Brouwerij De Vlijt

The Netherlands

"Within a year Brouwerij De Vlijt was selling 40.000 litres of beer..."

Veluwse Schavuyt beer brand

For 125 years there was no local brewery in Apeldoorn, a city in the province of Gelderland, centrally located in the Netherlands. That changed in 2010 when Bierbrouwerij De Vlijt started out as a small brewery in historic building Het Achterom in the city center. Under the brand name Veluwse Schavuyt the first beers were produced.

In two years time it couldn’t meet the demand anymore because of the growing interest. A new brewery was founded and established in the boiler room on the premises of the former Zwitsal factory.

Bierbrouwerij De Vlijt

Veluwse Schavuyt is still used as the brand name for six different beers produced by Bierbrouwerij De Vlijt. Nowadays there is a weekly produce of about 3,000 liters of craft beer. They also take their social responsibility as a business, and that means, among other things, including people with poor job prospects in the work process.

Beer tasting at Brouwerij De Vlijt

Right next to the brewery is a tasting room where an over 100 years old Argentinian bar is installed. The nicely decorated mahogany wooden panels give a warm and cosy feel to the place where the beer flows from eight tap handles. Originally this bar and its cabinets used to belong to a pharmacy and that happens to fit really well in this environment.

Zwitsal Apeldoorn

This unique industrial heritage was once the factory complex of Zwitsal, a company started by a former local pharmacist. Baby care products, but also painkillers, were produced In two separate factories. After 65 years the production came to an end and the city of Apeldoorn bought the premises.

Besides Bierbrouwerij De Vlijt, nowadays there’s a wide variety of entrepeneurs that have a workspace here. Apeldoorn is overall a pretty ‘green’ city with quite a few city parks. The main attraction not to be missed is the National Museum and former royal palace ‘Paleis Het Loo’ that was built in 1685.