Inside the Royal Swinkels brewery

We take a tour and get the lowdown on their best products

The Master Brewer

Ask Master Brewer Emiel Hendrikx why he loves his job and there’s no hesitation: “It’s passion, art, creativity, science and experience coming together in a glass”

He started at Swinkels 24 years ago as a food science graduate student before earning a brewing and distilling degree from Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh – and is now almost part of the family.

It’s a large family, too. An eighth-generation member of the Swinkels is just about to continue the quest for great beer that’s been happening near Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands since 1680.

He or she will learn the basics and the values at the heart of the firm’s four Dutch and three Belgian breweries – along with sustainability, quality, innovation and growing a people-first culture – that make the product near to perfection in a glass.

Emiel loves the painstaking effort that goes into creating the perfect beer. “It’s hard work always striving for more but I’m the luckiest man in the world. I love my job and work as part of a fantastic team who all want perfection. “The downside of that is that after every beer we taste we’re always thinking, ‘How could we do it better next time?’”

Emiel has been at the forefront of Swinkels’ Research and Development for a decade. He is regarded as one of the best tasters, driven by the family’s desire for everyone from its brewers to warehouse crew to “be curious”.

That curiosity and innovation are critical in the constant quest for quality, underlined by seventh-generation Chief New Business Development Officer Stijn Swinkels.

“We are a large independent business, but we remain a small family operation in the way we collaborate and grow partnerships to create good beers. I lived in England for four years when I was at university, so it would make me proud to have our brand in lots of bars there.”

- Emiel Hendrikx, Master Brewer

The tour

The first thing visitors notice at Royal Swinkels’ Lieshout brewery is the people. Or lack of them… thanks to technology

The ones they do see are usually smiling as they program the technology that re-labels, cleans, sorts, fills and packages bottles and cans along the various stages of the 60-acre site in a blur of technology.

Although the skilled artisan element of brewing dominates the start of each Swinkels beer’s life, the systems used to get it ready for customers are cutting-edge.

Let’s take a look…

Innovation

A 0.0% brewing installation for alcohol-free and low-alcohol beer takes pride of place in a corner of the brewery. The Fenix project enables Swinkels to brew a new alcohol-free Bavaria beer that foams, smells and tastes like an alcoholic pilsner.

It uses a unique and secret alcohol recipe followed by thermal de-alcoholisation that removes it at a very low temperature, keeping the characteristic pilsner aroma and taste.

The malthouse

Opened in 1939 and arguably the most critical element of the brewery, it has grown a reputation for sourcing and using only the best continental malts and barley, mainly from Northern France. Pure mineral water, pumped 200 metres up from one of the 20 water wells on site, combined with barley malts, yeast cultivated exclusively for the Swinkels family and carefully chosen hop varieties, all feed into the firm’s hallmark beers.

Emiel says: “The recipe for the perfect beer starts with only the highest quality of water, malt, hops and yeast… with science, craftsmanship and passion also required.”

Pilot brewery

Emiel and the team constantly monitor trends to find inspiration from other sources. They use their pilot brewery to experiment with small 100-litre batches to try new ideas and look for that “rough diamond” that could create that elusive perfection in every drop.

The small-scale brewhouse allows for fermentation and maturation of a healthy fresh green beer. Emiel says: “This is the moment when we finesse the brew so it gets its identity,
and we can see if it’s going to be something or not.”

Sensory area

Once the small batches are produced on a larger scale, they face their sternest test. The purpose-built sensory room (above) is where the brew’s taste, appearance, bitterness and colour are tested by the eyes and palates of trained panellists. They mark its profile in five strict areas – anything below 75% isn’t getting anywhere near your bar.

Sustainability

Generations of Swinkels have passed the baton to future generations by looking after their local communities and the planet. They’re aiming to have net zero operations by 2050.

From the agricultural raw materials and packaging they use to water consumption, cutting waste and exploring renewable energy, every aspect of the operation has the circular economy at its heart.

Spent grains from the process go to animal feed and to make plant-based milk, while waste water is pumped back into a nearby canal to improve its quality with any excess used to irrigate neighbouring farmers’ fields.

Returns

Empty returnable bottles – bars in the Benelux area are incentivised to return them – are washed in soaking baths and their labels removed before being cleaned and flushed with fresh water.

Up to 60,000 bottles an hour undergo camera inspection, with any damaged ones instantly removed. Kegs that pass the same stringent checks are moved by a pre-programmed robot onto an upward washing jet capable of sluicing 320 an hour.

Laser-guided

A fleet of 32 laser-guided trucks (automated guided vehicles) brings the empty crates to the line and take full cases from it to the warehouse. When batteries run low, they return to their charging stations.

Six automated canning lines check, wash and prepare more than half a million cans every hour, and any with imperfections or not cleaned to their original state are removed and recycled.

Pressuriser

From there, the empties are filled and their ends closed before going to a pressuriser capable of testing 90,000 an hour – the slightest leak means the end for a punctured can.

A state-of-the-art pallet storage stretch hood machine then prepares bespoke combinations of on- or off-trade packs in seconds, ready for warehouse and despatch.

Lieshout is unique in having its own malthouse, the tenth largest in the world with 60 employees. It has more than 1,000 customers in 50 countries who love the quality of its 405,000 metric tonnes of malt produced every year

The recipe for perfect beer starts with the highest quality of water, malt, hops and yeast… with science, craftsmanship and passion also required.

The beers

3.4 Bavaria Lager – kegs for on-trade and 440ml cans for off-trade

A dry and crisp, all-malt lager brewed using special yeast from Bavaria. Crystal clear and light golden, it’s smooth with a hoppy bitterness and super refreshing taste that suggests
a higher ABV.

Emiel says: “This is a very versatile and balanced beer perfect for late afternoons with snacks, pizza, burgers or salads. It’s not overwhelming and has a lovely foam that sits on the glass.”

5% Bavaria Premium Pilsner – kegs for on-trade exclusive

More complex, more flavour and a little more bitter, this is a sophisticated drink with citrus, flower and spicy notes made using classic Noble German hops harvested every year in September.

Emiel says: “The Pilsner is a more outspoken but perfectly balanced beer best paired with pasta, sausages and cheeses. It has a very pure taste with bite and a distinctive smell unique to our brewery.”

3.9 Fruitage (Rodenbach Brewery) – kegs, bottles and cans

As spring slides into summer, this top fermenting sour, made slightly sweeter with juices to create Rodenbach’s signature cherry taste and intense colour, occupies the middle ground before cider. Perfect with ice cubes and a slice of lemon, it’s popular with all, but especially women aged 18 to 35.

Emiel says: “It’s a refreshing beer on its own as the sun sets or with ice cream, cheeses… in fact, any dessert.”

5.5% New England Juicy Lucy IPA (Uiltje Brewing Co) – kegs, bottles and cans

Hops, subtle sweetness and rounded but not bitter, Swinkels’ US-inspired sister brewer uses different grains to soften the profile to allow the hops to come through clearly in a tropical, citrus explosion.

Emiel says: “This is a cool beer that just loves to cut through spicy food – from Thai, nduja sausages and curry, to the anchovies and garlic of Italian cuisine. It’s feisty on its own, too.”

The Swinkels timeline

1680

The first records of a
brewery on the current site
in Lieshout were followed in 1719 by the first mention of the Swinkels family

1924

Brothers Frans, Piet and Jan Swinkels launch a new brewery under the Gebroeders Swinkels name and introduce a new low fermentation brewing method for brewing pilsner

1935

A new brewhouse still operational today is launched. Four years later, it’s followed by a malthouse in Lieshout for greater control over the quality of the important raw material