Back to the future of Wallonia beer snails

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A small piece of chimney peeks out from the building of the Brasserie Caracole, an artisan brewery in the

in the Wallonia region. It is a piece of the original chimney through which the smoke from the production of the factory, founded in 1765 by the

. The vestige is so small that only when Philippe Attout, one of the workers, points to it from the door, do you notice its existence.

It remains there as a silent witness of what that factory was like until a strong storm blew it down in 1939, destroying the

and part of the factory.

What is clearly perceived, almost palpable, is the smell of firewood burning inside.

A penetrating aroma of ember and cereal permeates the room that welcomes the visitor.

The tank where the grain is filtered.LB

The factory went through several owners until it closed in 1972. Its boilers would not reignite until

, a local, decides that it is time for Falmignoul, like almost all Belgian towns, to have its own beer. In 1992, when he bought the facilities, he was faced with the dilemma of throwing everything away and rebuilding it again or preserving the legacy of the locals, who had

in the area for

more than

. Opt for the latter. "It's the system they used when we bought it," he explains to Viajes, "and we didn't want to change it."

According to one of the

most prestigious

, Michael Jackson, known as

, is the "only brewer in the world" that uses this system in all the steps in which it is necessary to heat the liquid.

The brewery is named after the nickname that the inhabitants of the area have.

explains François, trying to imitate their gait.

"That's why they nickname them snails," he sums up.

And something of that also has the method of this brewery that

and make beers as it was done before.

The Delorean leaves at dawn

The 'journey' to the past begins 24 hours before brewing. "At six in the morning the day before we began to add fuel to the fire," says François, while pointing with his finger across the structure

"specially prepared for this type of factory." This fire will heat a huge jar where hundreds of books of water rest, until it is at the ideal temperature to

. The wood, according to Fraçois, allows them to "caramelize the cereal a little more", which makes their beers a little darker.

Once the grain has infused into the water and has produced the must, it passes into another huge jar.

There the

.

The wood will heat the liquid to a boil for as long as the recipe calls for.

Dozens of beer objects decorate the bar.

.B.

In total, the brewery uses 750 kilos of cereal and between 3 and 9 kilos of hops in each batch. The burned wood amounts to 2 cubic meters of firewood in each of its productions. This fuel has allowed them to save a lot on the

since "the price has practically not risen in three years", explains François. It also results in the economy of the place, "where there is a lot of wood", which they buy from a former factory employee.

When the beer is ready to ferment, it goes to the back of the factory, the area closest to a traditional factory.

In several

fermenters,

will be in charge of adding the alcohol to the drink.

In a couple of weeks the beer will be bottled and it

for at least three weeks in

where the temperature is constant, to be ready to consume.

The entire process can take up to two months.

Some of Caracole.LB's beers

The drink is not only widely consumed in the locality and surroundings, it is also exported to various countries, such as the

.

Those who take it in town can go to the same factory to taste it and, incidentally, travel back to the past.

that François's father used more than 50 years ago, on one wall there is a poster of the wagon that delivered

and, next to the bar, the mill that was used to grind the grain until 1930. What has not changed for more than two centuries is the pride of Belgians in their beers.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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