De Koninck

In Antwerp, De Koninck is more than a brewery name: it is a city landmark whose story has unfolded on the same urban site since the early nineteenth century. Its amber flagship, Bolleke, helped turn that local identity into a beer ritual, while the brewery’s distinctive glassware and surviving buildings keep the connection between beer, place and city unusually visible. From roadside inn to city brewery The site began as the De Plaisante Hof inn on the boundary between Antwerp and Berchem. Joseph Henricus De Koninck acquired it in 1827; after his widow Elisabeth Cop remarried Johannes Vervliet, the premises became Brouwerij De Hand in 1833. The name referred to the carved hand on a nearby boundary marker, a civic emblem that still informs the brewery’s identity. A beer that became Antwerp shorthand The brewery’s best-known beer is Bolleke, the amber Spéciale Belge officially associated with Antwerp since 1952. Its name comes from the rounded glass in which it is served. The brewery lists a gently malty, lightly hoppy profile with caramel hints, while the Belgian Beer Glass Museum documents how De Koninck’s glassware reinforces the beer’s close relationship with Antwerp and the brewery itself. Heritage still in active use De Koninck remains an operating city brewery at Mechelsesteenweg in Antwerp, with historic buildings, brewing facilities, visitor experiences and cellars where selected beers mature in barrels. The site’s heritage is therefore not merely architectural: it continues to shape how the brewery presents its beers, its glassware and its place in Antwerp’s living beer culture. A working Antwerp brewery where civic history, amber beer and the rounded Bolleke glass remain inseparable. Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium 1833 1827: Joseph Henricus De Koninck acquired the De Plaisante Hof inn on the Antwerp–Berchem boundary. 1833: The site became Brouwerij De Hand, the brewery’s documented beginning. 1912: The brewery was renamed Société Anonyme Brasserie Charles De Koninck. 1952: Production began for De Koninck, the high-fermentation beer now associated with Bolleke.