History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley
Early in the
twentieth century, Belgian witbier (white beer) was quite popular in Brabant,
Belgium, but around 1950, Belgian witbier brewer Pierre Celis watched witbier
breweries in the country begin to close their doors.
Longing for the
return of witbier made with with wheat, milled coriander seeds and Curacao
orange peel, Pierre Celis produced a batch of homebrew that was so popular, it
inspired him to produce the beer on a small retail scale in 1966 in the Belgian
town of Hoegaarden. Circumstances forced him to eventually sell the Hoegaarden
brand to Stella Artois.
Celis moved to
Austin, Texas with his daughter in the 1990s and opened his own Celis Brewery
that cranked out over 22,000 barrels of award-winning Celis White in its most
productive year. Pierre eventually sold this brewery to Miller, who soon closed
the Austin facility.
But lovers of
the classic witbier style now have reason to rejoice. Celis' daughter Christine
is proud to have recently resurrected Celis Brewery at a different location in
Austin, and her daughter Daytona has expressed great enthusiasm in brewing at
the facility.
Click on the
video below for a walk around the resurrected Celis Brewery in Austin with
Celis president Bill Mulroy and Brewtopia.info's Owen Ogletree...
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