The restoration programme is full steam ahead

The former Wielemans-Ceuppens brewery has pleased many generations with precious beers. Now that the production has ceased, these machines remain as testimonies of the golden age of the brewery, which used to be one of the major representatives of the beer industry in Brussels.

Restoring these machines is thus a way of preserving the memories of the brewery as well as the evolution of science applied to beer production.

The restoration programme is carried out in two different stages: the pre-restoration work, and the restoration of the machines itself.

The pre-restoration stage started years ago when the project was submitted to the relevant public authorities, after winning an Europa Nostra Award in 2013 (see more about the Europa Nostra Award here).

After receiving their green light for the restoration, the second phase of the pre-restoration stage has started. This was the preparation for the actual restoration work. That meant hiring workers, providing site safety, preparing working spaces, collecting required tools and equipments, evaluating what products to use, and sorting out all administrative issues.

The second stage, the restoration itself, has started very recently : on 21 December. The first step was the machines cleaning by our team. The team is supervised by Dino, our head instructor, who also oversees the works. Some of the machines have already been cleaned, as you can see in our previous posts. For example, we found out last week that the old bridge crane is still working! (We gave more information about it in our previous post).

After cleaning, our technicians will manufacture some missing pieces with the aim to set some machines back in motion. An anti-rust coating will also be applied.

Our intention is to work machine after machine. However, it is sometimes not that straightforward because of many different factors. These machines are full of surprises! But so far, it's going pretty well..!