Fair-trade beer that’s truly local
Brasserie des Légendes is one of the few Belgian breweries to work with Belgian barley and hops. What’s more, it uses fair-trade and organic ingredients in brewing Oxfam’s JUSTE beers. The result: three unique, fair-trade beers (info in Dutch).
A quarter of an hour’s drive from the brewery, which is nestled in a charming village near Ath, master brewer Pierre Delcoigne grows a large part of the barley used for the beer himself. Together with his father, he selects ancient varieties of barley that don’t require the use of pesticides. To supplement this, the brewery also purchases barley from three other farms in the surrounding area. The barley is malted in Beloeuil, scarcely 15 km away.
Likewise, most of the hops for Brasserie des Légendes’ beers are grown within 100 km of the brewery – at Vlamtertinge, near Poperinge, to be precise. The resulting beers proudly display the ‘Belgische hop-Belgian hops’ logo.
In short: maintaining a short chain (info in Dutch) is high on the agenda for Brasserie des Légendes.
Quality meets sustainability
Brasserie des Légendes combines tradition and technology. It brews high-fermentation beers, rich in flavour. And it does so in keeping with the strictest standards in terms of quality, hygiene and sustainability.
- The beers are brewed using only high-quality raw materials: barley, hops, water and yeast. Not a single artificial additive is used throughout the entire production process.
- On the brewery’s roof are 250 solar panels. These provide up to 60% of the electricity used in production. The heat released during production is also re-used to heat the offices.
- Brasserie des Légendes makes use of groundwater that it pumps itself. This water is low in nitrates and rich in minerals such as calcium and magnesium. It lends itself excellently to the brewing of speciality beers.
Brasserie des Légendes & Oxfam
- Oxfam and master brewer Pierre Delcoigne of Brasserie des Légendes developed the three JUSTE beers together. The combination of local barley and hops with certified-fair-trade (info in Dutch) ingredients from the Global South was previously unheard of.
- This collaboration goes to show that it’s possible to make a local speciality with respect for all parties in the chain of production. Our JUSTE beers symbolise how sustainability is both a social and ecological matter.
- The JUSTE beers were a hit right from their launch in 2019. And they have the awards (info in Dutch) to show for it.