125 years of history

Before Haacht Brewery even existed, a small dairy company called ‘Melkerij van Haecht’ was located on the site where Haacht Brewery is currently situated.

On June 14, 1898 Eugène De Ro brewed his first top fermentation beer. Four years later he also started brewing bottom fermentation beer.

His beers were such a hit that ‘Haecht’s Dairy Company and Brewery’ became one of the best Belgian breweries in 1913.

In the twenties, the beer kegs were transported by rail. The ‘beer tram’ literally passed through the grounds of the brewery and transported the kegs to Schaarbeek. Here, they were loaded onto carts to deliver the beer to beer merchants and cafes in Brussels.

The first bottling plant was established in 1950, initiated by Eugène De Ro. A year later, his son-in-law Alfred van der Kelen became CEO of the brewery. In the years that followed, there were numerous small takeovers and the Haacht Brewery beers were being distributed across the entire country.

Alfred van der Kelen died unexpectedly in 1968. His son Fréderic took over and started drastically expanding the company’s property portfolio. Thanks to the take-overs of breweries in the south of the Netherlands and northern France, Haacht Brewery set foot ashore in neighboring countries.

In 1990, Haacht Brewery started the complete modernisation of its production apparatus.

Today, Haacht Brewery is a state-of-the-art brewery, inspired by its history and at the same time more than ready for the future.