This bronze statue fountain by Lou Boonman from Neerpelt was placed by the city council on 19 September 1981 as a reminder of the rich jenever tradition.
The cycle of grain-jenever-cattle-land reclamation is depicted here; pigs and oxen were fattened with the draff (pulp of the distilled grain) and poor heathlands were made fertile with the manure of these stable animals, so that grain could be grown again for jenever production.
The Borrelmanneke symbolises the close bond between the city of Hasselt and the jenever industry.
An ox stands on a pedestal. A man sits astride the back of the cow. The ox forms a whole with the pigs that root around beneath him. The man has a jenever barrel on his right shoulder. Until the end of the previous century, jenever was supplied to shopkeepers and drinking houses in barrels and casks. Private individuals started to stock up 'at the barrel' with their jugs and stoppers. The most common tonnage was the wine stainless steel or 'ox head' (approximately 268 litres). Hence the nickname 'de Ossekoppen' that the Hasselt residents were given.
Hasselt expressions 'Zoe zat as è verke' and 'Zoe zat as nen os' also clearly refer to the connection between cattle breeding and jenever distillation. After all, the distillation waste (the draff) still contained traces of alcohol when it was served to the pigs or oxen.
Once a year in October during the jenever festival, real Hasselt jenever comes out of the fountain.
Source: Hasel