Brouwerij van Eecke

In 1629, the belgian region of Watou was granted the exclusive privelege of becoming an earldom of the illustrious van Yedegem family. The family owned a castle in Watou, to which a brewery was attached.
However,during the French Revolution, both the castle and brewery were destroyed. After the Revolution, only the brewery was rebuilt, due to the overabundance of castles.
In 1862, the brewery was taken over by the Van Eecke famely and was named the Gouden Leeuw (Golden Lion). Only high-fermented beers were brewed in the Gouden Leeuw. The brewery had only local significance until World War II broke out. After this War, the production of an abbey-beer was setup and was named Het Kapittel. Why the name abbey-beer Het Kapittel? There are only 5 breweries in Belgium, allowed to use the exclusive name Trappist's Beer, which means that the beer is still brewed by monks.
Other breweries desired to introduce a well groomed and valuable beer on the market, but having no connection with a monastery or monks for the matter, chose for the name Abbey-beer. Abbey-beer Het Kapittel belongs to this second group and emphazises the importance of carefully brewed beer.
In flemish, Het Kapittel stands for the hierarchy of fathers and priests within a monastery.

• Het Kapittel ABT
• Het Kapittel Blond
• Het Kapittel Dubbel
• Het Kapittel Pater
• Het Kapittel Prior
• Poperings Hommelbier
• Watou's Witbier

(Info from: Brouwerij van Eecke, 2002)