Region & History

Which brewery is the oldest in the Netherlands? The Brand brewery in Wijlre, in the Heuvelland region, claims this title for itself, pointing to records of brewing in the village dating back to 1340. The Banpanhuis, where levies once had to be paid, was purchased in 1871 by Frederik Edmond Brand. The brewery has carried his name ever since.

On April 19, 1989, Heineken took over the family brewery. Brand nevertheless remained in place as its own brand with its own site. Anyone cycling through Wijlre passes a brewhouse that, by its own account, still doesn't pasteurize its beers today—meaning it skips the brief heating process used to extend shelf life.

In the south of Limburg lies Gulpen, where Laurens Smeets founded the brewery "De Gekroonde Leeuw" in 1825, which later became the Gulpener Bierbrouwerij. The first top-fermented beer went out the door on September 14, 1826. From 1922, the Rutten family carried on the business. In June 2026, the Grolsch brewery, part of the Japanese Asahi group, took over Gulpener entirely; brewing continues in Gulpen.

In 1870, Joseph Meens discovered an unusually pure spring on his land in Thull near Schinnen. Wanting to keep his farmhands employed through the winter, he built a brewery. Alfa still brews there today, now run by the fifth generation of the Meens family, and remains one of the province's few independent breweries.

The city, too, was once full of breweries. In the 19th century, Maastricht was home to as many as 33 breweries, along with hundreds of pubs. Most disappeared, but since 2018 the Stadsbrouwerij Maastricht has been brewing again in the city center. There's no EU protected designation of origin for beer from Limburg—here, the good reputation of a handful of names serves as the seal instead.