OVER A CENTURY AND A HALF OF TRADITION, QUALITY AND EXPERTISE
It all began in 1858 when Martin Belot, farmer in Purnode, brew a beer for the first time in his farm’s outbuildings. At first, the beer was produced only in winter, the staff not being busy with field work outside of the high season. Moreover, the discovery in Purnode of a layer of water exceptional for its quality and quantity, was a great asset.
The brewery offered the customers a wide range of products, from table beers to strong beers through a range of densities, colors, bitternesses and tastes. The brewer assured the distribution of his products on his own and in a relatively small radius around the Brewery. In the early twentieth century, La Gauloise, currently the oldest brand still produced at the Brewery, a brown high fermented beer was brewed for the first time. From the right beginning, this beer was an undoubted success.
The Brewery was incorporated into a limited company in 1949. Independent of any Belgian or foreign brewer, it still beholds its own family nature. In 1960, the agricultural activity and the door to door deliveries of the Brewery are permanently abandoned. This is the beginning of distribution through supermarkets, drink markets and traders in beer. With the recovery of the Central Brewery Marbaix -La-Tour in 1967, the Brasserie du Bocq added two new beers to its product range: the SAISON REGAL that is currently the GAULOISE AMBREE, and whose idea gave birth in 2013 to the SAISON 1858 and the CHRISTMAS REGAL, since renamed GAULOISE CHRISTMAS. It is at this point, that the Belot family decided to direct their beer manufacturing only to the production of special high fermentation beers with secondary fermentation in the bottle.
In 1983, Brasserie du Bocq abandons the exploitation of Central Brasserie Marbaix -La-Tour, to bring all the beer production back to Purnode where the production tools have been radically modernized on the basis of equity. Taking advantage of the craze for traditional beers, Brasserie du Bocq starts exporting. And it is a success.
Indeed, Belgian beers have gained an excellent reputation worldwide. Brasserie du Bocq exports mainly to France, the Netherlands, Italy, Britain, Spain, Switzerland, Finland, Australia, Japan, China, Sweden, the United States Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, etc ... In seven years, the production has doubled reaching 104,000 hectoliters in 2015. With a current turnover of more than € 12.5 million, the Brasserie du Bocq is one of the largest independent breweries in Wallonia.
The beers brewed and sold by Brasserie du Bocq are: BLANCHE DE NAMUR and ROSEE, GAULOISE BLOND, ALE, PALE ALE, RED BERRIES, TRIPLE 10°, DOUBLE 6° and CHRISTMAS, SAISON 1858, TRIPLE MOINE, DEUGNIET, REDBOCQ, APPLEBOCQ, to be enjoyed at all times.
Today in Purnode, although the BELOT family has sold its assets to the Keersmaekers family who has been producing the CORSENDONK at the Brasserie du Bocq for over 30 years, and even though the brewery has far exceeded its regional framework, nothing has changed and the values of the company remain intact. We hope and bet that this story will go on much longer and that the beers produced at the Brasserie du Bocq will fill with life the small Condroz village that is Purnode.
Article number: FBB21525
