History

The brewery was founded in 1994 by Nino Bacelle under his own name. In the beginning we had only one ale, the Guldenberg, named after the Guldenberg Abbey in Wevelgem, where beer was brewed in the past. With a history in the beer world (since 1930 the Bacelle - Noffels family was active in beer commerce and as a lemonade producer), Nino had started experimenting with brewing ale in 1981. After an education as brewer at the CTL in Ghent in the mid eighties, he kept experimenting and in the nineties he thought his time had come (and his ale was good enough) to commercialize his ale. After a decent study of the possibilities to start his own brewery, he decided to start with brewing in a existing brewery. The good thing about this formula is that it’s possible to brew profitable without big investments. The Deca brewery is Woesten was chosen to do this and in the first year 9000 litres of Guldenberg were brewed.

Mid nineties Nino got to know Guido Devos trough the beer tasters association HOP. Guido is a founding member of HOP and had been active as an amateur brewer for years. In 1996 they decide to bundle their powers. “Brewery Nino Bacelle” becomes a BVBA of which o both own a fifty percent share and is now called “Brewery De Ranke”. The name came from the hop ranks and has been chosen because we are convinced that hops are the most important ingredient in our ales. Since then 5 new ales have been created: Père Noël, a Christmas ale; XX Bitter, the most bitter ale in Belgium and the ale that gave our brewery it’s reputation; Kriek De Ranke, a natural fruit ale; Cuvee De Ranke, an ale of mixed origin with Lambic and the Noir De Dottignies, a dark ale.

 After 11 years of brewing at the Deca brewery a totally new brewery was started in Dottignies in the province of Hainaut. 

Article number: FBB22917