Breweries want to halt lambic beer speculation

Belgian breweries 3 Fonteinen (from Beersel) and Cantillon (from Anderlecht) aim to stop any lambic beer speculation, as these beers are often resold at extortionate prices.

Fraudulent sales

“It is frustrating to spend a lot of time and money to brew these craft beers and then see them being sold online for 150 dollars a few days later. We want fair prices, because that is the easiest way for actual beer lovers to buy the beer”, Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen’s Armand De Belder told Made in Vlaams-Brabant. “Customers who have been faithful to us for years, are suddenly limited when they want to buy, for instance, raspberry beer.”

People who have bought these beers in high numbers in the store or at the brewery are now charging high prices and then sell the beers abroad, where the demand is extremely high. Especially because the volumes are extremely limited, prices can be equally extortionate.

The resale is often not legal, because they do not take into account how the current labour legislation and rules on excises, added value tax and corporate law. “We will now talk to the government, to see which legal action we can take”, De Belder says.