How the Dutch concept of 'gezellig' is at the heart of 150 years of Heineken history
For the 150th anniversary of the founding of Heineken, Euronews take a tour of the brewery in Amsterdam to get to the bottom of their famous green beer bottles.
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00:00 I'm on a boat in Amsterdam.
00:11 The sun is shining.
00:13 I'm Johnny for Euronews Culture.
00:14 We're going to be on a tour of Amsterdam, seeing the Heineken breweries for their 150th
00:19 anniversary.
00:20 We might even get a pour a few and maybe drink some.
00:23 Very nice.
00:25 It all begins with Gerard Adriaan Heineken, an ambitious Dutch entrepreneur.
00:30 In 1864, when he was in his twenties, he purchased the Heestak brewery.
00:35 With the help of some additional funds from his mother, he then created the Heineken brand
00:40 in 1873 with a new brewery on the city's outskirts.
00:44 Well, he started off saying, I want to have a really good quality beer, because at the
00:48 time he found that the quality of beers around Amsterdam and around the Netherlands was not
00:54 good enough.
00:55 And he had traveled, so he knew what was possible.
00:58 Just two years after it was established, the beer won the Medaille d'Or at the International
01:02 Exhibition in the Paris Palais d'Industrie.
01:05 This earlier claim for the beer was so important to Gerard Adriaan that the medal's two faces
01:10 are still emblazoned on Heineken bottles to this day.
01:15 In 1917, Gerard's successor, Henri Pierre Heineken, took over the business and oversaw
01:20 its growth and scale.
01:22 While Gerard Adriaan was happy for the flavor of the beer to speak for itself, Henri Pierre
01:26 first entered the foray of marketing the brand, a move that would define its future.
01:31 In 1928, as the Olympics first came to Amsterdam, Henri Pierre thought of a PR stunt.
01:38 He hired a group of retired First World War pilots to write Heineken in the air above
01:42 the stadium.
01:44 Just five years later, in 1933, anticipating the boon to European brewers, Henri Pierre
01:49 made sure that the first boat delivering beer to the US post-prohibition was one packed
01:54 with Heineken beer.
01:56 When Henri Pierre's son, Freddy Heineken, took over in 1940, his entire focus was on
02:01 building the brand of the now global beer.
02:05 One clever adjustment he implemented was the subtle softening of the font, accompanied
02:09 by transforming the 'e's' in the brand name into friendly, inviting smiles.
02:14 This small but significant change symbolized Freddy's aim to sell the Dutch notion of
02:18 'gezelligheid', capturing the essence of coziness and enjoyment.
02:23 Even today, this concept remains at the core of Heineken's marketing.
02:32 Olaf Schleykhaus is Heineken's digital asset curator, that essentially makes him a Heineken
02:37 historian, and he took us on a fascinating journey through time, unveiling their extensive
02:42 collection of artifacts and memorabilia.
02:44 I'll just show you a few of the things that we have.
02:48 So of course being a beer brewer and a historical department, we collect bottles.
02:52 I mean, it's obvious.
02:54 So this is a range of bottles with different brands because Heineken is not only Heineken,
02:59 it's also, as you can see, Amstel.
03:02 Very intrigued by these ones with numbers on them, with dates.
03:05 It's a special edition from Heineken in these years.
03:11 Special beer also, to celebrate the end of the year.
03:15 And it was there for a few years, so you could collect them or buy them.
03:20 Indeed for us as archivists or historians, I mean, if you know these stories behind the
03:26 objects and you can tell people them, and when they go away and they will drink Heineken
03:30 the next time, they will look at the bottle and say, "Hey, oh, now I know the story about
03:34 this medal."
03:35 It's really about storytelling to make people appreciate.
03:38 At the very least, what you've given me is an ability to show off in the pub.
03:43 Exactly.
03:44 All right, enough with the history lesson.
03:47 Now onto brewing.
03:48 It just takes four ingredients to make Heineken.
03:51 We've got the star of the show, a yeast, a unique strain of yeast, which is combined
03:55 with barley, hops and water.
03:57 To unlock the secrets of savoring a perfect pint of Heineken, we had the opportunity to
04:01 meet with none other than Willem van Weesbergen, one of Heineken's esteemed master brewers.
04:07 So now we're going to try a silver beer and we're going to do the perfect pour of that
04:11 again.
04:12 So what's the difference between Heineken and Heineken Silver?
04:15 Heineken Silver is a smoother beer, a smooth lager.
04:18 Okay, let's see if we can get the pour down first.
04:21 I'm going to let Willem show me how.
04:24 Give it a little wash first.
04:36 I think I've gone a little bit over on the foam.
04:47 This is what the skimmer is for.
04:52 But we thought it lost it in the first half, but we got it back.
05:04 As much as I would have loved to spend the entire day sipping Heineken and bonding with
05:08 my newfound companion, it was time to venture further into the depths of the brewery.
05:12 The next stop on our tour was the awe-inspiring historical brew room.
05:17 Every corner oozed with history, transporting me back to a bygone era.
05:21 Transitioning from the past to the future, we entered the interactive section of the
05:24 tour called Brew Your Ride.
05:28 The grand finale of the tour showcased Heineken's advertising endeavors, encompassing their
05:32 prestigious sponsorships such as Formula One and the Champions League.
05:36 Yet, as it comes to the 150th anniversary of potentially the world's most recognizable
05:42 beer brand, everyone's focus is far from the history or advertising.
05:47 It's on gezelligheid.
05:48 We're really proud of our history.
05:49 We have a beautiful history, and we could tell all the great stories about our history,
05:55 all about our quality credentials.
05:57 But what we really care about and what consumers really care about is having a good time.
06:02 It's about bringing people together, and it's about genuine connections when people are
06:06 together that create the good times.
06:09 Later, after leaving the Heineken experience, we take a canal ride through Amsterdam and
06:14 order a couple of beers, Heineken's naturally.
06:16 Suddenly, Westin Brink's air of quiet marketing confidence makes sense.
06:21 Why bore people with the details?
06:23 A cold beer on a sunny day really is all you need.
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