A
first
class
beer
deserves
first
class
treatment
enough. However, the process used in
Pilsen was not entirely new. Around the
year 1400, brewers in Bavaria had al
ready experimented with beer in which
the yeast remained at the bottom. They
stored their beer in cool caverns.
Just like their Bavarian predeces
sors, the brewers of Pilsen produced a
beer which, thanks to the 'bottom fer
mentation', was remarkably clear and
would also keep in good condition for
much longer than the customary top-
fermented beer. In addition, the soft
water of Pilsen made the beer taste
extra good. Very soon 'Pilsener' beer
conquered the whole of Europe. Numer
ous brewers changed over to it and vied
with one another to make the brightest
possible Pilsener. Beer had now also be
come attractive to the eye. It was there
fore drunk less and less from mugs, and
increasingly from glasses.
Superior yeast
By the time Mr. Gerard Adriaan
Heineken bought the almost 300-year-
old brewery De Hooijberg ('The Hays
tack') in 1863, beer of the Pilsener type
had been brewed for several years in
the Netherlands. In the beginning, how
ever, Heineken saw more in the tradi
tional top-fermented beer. In 1886 he de
cided to change over to Pilsener after
all. In that year the French doctor Elion,
a pupil of Louis Pasteur, developed a
superior strain of yeast for Heineken:
the Heineken 'A yeast. It is partly this
unique yeast which gives Heineken beer
its own characteristic flavour, and has
done so now for more than one hundred
years!
The ideal Pilsener had been born.
In principle, Heineken beer has re
mained the same ever since that mo
ment. The same recipe, the same yeast,
the same brewing process and, above
all: the same taste. What has changed
is the equipment used to brew the beer.
Always the same taste
The art of brewing is to produce the
same beer always. In earlier days the
brewer had to wait each time to see if
he would succeed in that. He did not
know exactly what went on during the
brewing process. Nor did he always
have the same quality of raw materials.
A beer that tastes slightly different each
time may be regarded as a charming
feature of some small cottage-industry
product, but by far the majority of beer
connoisseurs prefer an unchanging,
familiar taste. Science and technology
have given today's brewers the instru
ments to brew beer that meets that wish.
Mechanisation has done away with
much of the brewer's heavy physical
work. Cooling systems enable the tem
perature to be controlled. And the com
puter has taken over an important role
as a control instrument. The risk of any
thing going wrong is virtually pre
cluded. Incidentally, it is still not fully
known what takes place during the brew
ing process. But we do know enough
to achieve our aim, constantly the same
taste.
Obviously, this requires raw mate
rials of constant quality. Unfortunately,
not every harvest is the same, but by
spreading its purchases of raw mate
rials such as barley and hops Heineken
is able to compose the ideal blend from
different batches. Unlike wine, beer
does not have 'good' or 'bad' years. At
most, what you could say about Heine
ken is that it has been a very good 'beer
century'...
Brewing will always remain work
for humans. Despite all technology, the
master brewer's eyes, nose and tongue
are the decisive factors. Analysis in the
laboratory may indicate exactly what
aroma and flavour components the beer
contains, but only human beings can
judge whether those components to
gether form the familiar Heineken taste.
That is why Heineken's expert tasters
are put to work each day. There are also
tasting panels drawn from the general
public. For it is a matter of making sure
that Heineken tastes exactly the way
the customer wants it to taste.
THE WORLD OF HEINEKETV
