Traditionally, De Lambikstoempers vzw close their working year with a walk through the beautiful landscape of the Pajottenland. This time we went to Schepdaal on Sunday 18th of December 2022 for a 10 km ‘winter walk’ … with hotdogs, Brussels beers and “swallekes” & “ludallekes”.
It was cold… and cosily warm at the same time!
On Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 October 2022, we organised our 16th Day(s) of the Oude Geuze, at the parking lot of the Streekproducten Centrum, Poststraat 3A in 1500 Halle. Saturday from 10am to 6pm and Sunday from 2pm to 6pm.
As always, we had a lot of spontaneous fermentation beers to taste, from flat lambic over Old Gueuze to Old Kriek and other fruit lambics, no less than 80(!) different ones in total, including a lot of exclusive and/or new “speciallekes”.
And yes, the public had also descended in numbers to our event, with the highlight on Sunday: the presentation of our (now 13th) Golden Lambikstoemper Award to café De Bascule from Bellingen!
Based on an impressive list of catering businesses, a number of criteria (which were drawn up after many hours of discussions) and after an anonymous site visit to the proposed businesses, we – De Lambikstoempers vzw – presented our Golden Lambikstoemper Award for the 13th time on Sunday 30th of October 2022 to the business that, in our view, has paid the most attention to lambic beers in 2022.
And the winner this year was the café De Bascule (Hondzochtstraat 3 in 1674 Bellingen) because of the nice selection of spontaneous fermentation beers on the menu: about 30 various Old Gueuzes and Old Krieks. But manager Jef Koolen also has the necessary expertise and sells between 20 and 40 liters of (flat) lambic per week! At the end of this year Jef will also bottle his own Oude Geuze Bascule (75cl), in collaboration with Willem Van Herreweghen, the oldest lambic of which has matured for 3 years in the cellar of De Bascule. At the moment, a sloppy 1,750 liters of lambic is maturing on barrel! In short: a deserved winner of our Golden Lambikstoemper Award 2022!
Traditionally, the Golden Lambikstoemper was awarded during our Day(s) of the Oude Geuze, on the parking lot of the Streekproducten Centrum in Halle, on 29th & 30th of October 2022 or the last weekend of the ‘Month of the Lambic’, organized by Tourism Flemish-Brabant.
The Golden Lambikstoemper Award is an artistic charter with some poetry drawn up by Ludo Buggenhout. Winner Jef Koolen received his award from our chairman, Johan “Wanne” Madalijns.
Who will win our Golden Lambikstoemper Award next year? Well, that’s (partially) up to you!
By submitting your favorite for the Golden Lambikstoemper Award 2023 via our website. And yes, you can do that all year round.
