AB InBev has announced that it will no longer brew Belle-Vue Gueuze because demand for the beer has dwindled. A company spokesperson confirmed the news on Monday following a report by De Tijd, adding that production of Belle-Vue Kriek at the Sint-Pieters-Leeuw brewery will continue.
Belle-Vue Gueuze was originally created by Constant Vanden Stock, a brewer who later became chairman of football club RSC Anderlecht. After taking over his family’s brewery post-World War II, he introduced a sweeter gueuze to the market. Traditionally, gueuze beer was known for its sour taste and often served with sugar cubes. The sweetened version, bottled with a crown cap rather than a cork, proved popular. At its peak, the brewery was producing around 130,000 hectolitres annually between the 1960s and 1980s, according to beer journalist Geert Van Lierde in De Tijd.
In 1991, Interbrew (which later became AB InBev) acquired Belle-Vue from the Vanden Stock family. In recent years, sales of gueuze have declined, and consumer preferences have shifted. Meanwhile, traditional gueuze, which had fallen out of favour towards the end of the 20th century, has experienced a resurgence in specialty bars.
AB InBev responded to the trend toward more authentic products by launching a version closer to traditional gueuze in 2018. However, the brewery has now decided to entirely cease gueuze production at Sint-Pieters-Leeuw. The company assured that this decision will not result in any job losses.
