Heineken Beer

Origin: Netherlands · Brewer: Heineken N.V. · ABV 5.0%

If any beer can claim to be truly global, it is Heineken. The green bottle and red star are sold in more than 190 countries, brewed at over 165 breweries on every inhabited continent, and they trace their lineage back to a single brewery in Amsterdam founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken.

The A-yeast story

What sets Heineken apart from other international lagers is its yeast. In 1886, master brewer Dr. H. Elion - working in Heineken's pioneering in-house laboratory - isolated a single yeast strain christened "Heineken A-yeast". That same strain is still used in every Heineken brewery in the world; the company air-ships fresh cultures from its central lab in the Netherlands to maintain consistency.

Recipe and taste

Heineken is a 5.0 percent ABV pale lager. The recipe is deliberately simple: malted barley, hops, water, and the A-yeast. Hops are mainly Magnum for bitterness with a small charge of Saaz-style varieties for aroma. The result is a clean, lightly malty beer with a slightly fruity yeast character and a recognisable bitter finish at around 23 IBU. The beer is matured for around 28 days - longer than most adjunct lagers.

How big is Heineken?

Heineken N.V. is the second-largest brewing group on the planet (after AB InBev) and the flagship Heineken Lager brand is consistently in the global top five by volume. Particularly strong markets include Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Nigeria, France, the Netherlands and the United States. The company also owns Amstel, Sol, Tiger, Birra Moretti, Cruzcampo and a long list of regional champions.

Heineken 0.0

One of the brand's biggest growth stories of the last decade is Heineken 0.0, an alcohol-free version launched in 2017 that has rolled out to more than 110 countries and now leads the no-alcohol lager category in many of them.

Sources: Heineken N.V. annual reports; corporate brand information; widely reported industry data.