The Heineken Experience

The Travel Pages visits the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam and tells the story of the history behind Heineken.

The Heineken History

Although Heineken hasn’t been made in Amsterdam since 1988, when the city brewery was closed and later turned into the Heineken Experience, Amsterdammers still drink an incredible 80,000 bottles of Heineken every hour.

The name of Heineken has been linked with Amsterdam since 1863, when a 22-year-old Dutch businessman named Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought the brewery that overlooks the Singelgracht canal, just along from the Rijksmuseum.

There had been a brewery on this site since as long ago as 1592, but until Heineken came along and turned it into his family business (which it remains to this day), it had been known as De Hooiberg Brewery (‘The Haystack’). With the arrival of Heineken, though, Dutch beer began to build up a huge export business.

Even now, in many European countries, if you ask for a beer the two main choices will be Heineken and Amstel, both Dutch brews. It’s an impressive feat, when brewing has always been more traditionally linked with Germany, Belgium and Britain.

The Success of Heineken

It was the success of Heineken which ironically led to it having to close the brewery in 1988. Production had expanded so much that it was increasingly difficult to get large delivery lorries through the narrow streets. The old shire horses delivering beer locally may look picturesque, but they can’t quite manage to keep up with 80,000 bottles an hour!

Within five years of Heineken buying ‘The Haystack’, several other new breweries had opened in the city. Heineken tried to stay ahead of the competition by buying bars and hotels, so making sure they had guaranteed outlets for their own brew.

Heineken in Rotterdam

By 1874 Heineken had built another state-of-the-art brewery, this time in Rotterdam. An insistence on quality rather than price, and a belief that word-of-mouth for a good beer was better than any advertising, led to a reputation for a consistently good brew. Soon Heineken was the biggest exporter of beer to Paris, which was developing rapidly as the most important city in Europe at the end of the 19th century.

Heineken Facts and Figures

Heineken beer has won many international prizes over the years, and by 1989 it had become the second largest brewer in the world, the largest in Europe and the biggest exporter of beer to the United States.

Opening the Heineken Experience

In 2001, the Heineken Experience was opened in the former brewery, and gave the family not only the most popular drink in the city but also one of its most visited attractions. That had to be worth a drink!

The Heineken Experience

The Heineken Experience has one thing in common with such contrasting attractions as the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum, apart from all being in Amsterdam. You have to get there early. Last admission is two hours before closing. If you arrive at opening time you might find that the first few tours have already sold out online. It’s the most popular tourist attraction in Amsterdam, receiving way more visitors a year than the next biggest, the Rijksmuseum.

When to Visit the Heineken Experience

Queues start forming before it opens, and as you have to join one of the tours, and there are a limited number of tours per day, each taking a limited number of people, if you don’t get there early you can face a very long wait indeed, and maybe even miss out completely. Better to book in advance on the Heineken Experience website. There are several tours to choose from.

This is no longer a working brewery, though it is where Heineken was made from 1864 until 1988. Now it’s given over to promotion and tourism, but it’s a great tour, if you can get in.

Allow a couple of hours, depending how long you want to spend sampling the product at the end – and you do get three free samples on the way, as you learn in a fun way how the brewing process works, watch old TV ads, discover what it’s like to be a bottle of Heineken, and meet the company’s shire horses. It’s all very professionally done and the admission charge even goes to charity.

The Heineken VIP Experience

We were lucky and got to do the Heineken VIP Experience tour, so take a read of that to get an idea of what to expect. A lot of things on the VIP Experience Tour are also on other tours, but of course with several extra special experiences.