Duvel Moortgat Brewery
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Duvel Moortgat Brewery (Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat) is a Flemish family-owned brewery founded in 1871. Its strong golden pale ale, Duvel, is the company's best known product which is exported to more than 40 countries. Duvel (pronounced IPA: [ˈdʏːvəl]) is Brabantian for devil (the standard Dutch word however being duivel).
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[edit] History
| Duvel Moortgat Brewery | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Location | Breendonk, Belgium |
| Year opened | 1871 |
| Annual production | 270,000 hl (2001) |
Duvel was founded in 1871 by Jan-Leonard Moortgat, who was descended from a family of brewers that lived in Steenhuffel, Belgium.[1]
In the 1950s, the third generation of Moortgats took control of the brewery.
In the early 1970s, when the company was struggling financially, Moortgat bottled and distributed the Danish beer, Tuborg. This arrangement resulted in a continuous traffic of the large Danish trucks (carrying the beer in bulk) through the small town of Breendonk. A major disagreement between the two companies ended this arrangement in the early 1980s, but it did save the brewery who, by then, had managed to also set up massive distribution channels for their flagship beer, Duvel.
In June 1999, Duvel Moortgat NV went public on Euronext Brussels.
Duvel Moortgat was an original investor in the Brewery Ommegang craft brewery founded in Cooperstown, NY, in the late 1990s. More recently, the Belgian company took over complete control of the brewery and founded a stateside sales organization Duvel USA to handle both Ommegang and Duvel Moortgat brands and others (including Rodenbach).
In September 2006 Duvel Moortgat bought fellow Belgian brewery Brasserie d'Achouffe.[2]
[edit] Products
[edit] Duvel
To commemorate the end of the First World War, the Moortgats named their main beer Victory Ale. But during the 1920s, an avid drinker described the beer as "nen echten duvel" (a real devil) - perhaps in reference to its formidable alcohol content (8.5% ABV) - and the name of the beer was changed to Duvel. It has become the brewery's flagship beer.[3] Considered by many the definitive version of the Belgian Strong Golden Ale style, Duvel is brewed with Pilsner malt and white sugar, and hopped with Saaz and Styrian Goldings.
[edit] Maredsous
In 1963, Moortgat began brewing its Maredsous line of abbey beers, under license of the monks of Maredsous Abbey.
There are currently three beers offered under the Maredsous name
- Maredsous 6 Blonde
- Maredsous 8 Bruin
- Maredsous 10 Tripel
[edit] Other brands
In 1930, the brewery launched Bel Pils.
The Vedett, a pilsener, was created in 1945 by Albert Moortgat, Jan's son. Since 2003, Vedett has been relaunched as a trendy luxury lager, aimed at young customers in upscale urban bars. Vedett currently has a marketing scheme that gives customers the chance to have photos of themselves placed on the labels of bottles. These bottles are then sold commercially, so one never knows when one might run into oneself in a bar.
In 1989, a new wheat beer was launched in collaboration with Palm Breweries called Steendonck.
In 2000, a new beer (Passendale) was born as a result of the association between Moortgat and cheese factory Campina (which produces Passendale cheese). This product has since been discontinued.
In 2007, a special version of the regular Duvel, which typically uses 2 hop varieties, was released. This limited-edition product added American hops of the Amarillo variety, boosted the alcohol content to 9.5% ABV and is called Duvel Tripel Hop.
