Words and photos by Ashley Joanna
Edited by Breandán Kearney
Humans of Belgian Beer is a series of photographic portraits which celebrate a people and their culture.
For two decades, Axel Brück has worked night shifts as a security guard at an Asylum centre in Manderfeld, a village nestled amidst romantic valleys in the Walloon province of Liège.
Twenty-five years ago, prompted by a love for saving older, storied, country homes, Axel moved from the German speaking municipality of St. Vith in Belgium to a seventeenth century house located 15 kilometres to the south in the tiny village of Richtenberg.
As he began to meet and befriend the other twenty-three inhabitants of the village, he was inspired to create something special for those in his new home. The Richtenberger beer was born, a Belgian Blonde Ale of 6.2% ABV brewed with pilsner malt and wheat malt, the addition of coriander and bitter orange peel, and hopped with Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand.
When Axel takes off his camouflage military jacket, a back tattoo of the Richtenberger beer logo peeks out from his branded t-shirt. When he’s not working as a security guard, he’s most often seen with his beloved three rescue dogs, Bonnie, Clyde, and Akki, or finding joy in the rock music of Pink Floyd, Rammstein, or Lynyrd Skynyrd. His favourite song is the latter’s Free Bird, because he feels the lyrics describe his life: Cause I’m as free as a bird now / And this bird you cannot change.
Axel’s Richtenberger beer has enjoyed commercial success in the local market across the East of Belgium, especially in grocery stores, restaurants, and farmers markets. But despite working continuously with Chris Rodenburg of Beer Concept in Deidenberg (also pictured in red jacket) to improve Richtenberger, aggressive growth is not the goal.
“It’s never too late to start your dreams,” says Axel. “I don’t care so much for becoming rich. What matters to me most is to freely decide what I can do from morning to evening. Success to me means making my own choices for my life and my business.”
It’s never too late to start your dreams.
—Axel Brück
