Alken-Maes

Alken-Maes is a Belgian brewery created out of the 1988 merger of two small breweries, Maes, located in Waarloos and Alken. Both had specialised in pils (Maes was producing Maes pils and Alken Cristal pils) until Maes purchased the Union brewery (based in Jumet) in 1978, which produced Grimbergen beer among others.

After the merger, the group continued to purchase other breweries to expand their offer to a larger panel of beers. In 1989, the new brewery purchased a 50% stake in De Keersmaeker brewery, which specialized in spontaneous fermentation beers such as Mort Subite. In 2000, it bought Ciney and Brugs Witbier as well as the other 50% of De Keersmaeker, which then was renamed Mort Subite.

Mort Subite is the brand name for a number of lambic beers brewed at Keersmaeker. The beers take their name from a café in Brussels, A La Mort Subite. Mort subite means "sudden death" in French, but can also be used to refer to the final throw in a dice game. Underground trading once took place within A La Mort Subite - it was named after the speed at which one could lose one's money.