Brouwerij De Dolle Brouwers

A brewery building from 1835 in Esen

De Dolle Brouwers is in Esen, a village near Diksmuide in West Flanders. The history of the brewery building goes back to 1835, but the current brewery started in 1980. That year, owner and brewer Kris Herteleer and his brother Jo restored the brewing space and set up De Dolle Brouwers as a producer of non-industrial specialty beers. The first beer was Oerbier, which is still the flagship.

Herteleer is also an artist, graphic designer and architect. He designed the brewery's artwork and labels, plus portraits of local people that decorate the walls at the entrance. His Oerbier Man, a caricature of a budding yeast cell, has become the symbol of the brewery. The slogan is Nat en Straf. Straf means strong, but also daring.

When De Dolle started in 1980, Interbrew had taken over many small Belgian breweries, and a lot of oversweet fruit beers and sugared blondes were coming onto the market. Pils from Germany and the Czech Republic also put Belgian breweries under pressure. Herteleer was one of the first to breathe new life into a small craft brewery. Other craft and family breweries followed.

Strong beers with their own approach

Herteleer is regarded as a pioneer of hoppier beers, of using multiple malts and of ageing on wine barrels instead of spirit barrels. The brewing installation looks a bit thrown together, but consists of an antique mash tun, a brew kettle insulated all around, a coolship and an old but efficient bottling line.

Oerbier is dark, strong (9.0%) and malty, brewed with seven malts and with a wild character from souring bacteria and wild yeast. Stille Nacht is a strong (12%) blond winter beer that has been voted best Christmas beer in Belgium eight times at the Christmas beer festival (Kerstbierfestival) in Essen. Arabier is a hoppy amber ale of 60 IBU. Dulle Teve is a tripel of 10%, and Extra Export Stout is a strong (9.0%) stout with wild yeasts and bacteria. The brewery also makes Boskeun, an Easter beer, XL Pale Ale and Oeral, a hoppy Belgian pale ale, among others.

De Dolle Brouwers at Hoptimaal

So far we have had Lichtervelds Blond from De Dolle Brouwers, a strong blond beer in 33 cl. It is highly rated on Untappd and is currently the beer we have in stock from them.

Serve a strong blond like this cool, but not ice cold, so the aromas come through properly. Take your time with it: the beer gains when you let it warm up slowly in the glass.