Leroy Breweries
The brewery comes up since the 17th century.
1862, The Family Van Eecke became the new owners of the brewery by marriage, and started brewing top fermenting country ales. The brewery had an important local significance until well after WW II.
1950 With the revival of the authentic local ales in combination with modern marketing, the beautifully delicious beers of the brewery became a hot commodity in bars, cafés and fine restaurants all over Belgium and Northern France.
1962 The Leroy family, a well respected brewing family for 7 generations, from the neighbouring town of Boezinge, inherited Brewery Van Eecke. They maintained the high quality standard combined with the traditional craftsmanship of brewing. Under the supervision of Paul Priem the first steps toward international exportation were successfully taken.
1981 The creation of their famous Poperings Hommelbier by Karel Leroy, due to the demand for a special beer for the’ Poperingse Hoppefeesten’; this is a 3 yearly celebration for the harvesting of the hops of Poperinge. By the way, Hommel is the local dialect for hops. This exceptional and hoppy ale has since then been worldwide rewarded with several golden and silver awards.
1985 A large demand for "wittekes" white beer (or wheat beer), made them create their own version of this popular beer, that was soon respected all over Europe and beyond, which resulted in a golden medal in the Concour International of Montreal.
1995 Due of the large demand for the Abbey beers, Hommelbier and Watou white beer, all bottling has been transferred to their modern brewery Het Sas.
2010 For the first time, they participated an international contest "Monde Selection 2010" and were rewarded with a golden medal for their Abbey beer Kapittel Blond and a silver medal for Poperings Hommelbier.
Interesting to know:
· The brewery is still a family owned business, now managed by the 7th generation of brewers Philip & Hendrik Leroy.
· The master brewer comes from a legacy father to son from several generations in their brewery.
· Still the brewery uses only their own yeast-strings, cultivated in Boezinge for the consistence of the quality and exclusive taste.
Het Sas and Brouwerij Van Eecke are merged, and now operate under the name Leroy Breweries.