OUR STORY
IN-HOUSE PRODUCTION
HIGH QUALITY
SUSTAINABILITY
How it all started...
Tipsy Tribe is a family-owned craft brewery-distillery run by first-generation immigrants from the US and Turkey. We first started brewing beer as a hobby in 2016 and quickly found an interest in distilling spirits as well! We began looking for a home for Tipsy Tribe and finally found it in the commune of Koekelberg, in the city and country we proudly call home: Brussels, Belgium.
No shortcuts: we make everything from scratch
We decided early on in our journey to take the hard route; to build our dream from scratch and make our own beers and spirits in-house entirely. This meant we wouldn’t contract our beer production to another brewery. This also meant that we wouldn’t purchase precursor spirits from other companies. To get the high quality that we strive for, we knew we had to get our hands dirty.
We’ve chosen to brew and distill all our products ourselves, to produce something that, with each sip, fills you with pride. We hope that when you try our beers and spirits, you will feel the same, knowing that they are created at a premium quality, sustainably, independently and entirely on site at the brewstillery.
Sustainability at the core
Sustainability is at the heart of Tipsy Tribe. We've taken several initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint, including:
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Installing solar panels on our roof, enabling us to harness the power of the magical Belgian sunshine.
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Working with a local farmer, who uses our spent grain as compost for his medicinal plants.
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Using locally sourced ingredients as our first choice in all of our products.
- Limiting water waste via our water capture and reuse system.
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Prioritizing upcycling of furniture and equipment.
Tipsy Tribe is proud to be a member of Brussels Good Food - an initiative that promotes a sustainable food system in the Brussels-Capital Region. We’ll continue to try and find ways to become more sustainable all this while creating amazing, local, craft beers and spirits!
Our tribe
We see everyone who's helped build this place, everyone who drinks our beers and spirits, and the whole of our local community as part of our tribe.
Tipsy Tribe’s Brewstillery was built on the ashes of former dreams (quite literally, see “History of the Brewstillery”). Our dream's just starting, and we hope you will share it with us!
THE HISTORY OF THE BREWSTILLERY
So, what do an evangelical cult, marijuana farmers and a craft beer and spirits company have in common? All of these (usually) unrelated groups once called the Brewstillery ‘home’!
Located in the back of a 1909 maison de maitre in the vibrant commune of Koekelberg in Brussels, Belgium, the Brewstillery was over time home to many different dreams.
From what we gather, for most of the 20th century, the location was used as a simple storage area, home to numerous businesses just needing some extra space. In the early 2000’s the fun started...
Religious worshipers found the place and made it their temporary home. After unsuccessfully trying to convert the garden into a bathroom and randomly opening an emergency exit in the wall that led to the neighbor’s back yard (allegedly, of course), the group decided to preach elsewhere. We were fortunate enough to be left with some pretty cool tile artwork of a castle... or something...
One thing’s for sure though, we guess this qualifies the Brewstillery as a church... So what’s more appropriate and original than making high quality alcohol in an old church? We may not be monks but we can brew like the best of them!
We don't have records of all the different groups that called this magical location their home, but word on the street is that sometime after the evangelicals left, some very industrious renters chose to set up a marijuana growing operation at this location (again... allegedly)... Thanks to some shoddy electrical wiring, the place went up in flames, taking most of the roof with it. Strangely, the renters were never seen or heard from again... bizarre huh?
On the bright side though, the roof was brand new when we found it... (Score!)
Today
More than 100 years after its initial construction, during our long, long, very long, too long, search for a place to brew, we stumbled across the Brewstillery and despite the sad state of it, we fell in love. We made this place our new home in 2021 and embarked on major renovation works, bringing new life to a building that had many others over the years.
THE TEAM
Daniel Fastenau
Co-founder, CEO, Head Brewstiller & Alchemist,
General Broken-Thing-Fixer
Dan was born in Nevada and raised all over. He moved to Belgium at the ripe old age of 15 years old and soon after was graced with his first taste of Belgian beer - at the legal age of 16 of course ;) He knew from that moment on, he was home.
Today he said farewell to the corporate world and now he's turning his dream of brewing and distilling professionally into a reality in the city he loves.
Aylin Fastenau
Co-founder, Marketing & Comms Boss,Business Developer Extraordinaire, Brewstiller
Orginally from Ankara, Turkey, Aylin's lived in more places than she can count. Coming from a consulting background, she decided to switch gears and dive head-first into brewing and distilling. She injects much needed "seriousness" into the Tipsy Tribe (except if she's sampled a few too many of our spirits) and brings a bit of her exotic background to the mix, allowing us to create unique beers and spirits for you.