Alex Lippens & Koen Van Lancker

"Our first beer was a bitter IPA. By today's standards, it was fairly tame, but at the time, it was a real statement. Such bold flavors were new to the Belgian beer scene. Not everyone liked it, and that was exactly our intention,” says Koen. “There was also a gap in the market when it came to branding. All you saw were labels with church towers and drunken priests. We introduced a touch of rock 'n' roll. At beer festivals, instead of putting our name on a boring sign, we nailed skateboards to our stand. With 't Verzet, we're chasing all our teenage dreams. We wanted to be rock stars, skateboarding champions, and professional basketball players. None of that worked out, but luckily, we were good at biochemistry." 

A pilgrimage for Oud Bruin lovers 

Their beers broadly fall into two distinct styles. On the one hand, there are the new, surprising flavors, such as “Unwanted Tattoo” with spicy ginger and fruity hops. "The flavors follow our gut feeling. We like to think outside the box and only follow trends if they challenge us." On the other hand, the brewers also like to reinterpret traditional beer styles. "We have a penchant for the underdog." Oud Bruin is a good example of this. It's a sour brown beer from the South-West Flanders region that had been completely forgotten. We like breathing new life into beer styles like this. It's not an easy beer to make. Oud Bruin is brewed with a combination of cultured and wild yeasts. Then, it matures in wooden barrels. This process creates a unique combination of caramel and fresh acidity. With a fresh perspective, we created an updated version. It remains one of our most popular beers. People come from Japan and Australia to visit our brewery and learn how we make Oud Bruin. Among beer connoisseurs, our brewery is a pilgrimage site for this beer style." 

When looking back on the past decade, brewers see a major shift in the industry. When they started their brewery, the industry was stuck in its ways. Now, however, it has exploded. "Because we were ahead of the trend, we had time to make mistakes." The brewers also have a more lenient view of traditional beer culture now. "Our country's uniqueness lies in the combination of our history, from which we can learn, and the new generation of brewers awakening taste buds. On a plot of land the size of a handkerchief, beer tourists can visit a large multinational brewery, a Trappist brewery, and an underground brewery. That's unique in the world."