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.
In the middle of the winter of 2010, surrounded by second-hand metal and used parts, Geert Toye asked himself why he was welding a brewery together. He had just spent 4 full days in 1°C weather searching for a leaking hole that was too small for the eye to see, but if not fixed would make it impossible to brew. Overwhelmed and freezing, he began to think he might be in over his head.
Owner and brewer of Brouwerij Toye in Marke, Geert Toye always needed a physical way to express himself. Even when he was a child, this manifested in movement, creativity, and building things with his hands. He took joy in inventing contraptions which might have some useful application. One such example was a wheel that beeps when a fish pulls on the fishing line, a system he devised when he was 14 years old which he made out of a singing gift card.
“It’s in my genetics to fix and build things myself,” says Geert. “I’ve always been this way, even as a child. I believe everyone should be somewhat like this. There is something in your brain that wants you to keep learning, and this keeps your mind and spirit young.”
When Geert was 17 years old, he began to experiment brewing beer with his older brother, Koen, using the hops their parents were growing in their garden. Years later, when Geert was preparing for his thesis in Biology, he chose a subject relating to beer and fermentation. He began working in a laboratory, studying the process of fermentation, malting, and brewing. He continued working at the lab after he graduated for 6 more years, learning as much as he could until a different interest infiltrated his mind: welding.
During his work at the lab, Geert began consulting with breweries all over the country while taking welding classes at the same time. He noticed that many breweries were getting rid of old materials, so he began collecting the second-hand metals and storing them at his father’s vacant warehouse in Marke, a municipality within the city of Kortrijk. Soon he had a scrapyard. It occurred to him that if he could weld those pieces together, he could probably build his own brewery from the leftover material of other breweries.
“I like to do things myself because I enjoy seeing the end result,” says Geert. “This gives me a lot of effort and satisfaction. I put blood, sweat, and tears into the three years of welding my own brewery together. This allowed me to understand how every single piece of metal works together.”
You can now stand and drink in the self-welded brewery: Brouwerij Toye. Geert also designed the labels for his 4 beers; Goedendag Strong Blond, Goedendag Dark, Goedendag Cuvée 1302, and O’ de Lys. The labels are inspired by the Battle of the Golden Spurs which took place in the same area where Brouwerij Toye stands today. Goedendag means “Good Day”, but it was also the name of a brutal weapon that was used by Flemish militia against French attackers. It was essentially a club with a spear, almost as if welded together.
“People laugh because I tell them the hardest part of making my business was designing the labels,” says Geert. “Although welding the brewery was more physically demanding, I don’t consider it hard work, because it’s just what I love to do.”
I put blood, sweat, and tears into the three years of welding my own brewery together.
Geert Toye
