In 1874, one Jean-Baptist De Bruin set up a brewery next to his farm, under the name De Peer. That Jean-Baptist De Bruin was married to Angelina Schelfaut, but the couple remained childless. Fortunately, Angelina's nephew, Jozef Schelfaut, had learned the art of brewing. So when Angelina died at the age of 92, she entrusted Jozef Schelfaut with running the De Peer brewery.
In order to provide for the production of the necessary ingredients, Jozef Schelfaut
built his own two-hectare hops field and also built a malt house and accompanying oasthouse. Schelfaut was not only a good brewer, he was also a shrewd businessman. He succeeded in carrying his Drydraad beer as far as Ghent, where he even was able to deliver to d'Helle (the Hell), which at the time was by far the most popular cafe of the city. Today, however, this beer would no longer be a hit due to its too flocky consist.
Jozef Schelfaut had a daughter named Margriet. She married Paul Van Steenberge, a chemical engineer who became a professor of microbiology at the Sint-Lievens brewery school in Ghent and at the Agriculture Faculty of the University of Ghent. When World War I broke out, Van Steenberge was 30 years old. On August 2, 1914, he was called up to serve his country and that is how he ended up in Antwerp. At the end of August, together with twenty thousand other soldiers, he crossed the Dutch border. Paul Van Steenberge was interned but he was lucky to spend the war years in the Microbiology Lab of the Technical College in Delft, where he worked together with professor Beyerinck, a former student of Louis Pasteur.
When Jozef Schelfaut died in 1922, Paul Van Steenberge had gained enough know-ledge to take over the business. In the artisan brewery, he applied the most modern techniques. But because Paul Van Steenberge had in the meantime also become mayor of Ertvelde, it is largely thanks to his wife that the brewery stayed alive. After all, Van Steenberge became a politician in heart and soul. From 1929 to 1945, he was a member of the Standing Delegation of the province of East Flanders and he subsequently even went as far as senator.
Still, his rare presence in the brewery was clearly noticeable. He changed the brewery's name to Bios (life) and with the help of lactic fermentation, he succeeded in brewing a beer of the Rodenbach genre and gave it the same name as the brewery: Bios, a young beer that was fortified with a brew that had matured for two years and that was successfully launched as Vlaamse Bourgogne (Flemish Burgundy).
At the end of the 1920s, the changing taste habits and the advertising for low fermen-tation beer led to the brewing of Leute Bock, a name that was soon changed to Sparta Pils. The expensive conversion from high to low fermentation was possible because of the revenue generated by the increasing sales of Bios. The brewery was expanded to include a new brew house and new yeast and ageing cellars.
The son of Paul Van Steenberge, Jozef, studied law but - how could it have been otherwise - still ended up in the brewery, taking over the business after his father"s death in 1962. Under his leadership, high fermentation beer was once again being brewed in addition to the low fermentation beer, thereby taking advantage of the
new beer trend.
Production at Bios - Van Steenberge got an even bigger boost after the Beirens brewery in Wommelgem closed its doors for good. For years, that brewery had brewed the Bornem Dobbel and Bornem Tripel for the Sint-Bernardus abbey in Bornem. Jozef Van Steenberge made a case for being able to bring a better Bornem Dubbel and Bornem Tripel on the market by ensuring secondary fermentation in the bottle.
Since 1980, Van Steenberge has brewed the two Bornem beers with steadily rising sales figures. And that wasn't all; the Augustinian fathers also came to Ertvelde.
And so the Augustijn was born in 1982, with 8 % alcohol by volume and secondary fermentation in the bottle. It is always claimed that the secret to secondary fermentation in the bottle lies in the yeast used. And indeed it's true!
The result of this story was that, due to the ever-growing success of regional special beers, the brew capacity had to be expanded significantly. Today Paul Van Steenberge (II), son of Jozef and grandson of Paul Van Steenberge (I), heads the brewery. He entered the family business in 1978 and in 1985 took over the management from his father.
In the past ten years, more than 10 million euros has been invested in the brewery Bios - Van Steenberge and the number of employees was doubled. A new computer-controlled brew house was built in 1993. In 1995, a water-purification plant was installed that guarantees maximal biological and chemical water purity.
In 1997 a steam boiler was added and in 2000 came a new mill and bottling plant.
All of this is done in order to be able to continue serving delicious quality beers to our many valued clients, both domestic and foreign, well into the future.