Flemish Fox Brewery &
Craftworks, is a new brewery in Austin, Texas founded by Christine Celis, that
will brew Belgian-style beers and ales for craft beer lovers. The brewery builds
on the Celis family legacy, brewing the original witbier that Pierre Celis made
in Hoegaarden as well as other award-winning craft beer recipes.
We are embarking on an
important fundraising campaign to save historically significant brewing
equipment and techniques.
You have an opportunity to
make a mark on the craft beer industry with your contribution. Your gift will
help us to relocate Pierre Celis’ original brewing equipment from Hoegaarden,
Belgium to Austin, Texas.
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Preserving an Important Beer Style
Hoegaarden, Belgium is the
birthplace of Belgian witbier, which has been brewed in the village since 1445.
The village has been synonymous with this aromatic, cloudy, witbier for
centuries. In 1955 the last brewery in Hoegaarden that made witbier, Brasserie
Louis Tomsin, closed for good when the brewer retired. Unfathomably, the
region’s treasured witbier died with it.
Fortunately, that isn’t
the end of the story. As the town and beer lovers across the country grieved
for its loss, Pierre Celis, who had learned to make witbier at neighboring Tomsin,
quietly began making home brew versions of it in 1965. On March 13, 1966, Celis
singlehandedly revived the Hoegaarden witbier style in his brewery, Brouwerij
De Kluis. Over the years, the cloudy witbier made with wheat, hops, coriander,
and orange peel became world renowned and many breweries began making similar styles.
Pierre Celis later went on
to found Celis Brewery in Austin, Texas, in 1992 and continued to make witbier.
The brewing equipment used
to resurrect the style of beer remained in the original farmhouse in Belgium
where he first brewed his witbier. The historic, weathered open mash tun, two
copper kettles, an open fermenter, heat exchanger, and coolship hasn’t been
used since 1979. Like the original witbier, it too could die.
We can save this
extraordinary piece of brewing heritage dating back to the 1900s. Just as her
father rescued witbier from extinction, Christine Celis is determined to save
his legacy by bringing the original brewing equipment to install and display in
the new Flemish Fox Brewery in Austin, Texas.
We need your help to
preserve brewing heritage.
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A
Monumental Task
Moving the 2-toncast-iron open mash tun and copper brew
kettles from the brewery in Hoegaarden to Austin is a monumental task. The
extensive process to reclaim the brew kettles involved chiseling it free from
the brick and concrete in which it is encased with jackhammers. The roof and
walls of the brewery had to be removed to allow space to pull out the brewing
equipment using a massive construction crane. The very building itself had to
be reinforced to allow it to sustain this excavation. The walls and roof will
of course will have to be repaired as well.
We will restore the
equipment with curative sandblasting processes and repair work. Following
restoration, the copper kettles, mash tun and open fermenter will be packed in
custom-made protective wooden crates to be shipped across the Atlantic to Texas.
It’s a project of historic
importance not seen before in the village of Hoegaarden. The streets were blocked
to allow for enormous trucks to transport the brewing equipment to the harbor
for its long ocean voyage to the Port of Houston. Pierre Celis’ equipment will
retrace the brewing journey that he took from Belgium to Texas.
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A Hefty Price
The extensive project
comes with a hefty price tag. It will cost $252,000 to save this equipment and
install it in working order in the museum at Flemish Fox Brewery &
Craftworks. The costs involved include:
-
Excavation of equipment - $25,000
-
Rental of the crane and trucks - $27,000
-
Storage - $5,000
-
Shipping over seas and by road - $25,000
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Austin building retrofit - $150,000
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New bottling line - $15,000
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Foeders - $20,000
You can Help Save a Brewing Legacy
Christine Celis isn’t
undertaking this colossally difficult and expensive project to simply put the
celebrated brew kettles in a museum. The mash tun and brew kettles will be
refurbished and be put back into commission on special occasions at the new
Flemish Fox Brewery to once again brew authentic beers in the true style that
Pierre Celis revived in the village Hoegaarden in 1965.
You can have a hand in
preserving the heritage of witbier’s brewing origins, and bring Belgian legacy
to Texas. Your generous contribution will not only make sure historically
significant equipment is preserved, but the very brewing techniques that are
only feasible with this kind of equipment are likewise preserved.
With the equipment,
Christine Celis will also bring the original yeast and brewing methodologies
perfected in the early days in Hoegaarden to once again revive witbier in
Austin for all to enjoy. This is a process rarely used outside of Belgium in
modern brewing to continue a beloved style that deserves to be saved.
Flemish Fox Brewery will
brew the original Belgian recipes from Pierre Celis in the restored equipment
on special occasions. The brewery will make Belgian ales, as well as other
Pierre Celis recipes that were never produced, in gleaming new state of the art
brewing equipment on an ongoing basis.
Each contributor of $200 or
more will be invited to brew in the original open mash tun, copper kettles, and
fermenters, manually stirring the mash with wooden paddles. You will experience
the equipment and the process of making the original Belgian style witbier just
the way Pierre Celis did it.
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Your Contribution Matters
We greatly appreciate your
support and will reward all contributions with unique recognition items and
experiences. You not only have an
opportunity to preserve brewing heritage, but you can also earn a hands-on
experience of brewing beer in this equipment with a Master Brewer. We will have visiting Master Brewers from renowned craft breweries around the world for each session.
Thank you for your help in preserving brewing heritage and ensuring the rebirth of Pierre Celis’ legacy.
Flemish Fox in the News
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http://www.mystatesman.com/news/lifestyles/food-cooking/celis-legacy-will-love-on-in-daughters-flemish-fox/nqhmp/![]()
http://www.texasmonthly.com/eat-my-words/the-fl...