Dutch craft beer
Netherlands was a big brewing country back in the 16th and 17th century, with brewing centers like Delft—125 breweries with just 10.000 inhabitants—, Vlaandingen or Haarlem that exported beer to neighbouring provinces like Utrecht or Brabant. Since the 1930's, breweries like Heineken wiped out the market, and just after the WWII just 20 Dutch breweries were still operating so around the 1980's little was left from the Dutch traditional styles.
In the 1980's, breweries like t'IJ started to focus in bringing back Belgian styles, but it was not until 2004 that De Molen started to bring the craft beer movement to Nethelands. After them, already existing breweries like Jopen started to expand from Belgian styles to international styles, and new breweries emerged, as Emelisse, Texels or more recently Frontaal.
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Dutch beer brands
Jopen
Jopen is a Dutch brewery based in the city of Haarlem (Netherlands). The name comes from the word jopen used in the middle ages to design the 112 litres beer barrels used to transport Haarlem beer. The brewery was an effort to bring back brewing in Haarlem, a city with a long tradition of brewing that ended abruptly in the beginning of the 20th century due to tax raises.
In 1992, the Haarlem Beer Society was founded in order to restore two old recipes with so much success than in 1996 Jopen brewery is founded upon them. In 2010, they purchased the Jacobskerk church in Haarlem in order to make it a brewery, café and restaurant, renaming it as Jopenkerk. Their beers revisit old Haarlem and Dutch recipes as well as more modern international recipes.
Go to Jopen
De Molen
Brouwerij De Molen was founded by Menno Olivier in 2004. The brewery started in a small historic mill called De Arkduif, built in 1697. Before founding the brewery, Menno started as a homebrewer and then worked in the brewery Stadsbrouwerij De Pelgrim. In 2006, Menno became friend with John Brus, who started homebrewing when he was 17 years old, and joined the brewery in 2009. De Molen was one of the first breweries in Netherlands to focus in the new trends of craft beer, moving away from traditional Dutch and Belgian ales. As the demand for their beers soon started to grow, they soon moved their brewery to an industrial building close to the mill, and in 2016 they had to expand their current building with the objective to reach a 25.000 Hl. De Molen´s artwork is characterized by having a unique template for all his labels. Its beers are named after traditional Dutch proverbs, like like Hell & Damnation, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Fire & Flames, Heaven & Hell, Beautiful & Ruthless or Moord & Doodslag (Murder & Manslaughter). De Molen is famous for its top quality stouts and barrel aged brews. Since 2009, they host in their facilities in Bodegraven a yearly craft beer festival called Borefts (a slang for Bodegraven).
Go to De Molen
De Moersleutel
De Moersleutel is a brewery founded in 2016 by four Dutch brothers, Pim, Tom, Rob and Max Zomerdijk in the city of Almaar (Netherlands). In may 2018 they have moved to a new brewery with expanded capacity.
Go to De Moersleutel
Frontaal
Frontaal is a brewery founded in Netherlands in 2015 by Roel Buckens, who had been an active homebrewer before starting with the brewery. Their slogan is Beer for Thought as they want to introduce beer drinkers in Netherlands with new styles, tastes and smells. In 2016, they moved to a new location at Faamfabriek in Breda. In 2018, they became the first dutch brewery [to issue shares through crowdfunding](https://www.nu.nl/breda/5446229/brouwerij-frontaal-haalt-bijna-80000-euro-binnen-met-verkoop-aandelen.html).
Go to Frontaal
Van Moll
Van Moll is a Dutch brewery founded in Eindhoven in 2013. In 2018 they did a tour across Spain, called the Trans Ibérico Express, where they did collaborations with some of the best Spanish breweries as Laugar, Bidassoa Basque Brewery, La Quince, Naparbier, Garage Beer, Guineu and La Pirata.
Go to Van Moll
Emelisse
Emelisse is a dutch brewery founded in 2005 in Kamperland (Netherlands), and quickly expanded due to their great success. They focus in a limited range of beers, especially in the more alcoholic range, as stouts or barleywines. in 2016 the brewery was bought by Brewery Slot Oostende.
Go to Emelisse