Tradition brewed with elegance
Brasserie St-Feuillien was founded 150 years ago, in 1873 by Stéphanie Friart, great-grand-aunt of the current owners, Benoît and Dominique Friart.
Together with Ann Friart, they are the fourth and fifth generations to run the business.
The brewery continues to produce a wide range of beers, including the beers of the Abbaye St-Feuillien, the "Signature" products such as the famous Grand Cru and the Saison, without forgetting the Grisette, thus proving its desire to be rooted in the history of its region, to perpetuate the tradition of the land and to ensure its influence beyond the borders.
Always attentive to the market and keeping a keen eye on the quality of their products,
the family brewery invests in sustainable equipment and applies its immense passion and formidable matching know-how to developing new beers, such as the gluten-free Grisette Blonde Organic and Grisette Citra Organic, as well as the very recent FIVE and St-Feuillien Quadruple and FRUIT.
These last ten years have seen significant investment including the installation of a fully automated, high-performance brewing hall.
Strengthening quality to achieve excellence
A strategic industrial redeployment plan was launched at the end of 2021 and is currently in place. It concerns the internalization of filtration, bottling, and refermentation in bottles. At the same time, all the brewing facilities will be moved from the historical site to the logistics site in a brand-new building that will house all the installations.
In the future, this historical site will become an authentic visitors’ center.
This year, in 2023, the St-Feuillien Brewery is celebrating its 150th anniversary.
Member of the “Belgian Family Brewers” association
This non-profit association currently has 21 members and aims to promote historical and independent family-owned breweries, which, because of their strong identity and authenticity, constitute a real added value to the Belgian brewing world. This a noble goal, considering that in Belgian brewing families, the secrets of the traditional craft of beer brewing have been passed down for centuries from generation to generation.
That’s why authentic Belgian beers deserve a label to distinguish them from other beers. For the consumer, the label belonging to the Belgian Family Brewers association guarantees their origin and their artisanal production method.
This new quality label finally eliminates any doubts as to the typically Belgian and artisanal character of the beers that bear it.
The consumer who chooses a beer bearing the BFB label is assured that:
- This beer is actually brewed in Belgium
- The beer is brewed by an independent family-run brewery that has been brewing for
at least 50 years or 3 successive generations – i.e. by a traditional brewery in the fullest sense of the word - It is exclusive, not copied under any other name or label
Finally, the association of Belgian Family Brewers wants to bring an end to the misuse abroad of the name ‘Belgian beer’. Many beers brewed outside Belgium are marketed with what is supposed to be a Belgian quality label. From now on, the official BFB label should ensure that this type of misuse, and the confusion it causes to consumers, will be a thing of the past. In this way, the Association of Belgian Family Brewers wishes to make its own contribution toward the international reputation of traditionally brewed Belgian beers.
The Brotherhood of
Saint Feuillien
At the heart of Rhodien,
Beer of St-Feuillien
Here in Le Roeulx, the French word ‘confrérie’ reminds us of the traditions of bygone days, loaded as it is with connotations of religion and mystery, referring not only to a guild, but also a friary or a brotherhood. Today, it is used to describe traditional associations formed around goods like food and wine. Now commonplace in Belgium, brewing guilds are associations of beer lovers and professionals whose aim is to promote the products of the region they represent. While today’s brewing guilds were all formed no earlier than the 20th century, some can trace their roots back much further into the past.
For more than half a century, the Saint-Feuillien Guild has nourished and sustained this vital cultural connection to the region and its land through a variety of activities, such as trips, guided visits, meetings, conferences, and food tastings. Furthermore, always with an eye on the outside world, it maintains and celebrates its links with Ireland, the United Kingdom, France and a great many other regions in Belgium.
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