Brouwerij De Molen Closing Oct 1st, 2025

I have some sad closure news to report about Brouwerij De Molen

Borefts ’25. One. Last. Time.
We wanted to go out with a bang.. and what a bang it was!
The feeling that we got from last weekend was just indescribable and we enjoyed every bit of it. The love we got from you all, our dearest visitors, was just heartwarming and is the best feeling in the world

Together we tasted some of the best beers the world has to offer an we captured this in our aftermovie. Enjoy!
For the last time.. Cheers to 21 year Brouwerij de Molen, 15 years of Borefts, amazing beers and wonderful people! THANK YOU on behalf of the whole De Molen team

This from Christiaan Peijnenburg Global Sales Manager at Brouwerij De Molen:

At October 1st, after 2,069 days, a remarkable chapter comes to an end: my journey at Brouwerij De Molen. While it’s bittersweet to see such an iconic brewery close, I feel immense pride & gratitude for everything this experience has given me. It also marks the end of 5,279 days at Royal Swinkels, a journey that began at Bierbrouwerij de Koningshoeven – La Trappe Trappist & continued at De Molen. 2 places that shaped my passion for beer & gave me the privilege of working with hashtag#MindBlowing colleagues & partners.

Joining De Molen in 2020 was both a leap of faith & an incredible opportunity to be part of a brewery full of potential. After the turbulent covid years, new space for recovery, growth & renewal appeared. Together with the Dutch teams at hashtag#RoyalSwinkels, hashtag#LaTrappe & Bier&cO, we achieved remarkable results in NL retail & OOH. Internationally, I was fortunate to make unforgettable trips to hashtag#China, hashtag#US, & regularly to our Business Units in Europe. BU hashtag#France, special ‘merci’ to Stan & his team; Alexia, Alicia, Matthieu, & Olivier’s OOH crew, for your tireless commitment. Trips to hashtag#Italy & the hashtag#UK with Umberto & Funs were inspiring & reminding me how much opportunity there is for craft beer. Meeting De Molen fans across the globe, seeing their enthusiasm & love for our beers, made every effort worthwhile. The hashtag#Borefts Beer Festival, with its amazing committee, (inter)national breweries & great volunteers, will always hold a special place in my heart.

Quality, innovation, & teamwork defined these years. Our Dutch Craft beers won awards nationally & internationally, decorating the Barrel Aged-hall in hashtag#Bodegraven. Launching the new brand identity was another milestone, debated yet transformational. Thanx Coen, Tête de la course, Ruud & Marco for your creativity, passion & perseverance; this achievement wouldn’t be possible without you.

Collaboration has been the cornerstone of this journey. Heartfelt thanx to Stichting Philadelphia Zorg, especially the clients at the brewery, the true heroes of De Molen, for inspiring us every day. Thanx also to the Works Council (hashtag#OR) of Royal Swinkels, Pieter Bas as chair & the whole team, for showing how constructive & critical collaboration builds a future-proof company. And to Royal Swinkels E-commerce, John, Sander & Marti, your belief in our vision & tireless work on our webshop made a huge impact on our digital growth.

Most of all, deepest gratitude goes to the MindBlowing De Molen team. Working with you all has been unforgettable: Anne-Mieke, Carl, Corné, Danielle, Jan, John, Kris, Mark, Aditya (Paddi), Peter, Pim, Rian, Rick, Sebastian, Sigrid, Sjarel, Stefan, & last but not least Thijs. Thanx for all the opportunities you have given me.

Looking back, I feel nothing but gratitude. For the friendships, experiences, & inspiration I get to take with me. What’s next is still unfolding, & I hope to share more about that soon.

Here’s the original announcement from Jan 2025:

LIESHOUT (ANP) – Beer brewer Royal Swinkels wants to close the artisanal brewery De Molen in Bodegraven. According to a spokesman, the results of the South Holland brewer have been under pressure for quite some time. Bavaria’s parent company links this to falling demand on the beer market.

Swinkels has asked the works council for advice on the intention to close De Molen. According to that plan, the brewery will close in September. The works council has six to eight weeks to issue advice.

In 2019, Swinkels took over De Molen completely. The Brabant beer company wanted to offer craft beers in more places. Now the company is considering closing the brewery founded in 2004 due to “considerable changes in the beer market”.

Top brewer

De Molen is known as a top brewer within the Dutch community of artisan beer brewers. On its own website, the brewery praises the high ratings in the beer forum’s rankings RateBeer. In the list of best Dutch beers from RateBeer, a specialty beer from De Molen, called Hel & Verdoemenis, is at the top.

De Molen employs twelve people. Swinkels cannot yet say what the planned closure of the brewery means for their job.