Where Willem-Alexander pulled on a green rope on Wednesday afternoon with a white brush around Dr. HP Heineken Center to open, was his grandfather fifty years ago. Prince Bernhard was then – a little further – present at the opening of the current Heinekenfabriek in Zoeterwoude.
At the time it was all about the ‘authentic lager’, the research lab renewed for € 45 million is mainly about the variant without alcohol.
0.0 beer
That has everything to do with the eclatant success of 0.0 beer, which has a growth of 10% per year. This drink is made by cooking the alcohol from the lager, copying the beer flavor that disappeared in that process and afterwards to add it again.
The Global Research & Development Center is a research center where product development takes place of new and existing beer brands. © ANP / HH
That brought Heineken to the idea of adding all kinds of other flavors that the consumer likes to add. And they try that out in the laboratory in Zoeterwoude. If they think it’s nice, the consumer can taste.
Guinea pigs
Consumers in the American massus sets are currently guinea pigs for Heineken 0.0 Ultimate: not only alcohol but also sugar-free. “This way you can participate in the company without making concessions to a healthy lifestyle,” said the original Nigerian beer inventor Ikechuwu ofudu for a tour for journalists earlier this week. He drew for the drink, which tastes a bit like beer from a bottle open yesterday, but with a lot of puncture.
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Jules is being tested in Italy, ‘A beer inspired by the cocktail’ with citrus and juniper. The French consumer is allowed Foam Infusions try out, Colored fruity foam to add to your 0.0. Although they have long been used to Zywiec 0.0 with strawberry flavor in Poland and is available in the Netherlands, with the aroma of red fruit.
‘Prince Pils’
In the raw material lab the king was given an explanation about microbiology, barley and yeast. His preference for the pleasures of Leiden student life earned him the nickname ‘Prince Pils’, in the research center it turned out that the Gerstenat is still interested.
Willem-Alexander wanted to know everything about the origin of the grain that Heineken uses and the process in which grain is converted into malt.
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The king did not have time to ask all his questions to the scientists, because the company was led by the laboratory according to a tight schedule. In the king of the king, CEO Dolf van den Brink and heirs Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken ran. The Oranges are good acquaintances of the brewing family: the late Alfred Heineken was for the little Willem-Alexander ‘Uncle Freddy’.
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Magic with flavors may seem simple, but it is not, said Eric Brouwer (his real name!) Earlier this week. This super taster was trained at the prestigious French taste academy isipca. In its new laboratory, machines analyze the molecular composition of Heinekens brews. A little further on there is a device that sprays the scents that belong to those individual molecules in the nose of specialists. They then carefully write down what they smell.
Master brewer
According to master brewer Willem van Waesberghe, artificial intelligence in these processes can mean little. “People have millions of taste buds in their mouths and a taste gives them one picture. We follow the position of technology, but there is no technology to imitate the complexity of our smell and taste.”
Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, Dolf van den Brink (CEO Heineken) and King Willem-Alexander. © ANP / HH
The inventors in Zoeterwoude also receive help from TU Delft for the truly difficult problems, where the group holds a special research department for more than half a million a year.
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In the new laboratory they do not only make new inventions. Every day a specially trained taste panel takes place in test cabins in which they top up samples of the world brands of the Brouwer to strict quality control.
Meesterbrouwer Van Waesberghe: “Heineken and Amstel taste the same everywhere, but they do not have the same recipe everywhere. That must be adjusted to the local ingredients and the properties of the brewery.”
Approval
The king was allowed in it Product Creation Lab Also taste a number of secret, new innovations. The first ideas for a new drink come to life here, and according to Heineken there is years of science.
After a first test round, Willem-Alexander asked why this product is still being developed while the market is saturated-something that Dolf van de Brink did not agree with. But on a sip of a second new creation, an approving nod followed: ‘Prince Pils’ seemed convinced.