A pupil of Louis Pasteur gave Heineken the yeast it still brews with
In 1886 a chemist trained under Louis Pasteur isolated a yeast strain in the Heineken laboratory in Amsterdam. Known as the A-yeast, it remains central to the lager today. The brewery that began as a single haystack-named business now ranks as the second-largest brewer on the planet.
Gerard Adriaan Heineken was just 22 when he bought an Amsterdam brewery called De Hooiberg, the haystack, in 1864. Within five years he had hired a seasoned Bavarian brewer, Wilhelm Feltmann, and switched to bottom-fermenting yeast, the method behind lager. A second brewery opened in Rotterdam in 1874, and in 1886 Dr. H. Elion developed the house yeast that gave the beer a consistent character.
The founder's son, Henry Pierre Heineken, ran the company from 1917 to 1940 and worked out how to keep quality steady at large volumes. Exports grew after the First World War, and the first shipment reached New York just three days after American Prohibition ended, starting a long run as one of the most popular imports in the United States. By 1941, when grandson Freddy Heineken joined, the family no longer owned the firm; he bought shares back to restore control and became chairman of the executive board in 1971.
Expansion came largely through acquisitions. Heineken merged with its biggest Dutch rival, Amstel, in 1968 and opened a large brewery at Zoeterwoude in 1975. Buying part of Scottish and Newcastle in 2007 and 2008 brought ciders such as Strongbow and beers such as Newcastle Brown Ale. In January 2010 it acquired the brewing arm of Mexico's FEMSA in a share deal, gaining Dos Equis, Sol and Tecate. After the merger of Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller in October 2016, Heineken moved up to second place worldwide.
By 2019 it owned more than 165 breweries in over 70 countries and brewed 24.14 billion litres a year. The original Amsterdam brewery closed in 1988 and now operates as a museum, the Heineken Experience.
Source: Heineken N.V.
