Region & History

North Brabant is the Dutch beer region of the Trappists. Here brews La Trappe, the first Dutch Trappist beer, and here, in Lieshout, sits Bavaria, a family brewery that ships its pilsner to well over a hundred countries.

Koningshoeven Abbey near Tilburg was founded in 1881 by Trappist monks who had fled France. They settled on a farm that had once been the summer residence of King Willem II. In 1884 they began brewing to help finance the monastery.

The Trappist logo, more precisely the "Authentic Trappist Product" mark, is a seal of the International Trappist Association and not a beer style. It requires that brewing take place within or near the monastery under the monks' supervision, with proceeds going to the monastery and to charitable causes. Koningshoeven lost the logo in 1999 and regained it in October 2005.

A second Dutch Trappist beer emerged in Zundert, near the Belgian border. Maria Toevlucht Abbey, founded in 1900, released its Zundert Trappist in 2013, which on December 10, 2013, became the tenth Trappist beer in the world to earn the logo. In May 2025 the abbey's closure was announced, and the beer no longer carries the logo.

Things are more secular in Lieshout. The De Kerkdijk brewery is first mentioned in 1719, and since the 18th century it has belonged to the Swinkels family. Brewing under the name Bavaria since 1924, it switched to bottom-fermented beer in 1925, and since 2018 the company has been called Swinkels Family Brewers. Dommelsch in Dommelen, founded in 1744, was acquired in 1968 by Artois, a forerunner of today's AB InBev group.