On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, I met with Johan ‘Wanne’ Madalijns. He’s the chairman and one of the co-founders of the beer association ‘De Lambikstoempers’. We’re meeting in his hometown Halle, a small city just outside Brussels, in ‘Den Obelix’ a cozy bar with a nice collection of lambic beers on the main square in the center.
Johan is passionate about Belgian beer, he even graduated from the brewers’ academy and serves as a true ambassador for Belgian beer. This was acknowledged by the Belgian Brewers Association where he’s an Honorary Knight of ‘The Knighthood of the Brewers’ Paddle’. Also, he was one of the leading forces in making sure that the brewery Duvel Moortgat continued brewing ‘Duvel Triple Hops’.
Enjoying a nice gueuze (Boon Oude Geuze for Johan, and a Dekoninck Oude Geuze for me) I had to opportunity to ask a lot of questions. Johan is extremely passionate about beer and seems to know all the ins and outs of lambic beers and their brewers.
His passion for beer started when he was around fourteen years old and went to school in Brussels. Where nowadays you might find a machine with snacks and soda in the school hallway. The school Johan went to was a bit different. Because there you could get beer from these machines. In the subsequent years, his passion for beer grew when visiting bars in and around Brussels. Although this is when he must have first tasted a lambic or a gueuze, he only started to appreciate the unique taste some years later.
Through organizing events like beer tastings and quizzes, he got to know a lot of Belgian brewers. Among them were Frank Boon (From the Boon brewery) and Armand Debelder (3 Fonteinen), two of the biggest names in the world of lambic. Unfortunately, Armand passed away in March 2022. These two men were surprised that there wasn’t a regional sub-association of the national beer association. Eventually, this led to the foundation of ‘De Lambikstoempers’ in June 1999. Johan was one of the co-founders and has since remained an active member of the association. He’s been chairman since 2003.
Although Johan has a brewer’s diploma, he has never tried to brew lambic. However, with the Lambikstoempers they twice made their own blend (Cuvée Lambikstoempers) to celebrate the 15th and 20th anniversary of the association. The last time was in 2019, and this blend was based on lambic from Lindemans. Next year a new blend will be made to celebrate the 25th anniversary. With which lambic this blend is made is still a surprise.
If the taste of this blend resembles Johan’s personal taste, we can expect a complex and mild gueuze. According to him, gueuze should not be too sour and have a complex but mild flavor. One of his personal favorites is Oude Geuze from Boon.
When asked who I should definitely try to speak with to learn more about lambic and gueuze. Johan tells me to have a chat with Frank Boon. This man is a walking lambic encyclopedia. A day would not be enough, since this man knows a lot and likes to share his knowledge. If I get the opportunity to meet with Frank Boon you will definitely read about it here in the future!
He enjoys seeing that lambic beers are gaining popularity again. When he started with the Lambikstoempers, these beers were only drunk by grey old men. Before, in the ’80s and ’90s, almost all lambic breweries and blenderies were gone even. Those that managed to serve did so by selling the fake sweet lambic beers brewed with fruit juices instead of whole fruits.
New breweries and blenderies have opened in recent years (Lambiek Fabriek, Kestemont, Boerenerf, and Angerik to name a few) and even more breweries are to come. For example, Odilon will open this summer, but even more than that Johan tells me. Make sure to follow this blog to read more about all the new breweries that will open in the coming years. This new popularity comes hand-in-hand with innovations. To attract a younger crowd, a lot of producers are experimenting with different lambics. Either by adding all types of fruits, herbs, spices, or even tea (like this Lapsang Souchong Infused lambic from Oud Beersel). Something you would not have seen before in this type of beer that’s very attached to its tradition.
About the Lambikstoempers
The Lambikstoempers is a regional beer association for the Pajottenland and Senne Valley, the regions where lambic beers are made. ‘De Lambikstoempers’ translates to The Lambic Muddlers and refers to the little muddler that was historically used to help dissolve a sugar cube in lambic or gueuze. This muddler is also represented in their logo. Adding sugar was basically a way of masking the flavor of qualitative poor lambic to make it drinkable. Nowadays this isn’t being done anymore
They are a sub-association of the Belgian beer association Zythos. Furthermore, The Lambikstoempers is a member of HORAL. HORAL, which stands for The High Council for Artisanal Lambic Beers, is a non-profit organization representing the lambic brewers and gueuze blenders of the Pajottenland and Senne Valley. Currently, eleven breweries/blenderies are a member of HORAL.
The Lambikstoempers organize the official bus transport for the ‘Tour de Gueuze’ that’s organized by HORAL once every two years. Truly an event that every lambic and gueuze enthusiast should visit, I can tell you from experience having visited Oud Beersel during the 2022 edition.
Several activities are organized, such as brewery visits, tastings, and most importantly the yearly beer weekend in August and the day of the Old Gueuze in October. These activities are not only focused on lambic beers, but of course, they play an important role.
Every year they hand out an award ‘De Gouden Lambikstoemper’, which translates to The Gold Lambic Muddler, to a business that promotes lambic beers. Last year the winner was ‘De Bascule’ a bar in Bellingen, that launched its first-ever gueuze at the end of May this year.
Becoming a member of The Lambikstoempers will cost you €40 if you live outside Belgium, and €20 if you live in Belgium. This automatically includes membership for Zythos as well, so you’ll receive their magazine ‘De Zytholoog’ (The Zythologist), four times a year. This magazine is in Dutch only! Johan regularly writes articles for this magazine too.
To become a member or for more information visit The Lambikstoempers’ website: https://www.lambikstoempers.be/en/.
Thank you Johan for meeting with me and answering all my questions! It was amazing to see your passion, and I’m impressed by how you manage to do all this outside your regular day-to-day job. I hope to see you again soon at one of the many Lambikstoempers activities.