Braxatorium Parcensis: brewing in a protected heritage and nature reserve

After travelling the world from brewery to brewery, Joris Brams started his own in 2017, just a few metres from his parental home. “Braxatorium Parcensis brews atypical beers in an atypical setting. After 200 years, beer is finally being made in Park Abbey again!”

Joris has been active in the world of brewing for over thirty years. He got the taste for beer during his studies in Leuven and ended up at Alken-Maes. Through various brewing positions, Joris rose to technical director. “Before this, I travelled a lot. I helped build breweries and start beer brands all over the world.” And so the desire to create something for himself grew.

Long live tradition

The location for Joris’s brewery was extremely important. “I grew up in Heverlee, on the edge of the park. My parents are also now buried there. So it’s an important place for me. The Abbey of the Premonstratensians is located next to the park and has been undergoing restoration for ten years. It will be the largest restored Premonstratensian abbey in the world and thus has a chance to win the title of UNESCO World Heritage Site. But for me, one part of the story was still missing: the relaunch of the abbey’s centuries-old brewery.”

Joris convinced the Premonstratensians and a third party: BW Procestechniek. Together, they invested in the Braxatorium Parcensis brewery, which means ‘brewery of the park’ in Latin. “It was either going to be here in the abbey or it wasn’t,” Joris makes clear. “The fathers used to brew here to quench the thirst of their workmen. We found information in the library that the brewery stopped in the 17th century. But the reason is unknown.”

A challenging setting

“Restarting the brewery is a beautiful and unique story, but not an easy one. You quickly run up against the walls of protected heritage and work within nature reserves. You cannot use natural gas, you have to be careful with waste water and condensation… This requires creative and innovative thinking. Fortunately, BW Procestechniek sees our project as a showroom for their brewing equipment. Many techniques that they tried here for the first time have now been scaled up and are present in other breweries. We also restored the old mill, for example, to grind our own grain.”

Always limited

Braxatorium Parcensis brews 1,000 litres at a time and 500 hectolitres per year. Their range of beers is always issued in limited editions. “We have two series: Libertus and Quirinus. Libertus is named after Abbot Libertus De Paepe who governed the abbey from 1648 to 1682. Each new beer in the series is given a number. The first was an amber beer; the most recent and seventh is a saison. Quirinus is our low-alcohol series. For example, we have a triple with an alcohol content of only 3 to 3.5%. We brew it with green malt, which is difficult because this malt is very sensitive to decay. Our small runs allow us to control this. You see, as a brewery, Braxatorium Parcensis is quite unique!”

The choice to brew each beer only once also has another reason. “As a small brewery working with local and seasonal ingredients, it’s difficult to brew the same beer twice. There are almost always going to be differences. On the other hand, it’s fun to do something different every time. We’ve already brewed many different styles and we can always speak of ‘limited editions’, about 5,000 to 6,000 bottles.” 

Tasting before brewing

Braxatorium Parcensis tests each beer on one of Brouwland’s small brewing systems. “Everything is organic and refermented in the bottle. We make sure the recipe is right before we brew the larger volume of 1,000 litres. We also try each beer with three different yeasts. To me, yeast is the most underrated beer ingredient! The favourite of the three then becomes the new beer. Those are always some really great tastings.”

Braxatorium Parcensis buys the brewing material and ingredients from Brouwland. “Our malt, hops, yeast… Basically everything other than the raw grains. I’ve known Brouwland for a long time and was already a customer through other breweries. They are the reference in terms of availability of good raw materials and fast delivery, for small and large players. Their website is also very clear.”

What will the future bring? 

“We would like to broaden our portfolio and offer some beers permanently. Right now, we’re only using a quarter of our brewing capacity of 2,000 hectolitres. We want to double that at least. Mainly out of necessity because we have to become profitable and thus protect ourselves.”

Tips for beginning brewers?

“All the complexity of brewing starts from the cooling of the wort. Everything before that isn’t too difficult. Sterility then becomes the pitfall. You can’t be lazy. Because of the alcohol and hops, beer is pretty well protected against bacteria and you’ll rarely get sick from it. But brewing in a non-sterile environment will quickly affect the aroma, stability, and shelf life of your beer.”

The Braxatorium Parcensis beers are available through their e-shop, via the abbey shop De Wikke, and in the abbey brasserie. From time to time, you will also find one of their beers on the menu in pubs in and around Leuven.

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