Brewery De Leeuw

The text below comes from:
Cycling past breweries (publisher Elmar)

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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 show that was aired a few years ago. I am a lion because I was born on August 6. You could compare my long, curly hair to the wild manes of a lion.

I think of the song as I cycle through the beautiful Limburg countryside. The brewery has a dream location in the Geuldal, by the banks of the Geul, surrounded by green meadows and hills. Nearby is a waterwheel from 1886, which is listed as a monument, and the rocks with inscriptions are definitely worth a visit. Valkenburg is touristy, but the restaurant located in a church is also quite special.

Who can tame the Lion beer? That's easy, I think. The brewery has a range of beers which, compared to the other beers, do not have such a high alcohol percentage like the pilsner (5 percent), the Valkenburgs Wit (4.5 percent), and the Oud Bruin (3.5 percent). Additionally, a bock beer is brewed. At the base of these beers is pure natural water from a Limburg spring, about 100 meters below the brewery. A sign at the entrance indicates this. The beer is not pasteurized and is given the opportunity to mature. The hops for De Leeuw are sourced from Germany and the Czech Republic, among others. The brewery describes the beer as a sum of all the riches that nature provides.

A bit of history, also available 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 Plenkertstraat and started a branch of the Dittman - Sauerland Actiën Brauerei here. In 1922, the brewery came into Dutch hands. Now, the production is around 90,000 hectoliters per year.

Information:
It is not possible to visit the brewery.

Brewery De Leeuw
Prinses Beatrixsingel 2, Valkenburg

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