Copyright 2006: B. United International Inc., All rights reserved.
They were wrong, because at the time of the turn of the century, the amount of bars begun to drop considerably, from 197821 in 1900 to 152200 in 1920 and 85000 in 1950. Nowadays only 30000 are left. Due to the loss of regular customers (and rent) on the one hand, and the technical and quality disadvantage in the production process on the other hand, many breweries were forced to close their company down.
In 1978 the most important investments took place since the establishment in 1978 when Aigle-Belgica (formerly Brewery De Meulemeester-Verstraete) was taken over and was dismantled by Piedboeuf (now Interbrew). All useful copper brewing machinery moved from Bruges to Ichtegem, where they have been cherished.
In 1986, the open barm tanks were replaced by 4 cilindro-conical tanks of 150 hl, thanks to which one could work faster and more sterile and conservatives were no longer needed nor used. With these investments the brewery could expand her storage space and machinery, without harming the traditional production methods. Due to the increasing variety of local beers at the beginning of the nineties, another couple of cilindro-conical tanks were added.
Up to 1999, the brewery also had a lemonade and water production. Putting an end to this activity was necessary in order to give way to the expansion of the beer filling installation, again to improve the quality and packaging of the beer.
Until the end of the first world war, Strubbe only concentrated on high fermentation beers. It only concerned two beers called simple beer and high fermentation beer. The first had a 2% alcohol level, the second a 4 % alcohol level. Aimé Strubbe gradually switched over to the brewing of low fermentation beers, first there was 'Bock' and later on 'Pils', a conversion that cost a lot of money and energy but unfortunately that business did not turn a great profit. Luckily there was still the 'Bruin Hengstenbier' (~brown stallion beer), a beer that was loved for its sweet and sour special taste. This 'hengsterbier' was also the base for the in 1982 introduced 'Ichtegem's oud bruin', with a 4.9% alcohol level, of which an improved version was launched after the 25 year old Marc Strubbe entered the business.
For more information on Brouwerij Strubbe please visit their website at
www.brouwerij-strubbe.be.
