Louwaege, later Alken-Maes (Heineken)

Brewery Louwaege grew from a nineteenth-century family enterprise in Kortemark into one of West Flanders’ notable regional breweries. Known also as Den Arend and later associated with Hapkin, it preserved a distinctly local brewing identity across five generations before Alken-Maes acquired the brewery in 2002. The Kortemark brewery itself then closed, while the Hapkin name continued within the Alken-Maes group. A Kortemark family brewery Louwaege was established in 1877 when Placide Louwaege left farming and acquired one of Kortemark’s five breweries. The brewery operated from the Markt in Kortemark and remained a family concern for five generations. Its changing output reflected the evolution of Belgian brewing: from traditional regional beers toward pils-style beers and, later, stronger top-fermented specialties. The Alken-Maes transition Alken-Maes acquired Louwaege in 2002 and subsequently closed the Kortemark site. The acquisition brought the Hapkin label into the Alken-Maes portfolio; Hapkin was first made at Louwaege and was later brewed at Alken-Maes’s Brasserie de l’Union in Jumet. The former Louwaege complex was eventually demolished, with parts of the historic site surviving for a time as local landmarks. A surviving brewing name Louwaege’s brewery buildings disappeared, but the brewery’s best-known surviving identity was Hapkin. Alken-Maes itself had been formed in 1988 through the merger of the Maes brewery in Waarloos and the Cristal brewery in Alken, providing the corporate setting in which the Louwaege heritage was absorbed and continued. Louwaege’s defining legacy is a five-generation Kortemark brewing tradition carried forward through the Hapkin name after the brewery itself closed. Kortemark, West Flanders, Belgium 1877 1877: Placide Louwaege establishes the family brewery in Kortemark after acquiring a local brewery. 1988: Alken-Maes is formed through the merger of the Maes and Cristal breweries. 2002: Alken-Maes acquires Louwaege and subsequently closes the Kortemark brewery. 2009: Demolition begins on the former Louwaege brewery complex in Kortemark.