1
G E R R I T J E
"The First Beer Tanker
in the World"
SKI
THE Heineken's Brewery in Holland
has earned another "first" in the
history of the brewing industry and the
world with the launching of a 100-
foot tanker weighing approximately 200
tons, with a draught of six feet. Its total
capacity includes four tanks, each to con
tain 300 hectolitres, or a total loading
capacity of 30,000 gallons of beer.
The necessity for the creation of this
world-innovation was the fast expansion
of Heineken's sales throughout the
world which called for drastic action to
assure the necessary supplies to fill these
increased demands.
One of the reasons for the fine quality
of Heineken's is the fact that, after
brewing is completed, the beer is lagered
which means matured in huge
storage tanks for a period of not less than
three months. To do this one-quarter of
the annual production must always be
stored in the brewery. This requires a
great deal of space and, because of con
stantly increasing sales, additional stor
age facilities became necessary. Since it
was impossible to build additional stor
age room on the existing premises of the
Export Brewery in Rotterdam, it was de
cided last year that a new brewery would
be built in Hertogenbosch, the main city
in one of Holland's southern provinces.
To expedite the completion of such
a large undertaking and because of
lack of storage space in Rotterdam
it was determined to first complete stor
age facilities at the new brewery, as
well as bottling plant. By doing so, the
larger brewing facilities in Rotterdam
could be utilized and as soon as young
beer was ready for storage it would be
transported to the new brewery where
it would mature and be bottled. This
procedure would help to satisfy the in
creased consumption of beer, particularly
in the Southeast part of Elolland. By
being able to serve Heineken's from this
new plant, many complications under
which the Export Brewery of Rot
terdam has been operating would be
eased,
The technical management hit upon
the unusual plan of providing transporta
tion of the beer by tanker using the
famous Dutch canals and rivers in its
fifty mile journey from Rotterdam to
Hertogenbosch. In their usual thorough
ness, the Heineken management agreed
to this unorthodox method of transpor
tation and this very unusual ship was
built. The hull of "Gerritje" is steel and
the engine, located near the stern, will
give the vessel a cruising speed of 12
miles per hour when fully loaded. Such
a full load could be expressed as slightly
less than 800,000 glasses of beer.
The four stainless steel tanks are com
pletely isolated and air-conditioned, as
suring a constant proper temperature
during the voyage. Two electrically driven
pumps load and unload the beer, each
having a capacity of 300 hectolitres per
hour; which means it will take a ship,
roughly four hours to load or unload.
Final work will be com
pleted on this new tanker,
coinciding with the com
pletion of the larger facil
ities at Hertogenbosch,
during the later part of
1956 in order that the first
batch of beer stored there
will have fully matured by
Spring, 1957. The brewery
hopes these expanded facil
ities will enable them to
cope with the ever-grow
ing demand for Heineken's
Holland Beer though it
is not unlikely that this de
mand will continue to
grow throughout the world.
Mrs, Jas, Gombert9 wife of the Technical
Assistant Directorperforms a traditional
part of the launching ceremony by cutting
the last strings.
The launching of Gerritje99 takes place. She was chris
tenedquite appropriately9 with three gallons of Heine-
ken's Beer,
btmitjg
W0ÊÊM
III
The 66Gerritje" anchored after the ceremonyawaiting completing work. The
name of the tanker was derived from the title of a famous Dutch folksong
associated with Hertogenbosckthe site of the new Heineken's Brewery,
