillon began as a Gueuze blendery, not yet as a brewery producing its own Lambic wort. In 1937, Paul Cantillon and his sons Robert and Marcel acquired brewing equipment from the closed Brasserie Nationale du Néblon in Ouffet and transferred it to Anderlecht. Cantillon brewed its first own Lambic during the following brewing season. The family business later became one of the strongest surviving links between historic Brussels Lambic culture and modern beer culture, preserving spontaneous fermentation, wooden-barrel maturation, and the blending of Lambics of different ages.