Brewery De Leeuw

The text below is from:
Cycling past breweries (Elmar Publishers)

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Cycling past breweries
Rutger van den Hoofdakker


The lion. Who can tame him? Who bites back at the lion? So goes the opening song of the Scream of the Lion by Paul de Leeuw, a program that was broadcast a few years ago. I am a lion, because I was born on the 6th of August. You could compare my long, curly hair to the wild mane of a lion.

I think of the song when I cycle through the beautiful Limburg countryside. The brewery has a dream location in the Geul valley, on the banks of the Geul, surrounded by green meadows and hills. Nearby there is a water wheel from 1886, which is a listed building, and the rocks with inscriptions are also worth seeing. Valkenburg is touristy, but the restaurant, which is located in a church, is also special.

Who can tame the Lion Beer? That's easy, I guess. The brewery has a range with many beers that do not have such a high alcohol percentage compared to the other beers, such as the pilsner (5 percent), the Valkenburgs Wit (4.5 percent) and the Oud Bruin (3.5 percent). In addition, a bock beer is also brewed. These beers are based on naturally pure water from a Limburg spring, about 100 meters below the brewery. A sign at the entrance already indicates it. The beer is not pasteurized and is given the chance to mature. De Leeuw sources the hops from Germany and the Czech Republic, among other places. The brewery itself calls the beer the sum of all the riches that nature offers.

Another piece of history, which can also be read on the website. In 1886 Wilhelm Dittman came from Aachen to Valkenburg to find a good location for the Aachener Export Brauerei. He bought the former gunpowder factory on the Plenkertstraat and started a branch of the Dittman & Sauerland Actiën Brauerei. In 1922 the brewery passed into Dutch hands. Today, production is around 90,000 hectolitres per year.

Information:
It is not possible to visit the brewery.

Brewery De Leeuw
Prinses Beatrixsingel 2, Valkenburg

JanneG