‘t Hofbrouwerijke

‘t Hofbrouwerijke is a Belgian artisan microbrewery to Beerzel in Antwerp.

History

But let me introduce myself.

I am Jef Goetelen, or simply Brewer Jef. Sounds better, and in a way it just tells you what it’s all about.
Already a decennia ago, we poured our first own-brewed Trappist through the drain. The tasting went oh so well, but the brewing it selve … , young as we were.
The love for the liquid Gold never fainted, the brewing however I putted on a low ebb.
After a deadly silence of 15 years in 2001 I decided to go to school again and finish the study of brewmaster.

Blood – or is it beer- is thicker than water I would say.
The successive trials did work out well.
We heave a Dutch expression. It was the drop that let’s overflow the bucket – or better – the brewkettle.

I had the chance to experiment in a 200 l vessel from a brewing guild in Mol.
Up at 5 AM and home at 10Pm were quite some long days, even for a hobby.
The thought of brewing closer at home was already playing in the back of my head. And …
It became very close. The house beside mine. And the full garden became a brewery.

And so the name ’t Hofbrouwerijke was born, sometimes meaning garden brewery, but you can also see it as the brewery serving the royal court (also called “hof” in Flamish).