Hertog Jan

A decade ago, overtaking Heineken in its home market felt out of reach. The category was shrinking, dominated by global players pouring budgets into festivals, Formula 1 and international football.

Trying to outspend them wasn’t realistic. So Hertog Jan kept its focus where others moved away: the beer.

The difference is something large industrial players can’t easily recreate: craftsmanship. That’s what For the Love of Beer expresses, through the beer, the brewers and the brewery.

Hertog Jan puts its specialty beers at the centre, because that’s where the craft is hardest to ignore. They don’t sell the most, but they set the standard. Grand Prestige, the crown jewel of the range, leads the way.

The specialty beers lift perception of the whole brand, including the pilsner. What people associate with those beers, the time, care and complexity behind them, also shapes how the pilsner is judged on the shelf.

For the Love of Beer shows up in brewery-led specialty beer releases and experiences. Each one brings people closer to the craft behind it.

Scarcity 

• Grand Prestige Vatgerijpt (Barrel Aged) pushes what the brewers can do: beers aged in barrels that once held bourbon, jenever or port. Each release is limited and sells out within 30 minutes.
• One-off beers mark specific moments, small, intentional batches like Gerard’s Toegift, brewed as a tribute to the retiring Master Brewer. 35,000 bottles, gone in under an hour.
  Status.

Status

• Grand Prestige sits at the top of the range. Not a beer people pick up casually, but one they keep, revisit and allow to develop over time. Among beer lovers, bottles are aged for years and opened with intention rather than impulse. In 2022, it received its first standalone commercial, treated like an occasion in itself.

 Community

• De Proeftuin (The Taster Box) opens up the brewers’ experimentation. Members get access to beers that wouldn’t normally leave the brewery, from Vienna lager to low-alcohol stout. Within a year, it reached 10,000 members, with a waiting list that keeps growing.
• The Brewery is where that craft becomes tangible. Over 40,000 visitors a year see where it happens and meet the brewers behind it.

A decade ago, becoming the number one beer brand in the Netherlands seemed unlikely for a small white brewery in Arcen. Since then, with market share up by 10 percentage points, multiple Dutch Effies and a Global Grand Effie, Hertog Jan has proven that passion beats the predictable. 

For the Love of Beer.