3 Fonteinen is a Belgian brewery

Brewery

A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....

, specialized in geuze and kriek

Kriek

Kriek is a style of Belgian beer, made by fermenting lambic with sour Morello cherries. The name is derived from the Dutch word for this type of cherry . Traditionally "Schaarbeekse krieken" from the area around Brussels are used...

. The brewery is situated in Beersel

Beersel

Beersel is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the towns of Alsemberg, Beersel proper, Dworp, Huizingen and Lot. On January 1, 2006 Beersel had a total population of 23,433. The total area is 30.01 km² which gives a population density of 781...

, near Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 and produces classic versions of both kriek and geuze.

Geuzestekerij

3 Fonteinen was founded in about 1887 as a café and geuzestekerij, a place where geuze is produced by blending old and new lambics, acquired from other breweries. The enterprise was bought by Gaston De Belder in 1953, who expanded it with a restaurant and left it to his sons Armand and Guido in 1982. In 1998, a brewery installation was bought. Apart from using its own lambic, 3 Fonteinen uses lambic made by Boon

Boon Brewery

The Boon Brewery is a Belgian brewery situated in Lembeek, near Brussels, that mainly produces geuze and kriek beer of a fairly traditional variety, but using distinctly modern brewing techniques and equipment...

, Girardin

Girardin

Girardin is a surname that may refer to:* Brigitte Girardin , French politician* Cécile Stanilas de Girardin , French politician* Delphine de Girardin, née Gay, , French writer...

 and Lindemans

Lindemans Brewery

Lindemans Brewery is a Belgian family brewery based in Vlezenbeek, a small town in the Flemish Brabant southwest of Brussels. It produces lambics.-History:...

 for its geuze. 3 Fonteinen is one of the few remaining geuzestekerijen. The Mijol Club, a literary club, founded by Herman Teirlinck

Herman Teirlinck

Herman Louis Cesar Teirlinck Herman Louis Cesar Teirlinck Herman Louis Cesar Teirlinck (Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, 24 February 1879- Beersel-Lot, 4 February 1967, was a Belgian writer. He was the fifth child and only son of Isidoor Teirlinck and Oda van Nieuwenhove, who were both teachers in Brussels...

, used to convene in the café.

Exploding beer

In May of 2009, a faulty thermostat caused the brewery's storage rooms to warm up to 50 degrees Celsius. As a result, 3000 bottles of beer exploded, and another 100,000 had to be emptied by hand to at least save the bottles. As a last resort, Armand De Belder distilled the overheated geuze and made an eau de vie

Eau de vie

An eau de vie is a clear, colorless fruit brandy that is produced by means of fermentation and double distillation...

which he called "Armand's Spirit": by December, half of the eau de vie had been sold, garnering enough revenue to allow the brewery to continue operations.