Hoegaarden (brewery)

The Hoegaarden brewery

Hoegaarden outdoor advertising in Roses

Hoegaarden [ ɦuˈʝardən ] is a Belgian brewery located in the Flemish municipality of the same name, Hoegaarden ; it belongs to the largest brewery association in the world, the Anheuser-Busch InBev Group, with headquarters in Leuven .

history

The brewing tradition in the municipality of Hoegaarden goes back to the Middle Ages ; In the 19th century there were thirteen breweries and nine distilleries in the village . In 1955 this long tradition temporarily ended with the closure of the last brewery. In 1966, Pierre Celis , a local milkman, again founded a brewery there and named his first beer brand after the town of the same name: Hoegaarden . Beer production was expanded from an initial 350 hectoliters to 1975 hectoliters annually in 1978. In 1969 Celis launched the Hoegaarden Grand Cru on the Belgian market. In 1978 he acquired the De Kluis water and soft drink factory and converted it into the De Kluis brewery ; The brewing capacity and sales could again be increased considerably. In 1985 the De Kluis brewery was destroyed by fire and rebuilt under a new name as the Hoegaarden brewery . The then Stella Artois brewery - which merged in 1988 to form the InBev brewery association - helped finance the reconstruction and at the same time acquired 45 percent of the shares. In 1990 InBev also took over the remaining shares from company founder Celis - and the brewery group, which merged to form Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2008, is now the sole owner of the Hoegaarden brewery .