Video: Stijn Panis, brewer/owner of Force Majeure in Genk, Belgium explains how a triathlon turned him into a brewer of non-alcoholic beer.
Yes, Stijn Panis does drink beer with alcohol, but not often. He is dedicated to training and drinking Belgian beer.
It was while training for the triathlon in 2017 that he decided he could make a better non-alcoholic beer than what he had surveyed while looking for a brew that could get him through training.
While there were a few relatively OK lagers, he found the lack of options for speciality beers. He experimented with a home brewing kit and decided to found Force Majeure in Genk as what he calls the “first alcohol-free brewery in Belgium”.
Panis currently develops his recipes with a brewing kit, then contracts with a Belgian brewer to produce his beers. The first he released was a traditional blond in 2019. In January 2020 he released what he calls a “Belgian Triple”.
Both are under the 0.5% alcohol level as required under Belgian law to be classified as “alcohol free”.
The next step is to build up the portfolio of non-alcoholic beers on offer and eventually launch his own brewing site.
“We hope to grow into a full range o acohol-free beers and become known for flavourful, good beer, which happens to be alcohol-free as well,” he said.
